First hand account from Lahaina

Thanks to Sue P.

Here is a first-hand account from German friends of mine who were in Lahaina vacationing when the fire broke out. They left just in time and are now back in Germany but sent me this report.

On Tuesday afternoon last week, we were in a supermarket in the town of Lahaina, when the fire began. We could see and smell the smoke, but saw no flames. Thank God we made it fast enough through the dense traffic. The poles for power lines were tossed on the street, people were trapped in their cars. We had been without electricity due to the heavy storm since the morning and wanted to buy a candle in the supermarket and some food. On Wednesday, most of the cell phone service was gone, too. So at first we really had no information about how serious the situation was in Lahaina. But my friend, who lives in the safer east half of the island, urged us to leave the area. Her messages got through after a big delay.

The main road away from the west half of Maui was closed on Wednesday except for people connected to the rescue effort. We had to take a very narrow, steep road through the mountains on the northern tip of the western half of the island, very often two cars had not enough room to pass each other. But we made it safely.