How to help those impacted by the Maui fires:
A Kaanapali resident said overnight that basic supplies remain lacking and not much had improved over the weekend.She said residents were notified Sunday that a local market had reopened using a low-flying airplane with a loud speaker.
Residents have been running supply deliveries to a local beach using boats and jet skis, but those too are quickly snapped up. “The majority came from within our island and it looks like we have a lot one minute, and then poof it’s all gone,” Leon said. “We’re rationing so that we have enough til tomorrow.” Still, her spirit remained bright."I have never seen in my lifetime of 54 years such an amazing group of people — our Ohana — pooling together and sharing their last food or water or medicine to help a stranger. The other islands have also come to our rescue and keep coming," she said.A 73-year-old resident said her face and arm were burned when she frantically escaped the wildfires that tore through Maui last week. She told NBC's Tom Llamas in an interview Monday on"TODAY" that she received no kind of alert to evacuate when the flames tore through her area.“I’m so worried about everybody. Hopefully he’s still alive," she said. The death toll is only expected to mount as just 3% of Lahaina has been searched with much of the operation first focused on the streets and cars in the area.Noah Tomkinson, 19, and his 13-year-old brother, Milo, spent hours in the water along with their mother escaping the flames. Harrowing video footage show his family in the ocean not far from the shore amid fierce winds. Orange flames can be seen not so far away on land and the sky is filled with black smoke.“We kind of like all huddled around her and just wanted to keep her warm,” he said. “If any of us were alone, I don't know if we would have made it.”Marlene Lenthang Retired Maj. Jeff Hickman, a spokesperson for Hawaii’s Department of Defense, said on NBC’s “TODAY” show Monday that search and response efforts are ramping up and Maui will soon be heading into recovery phase — “and that’s going to be the longest phase yet.”“We only have 3% of the search done and they want to be meticulous and do it right. So right now they’re going street by street and block by block, they’re doing cars and soon they’ll start to enter buildings,” he said. Hickman said the Hawaii National Guard has over 110 personnel assisting with search and rescue in Maui County, and FEMA has about 400 personnel with cadaver dogs. "So the efforts are going to start to move a little faster than they have the past couple days and hopefully we bring some closure to those on Maui,” he said.When asked if power should have been cut earlier to slow the rampant spread of the wildfires last week, Hickman said he couldn’t comment directly, but assured an investigation would take place. “The governor and the state attorney general is going to have a comprehensive review on what is the cause behind this fire and what steps were taken, but right now our focus is on the priority of Maui. Right now it's the needs of the people of Maui,” he said.Hawaii resident angry with authorities for failing to warn the publicA Hawaii resident said he was angry with the government for failing to activate sirens and delivering proper alarms for residents to evacuate. “No alarms, no warning, nothing,” Rafa Ochoa told NBC Nightly News, “not even police rolling by telling us to evacuation or anything.” The Hawaii Emergency Services Administration said Friday that no outdoor warning sirens were triggered by either Maui or Hawaii Emergency Management Agency. “We’re mad,” Ochoa said with tears in his eyes. “We lost our homes. We lost our town. Lost history. Our kids are traumatized. You guys messed up real bad.”Hawaiian restaurant in Seattle raises tens of thousands of dollars for fire aidMarination, one of the most popular Hawaiian restaurants in Seattle, raised around $40,000 last weekend for people affected by the wildfires, according to NBC affiliateThe restaurant's co-owner Kamala Saxton said she wanted to send help to Maui after seeing the heart-breaking destruction in the Aloha State. So, she decided to sell over 3,000 Spam musubi, an iconic Hawaiian snack, at $4.75 each this weekend to raise money. “Seeing Spam musubi almost makes you feel at home,” Saxton said. “Then you eat and you’re like this is a piece of home. This is something that just brings you back to your childhood, back to family gatherings, back to luaus.” She donated all the funds to Maui Rapid Response and Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, two organizations supporting frontline emergency response, KING reported. “We are keeping them in our thoughts,” Saxton added. “We are doing everything we can to help them, and this is just the start, and it won’t stop. We feel their pain and we are with them.”Larissa Gao The “fire hurricane” in Maui spread at the rate of one mile per minute and destroyed the town of Lahaina on the island, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said in a video statement Sunday. “There is very little left there,” he said in the video, which was posted Sunday afternoon. “Over 2,700 structures were destroyed in Lahaina, and an estimated value of $5.6 billion has gone away.”Buildings smolder in Lahaina, Maui, last week.A fire travels at this rate mainly because of the wind gusts, which officials believe were up to 81 miles per hour, Green said. “With those kinds of winds and 1,000-degree temperature, ultimately all the pictures that you will see will be easy to understand,” he said, “because that level of destruction and a fire hurricane — something new to us in the age of global warming — was the ultimate reason that so many people perished.”Amid devastation, Maui fire survivors heal through faith and music
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