The Hawai‘i Convention Center will stay open as a shelter for Maui residents and visitors displaced by the wildfires at least through Sunday night.

Convention Center General Manager Teri Orton said overnight guests peaked at 79 on Thursday, far short of the 4,000 that officials had prepared to host.

“We have found that most people are opting to stay at the airport and wait for a flight to leave versus coming back. Others are going to hotels or to stay with friends,” Orton said. “If the numbers don’t pick up, we will likely move our assistance center to the airport instead.”

Even if the site remains open, Orton said there are plans to downsize space for the center’s emergency assistance, which has been offering evacuees meals, water, clothing and help booking lodging and travel.

“The people who have come have really needed help,” she said. “Many have come with just the clothes on their back. I’ve given out a lot of polo shirts with the convention center logo.”

She said the center has been told to prepare to host evacuees for at least 24 hours, but possibly up to 48 hours. However, evacuees are coming in at a slower clip, with a more prolonged timeline. Logistical problems like road closures and the widespread loss of power, including cellphones and internet service, in the West Maui region caught some people flat-footed about the escalation of the wildfires and made evacuation difficult.

That was certainly true for visitors from Seattle, Kaylee Yeakal, 30, and her husband, Ben, 29, who when the wildfire broke out were renting a condo at Kahana Reef, located a few miles north of Lahaina.

They lost electricity and cell service Tuesday afternoon, before much of the fire swept through Lahaina. Losing communications was something they were prepared for because of the windy conditions fueled by distant Hurricane Dora, but it did affect their ability to get information about the spread of the wildfires.

“All the information (the government) was trying to get out was on Twitter,” Kaylee Yeakal said. “Nobody who’s there can access it.”

The couple drove around to get groceries, but a lot of the stores, without power, were closed. Stores that were open were only accepting cash and had long and growing lines.

With only $24 in cash, the couple had to figure out if they wanted to use it for food or water or to gas up their car, which they had to use to charge their phones and to flee West Maui.

Kaylee Yeakal said, “We thought about (whether we should use) our last few dollars of cash in the car, because if we get stuck on the road somewhere and we have no gas, then we’re really in trouble.”

It wasn’t until around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday that the couple understood the full impact of the unfolding tragedy and decided to leave their vacation condo early and head to the Kahului Airport, where they planned to try for an earlier flight back to Seattle.

Lahaina was closed off so they took Honopiilani Highway’s rugged north shore route to get to the airport. During the ordeal they said that they saw reckless driving, with some people holding their phones in the air looking for a phone signal.

They were one of only a few dozen people who had made their way to the Convention Center on Oahu from Maui. They stayed there only a short time, and then transferred to an Oahu hotel until their flight back home today.

“In retrospect, we were so glad we didn’t have our 4-year-old boy with us,” Ben Yeakal said. “That would have absolutely compounded (things) in terms of stress and time getting out.”

DOT said nonessential travel to Maui is strongly discouraged. DOT has been advising people who were unable to get flights out of Maui previously to continue trying.

DOT said Hawaiian and Southwest airlines have added flights to Honolulu from Kahului. Seats are available today with scheduled departures from noon through 9:45 p.m.