Some residents face heartbreak, closure as they return to Lahaina

LAHAINA >> It was like a funeral procession as the first Lahaina evacuees with passes to reenter the burn zone began returning Monday to their homes along Kaniau Road, known as Zone 1-C.

Some marked the somber moment with prayer. Others rushed in hoping to recover precious items that were left behind when they fled the fast-moving Aug. 8 fire that killed at least 97 people and destroyed more than 2,200 buildings, most of them homes.

The returning residents were those who live or own property along Kaniau Road, which was among the first to be cleared of initial toxic debris. The neighborhood, above Wahikuli Wayside Park, is near the ocean and the Lahaina Civic Center, where President Joe Biden recently met with survivors during his Aug. 21 visit to Maui.

Jes Claydon told The Associated Press that she has been able to see the ruins of her rental home from a National Guard blockade near the burn zone. Little remains recognizable beyond the jars of sea glass that stood outside the front door of the home that she lived in for 13 years and raised three children.

Claydon hoped to collect those jars and any other mementos she might find.

“I want the freedom to just be there and absorb what happened,” Claydon said. “Whatever I might find, even if it’s just those jars of sea glass, I’m looking forward to taking it. … It’s a piece of home.”

Claydon’s home was a single- story cinder block house painted a reddish-tan, similar to the red dirt in Lahaina. A few of the walls are still standing, and some green lawn remains, she said.

Zone 1-C is part of the larger Wahikuli neighborhood, on the northern edge of where Lahaina’s 2,170 acres burned. It appears to have largely survived the inferno, judging by images on Google Maps, while many other properties were leveled by the fast-moving flames.

The home of Chuck Hogan, who lives on the corner of Kaniau and Ainakea roads, was spared. Hogan said he was able to return home Aug. 9, but has been living without power and his only water is from an improvised source.

Hogan described the difficulty of living without neighbors in a devastated neighborhood that he, as a contractor, estimates could take a decade to rebuild. He spoke to media gathered near the reentry checkpoint with a macaw named I‘ilani perched on his shoulder. He said he has been caring for the bird for his neighbor, who has been sheltering at a hotel since the fire.

Hogan said the vistas from the Ainakea Road side of his property “look like pictures of Hiroshima or Nagasaki with nothing left but the concrete block walls and everything else is ash. All the trees are ash. Everything else is gone.”

He added that it was good to see some returning neighbors, but described the mood as grim for Lahaina’s first resident reentry.

Hogan choked up as he recalled, “It was worse the day after (the fire). There were a fair amount of people who did come back in before they got the guard people in here and they were crying, sobbing. It’s just so horrible and the fact that I made it is just luck. It was the way the wind was blowing basically.”

Hogan said only a very small portion of the residents from his Wahikuli neighborhood lived in Zone 1-C. Others are still waiting for their turn to come back home, he said.

Darryl Oliveira, interim administrator of the Maui Emergency Management Agency, told media gathered at the reopening checkpoint that there are about 25 parcels in Zone 1-C, and that some parcels have more than one home on the property.

Oliveira said 23 people picked up permits for their parcels, and that before 10 a.m. Monday, 16 permit holders had already reentered to visit the properties where they lived to collect information and photographs for insurance purposes and, most importantly, perhaps find some closure. By midday, 25 cars had come through the checkpoint.

“Initially, people who haven’t been here since the fire are taken aback by the amount of the extent of destruction,” Oliveira said, adding that one overwhelmed property owner had shared, “Nothing is here from our home.”

Still, Oliveira said most residents came prepared.

Officials had anticipated the difficulty of coming home and had organized support around the first two days of reentry. Water, shade, washing stations, portable toilets, language assistance, and medical and mental health care were available at the site. Transportation was also available from local hotel shelters.

Various volunteer groups from across the country came to help ease the struggles. John and Gay Williams, Oahu-based co-directors of Hawaii Pacific Baptist Disaster Relief, were among the volunteers at the Kaniau Road reentry zone.

The couple told media gathered outside the reentry checkpoint that they were there to help escort and support those who are reentering properties. They said assistance might deal with the logistics of navigating reentry hazards. Returning residents are entering a zone where state Department of Health officials have urged all individuals to wear personal protective equipment such as Tyvek suits, tight- fitting respirator masks, goggles, gloves, long-sleeved shirts, pants, socks and closed-toed shoes as a precaution against ash.

The couple said they also planned to provide spiritual and emotional assistance.

John Williams said their disaster relief volunteers go where they are needed, and recently assisted Guam in the aftermath of Typhoon Marwar.

“Every disaster is a little different as you can imagine. This one is particularly difficult because of the loss of life. It’s a very difficult day for all involved and we just want to try to help out where we can,” he said.

Gay Williams said she is anticipating a range of emotions as residents return home.

“There are going to be people who are crying, wailing, anger, misunderstanding — every emotion,” she said.

Gay Williams said volunteers will seek to comfort survivors through what those in chaplaincy call the “ministry of presence.”

“We can’t change it. We can’t fix it. We can’t take it away. But we can just be with them,” she said. “We are here today to let those property owners and occupants lead the way. If they want help in any way, we will be here to provide that.”

Todd Taylor, manager of U.S. disaster relief for Samaritan’s Purse, a nonprofit that responds immediately to natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons, floods and wildfires at home and abroad, said about 60 people are assisting on Maui.

He said some 40 of them were at the reentry standing ready, along with a team from Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, to help residents sift through the ash to help recover their belongings. He said volunteers performed the same service about a month ago after Kula survivors were allowed to return to their homes. He said they helped Kula residents recover engagement and wedding rings, an heirloom Japanese tea set, coin collections, military medals and even a retired fire chief’s badge.

Taylor said the amount of destruction from the Lahaina fire is similar to the 2003 California wildfires as well as the more recent Paradise and Dixie fires.

“The one thing that is so different here is in those cases people had advance warning — the fires moved out of the mountains and they had time to evacuate. To see a fire this large move this quick is something we’ve not seen before,” he said. “We know that people didn’t have the time to gather their personal belongings to even think about it. It was get out and run for your life.”

Taylor said the rapid nature of the Lahaina fire adds to the importance of the reentry.

“In the South when a loved one passes away it’s very common for the loved one to go in once the body is prepared and spend time with a loved one before all the visitation starts. That’s what the homeowners are going through now because they are standing in front of a loved one and they are telling it goodbye,” he said.

Oliveira said officials hope to pick up the pace of reentry, but must finalize those decisions with the Environmental Protection Agency.

“We know that some of the ones we looked at there are still sporadic parcels that they haven’t completed the waste cleanup yet. Although overall a large area has been cleared, we still have some that have some hazardous conditions,” he said.

Oliveira said officials hope to complete reentry for all zones within the next one to two months.

Jeffrey Hickman, director of public affairs for the state of Hawaii Department of Defense, said reopening plans for the next restricted zones are expected to be announced later this week. Hickman said information about reentry can be found on Mauirecovers.org.

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The Associated Press contributed to this story.