Josh Green, governor of the state of Hawaii, referred to the Lahaina wildfires as the “worst natural disaster” in the history of the state. It is the fifth deadliest wildfire in U.S. history, and the most lethal wildfire in the country since the Cloquet fire of 1918 that killed 453 people.
The damage caused by the fires has been estimated at nearly $6 billion.
“I can’t imagine what all was lost,” Nelson-Garlow said.
Nelson-Garlow, a 1968 Madison High School graduate who has lived in Hawaii for 16 years, said since the fires started on Aug. 8 she’s going through “stages of shock.”
Before the fires, she planned a visit back to Middletown to see her mother, Ruth Beckett, 98, who lives in a senior facility, and other family and friends. Her flight was cancelled on Aug. 14 because the airports were overwhelmed evacuating 40,000 tourists in three days, she said.
While she’s staying with her cousin, Bonnie Bonner, and her husband, Greg, until Thursday, her thoughts remain back home in Kihei, Hawaii.
During a 45-minute interview Monday morning in a Springboro coffee shop, Nelson-Garlow broke down several times. Tears rolled down her cheeks and she grabbed for more tissues. She can’t stop thinking about how the fires impacted the region and how she’s thankful her and her husband survived.
“Our hearts hurt for the people of Maui,” she said, taking another sip of coffee. “We’re very grateful that we’re OK. The people are rallying in a big way and it will go on.”
As Hurricane Dora approached the islands, her husband Jim Garlow loaded five five-gallon buckets with emergency supplies: cans of tuna, Spam, rice, bottles of water, cooking supplies, toilet paper, and flashlights and placed them in the garage.
They packed suitcases and placed them and “important papers” in the car, she said.
When the hurricane was downgraded, there was a warning for potential wildfires due to dry, gusty conditions created by a strong high-pressure area north of Hawaii and Hurricane Dora to the south.
The couple spent a sleepless Aug. 8 night in the living room, fully dressed. They were “glued” to the TV. If the flames got closer to their home, the evacuation plan was to drive to a local mall parking lot, away from the tall trees they feared would catch fire and fall on their car.
As a last resort, if the fires spread into the parking lot, the plan was to run into the ocean.
Luckily for them, they never left their home.
She said during one local newscast, a resident told a reporter that the fire was spreading so rapidly he only had time to load his young children into the car. He left his elderly parents behind.
“It was that fast,” said Nelson-Garlow, who added the fires traveled one mile per minute. “Some people had all day, some had an hour, others only seconds.”
Does she ever that about “what if?”
“Of course,” said Nelson-Garlow, a yoga therapist.. “But I’m past that part now. It’s just overwhelming grief for all the people of Maui.”
On Aug. 16, Nelson-Garlow found another flight out of Hawaii. While at the airport, she couldn’t figure out how to print out her boarding pass. She asked a teller for assistance because she “couldn’t focus,” she said.
When she told the teller it was due to the trauma from the fires, she told Nelson-Garlow that she had lost a family member and her home in the fires.
The woman told Nelson-Garlow: “I know what you’re going through.”
President visits Maui
The White House announced that President Joe Biden, who visited the fire-destroyed region Monday, has named Bob Fenton, a regional leader at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to be the chief federal response coordinator for the Maui wildfires. There will be long-term recovery efforts and It will take years to rebuild Lahaina, where just about every building was obliterated, the administration said. SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
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