When Ryan Cabrera, a 37-year-old Native Hawaiian who lives in Lahaina, found himself surrounded by smoke on Tuesday, Aug. 8, he grabbed his daughter’s hand and just ran. Long term, he knew he lost everything in an afternoon. In the immediate aftermath, he didn’t know where his family would sleep that night.
Meanwhile, Joshua Wang, 53, a tourist in Maui at the time, said he was able to book a same-day flight for his kids after wildfires tore through the island — and retrieve his valuables from his hotel room before most Lahaina locals were allowed to return.
While thousands fled from the largest climate disaster in Hawaii’s history, several firsthand accounts from the evacuations that day reveal two distinct stories: one of Native Hawaiian locals who faced confusion, loss and limited resources as their homes burned to the ground, and another of wealthy tourists with the means to reach safety, secure a place to stay in some cases and leave the devastation behind them.
The fires have been mostly contained, but the death toll has reached 106 as of Tuesday, with numbers expected to rise. Officials have begun identifying the dead, releasing two names — Robert Dyckman, 74, and Buddy Jantoc, 79, both of Lahaina — thus far. Many others remain missing.
“This is not our playground,” said Monique Ibarra, executive director of Ka Hale a Ke Ola Homeless Resource Centers, the largest homeless service provider on Maui. “We’re going through this significant tragedy on our island and then there’s tourists who might be at the beach, having fun with their families and laughing it up.”
Cabrera said that as his family eventually got into a truck after racing through several neighborhoods, and were brought to the hotel area of the island, it was immediately evident that his family was about to process the tragedy in a wildly different way than the tourists.
“I think the biggest worry was when we have bodies in that ocean that still had not been…
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