After the wildfires in Maui, the place I love is no more

It’s raining on the North Shore of Maui this morning where I live. But the rain is too late, and in the wrong place, to help the Maui Fire Department save the historic town of Lahaina.

- RICH HILL

I’m an English ex-pat, naturalised both to the US and to the islands of Hawaii after 17 years. Maui is my home. As a resident of Maui, married into a family born and raised on the island, the loss of Lahaina’s Old Town is devastating.

First and foremost is the loss of life. Maui is a small island; everyone knows everyone, or at least knows someone who knows everyone. We are yet to find out who has been lost, but that will filter through in the next few days on the “coconut wireless” (the Hawaii version of the grapevine). These losses will be felt locally for at least a generation, and we are praying that no one we know personally is involved.

The local population, especially in Lahaina, is largely employed by the tourist industry, which on Maui’s Westside is centred in the hotels in Kaanapali and in Lahaina. Beyond the devastating loss of life, Maui’s economy has taken an untold hit for the foreseeable future: workers are left with nowhere to work, and there is a consequent loss of tourists to fuel the industry.