08/14/2023
Shared from Hawaiians in Washington..🙏💔🙏
As the grim picture comes into focus in Lahaina, here are some realities to prepare for: If wind was blowing at 20 miles an hour, thats 1 mile in 3 minutes. The wind was gustier than that. This fire was swift and super intense hot. The air itself seared lungs. People couldn’t breathe. The wall of fire caused panic. Flames drove people running into the ocean, there was no escape. No time for anything. People died in their homes, their work places, on the street. People died trying to help others escape. We will discover in the next few days those who will not reunite with their ‘ohana. Fire victims may take a while to be identified. People will be frustrated and hurt and closure may be elusive. Survivors might feel guilty, many evacuees fought to save themselves and witnessed others who were left behind and succumbed. Those images will remain with them forever. Help and answers will not come soon enough. People will want to return home to salvage their homes and businesses but conditions will be dangerous. Some will find something spared. Neighbors will not. Processing the loss will be a personal and collective grief of profound measure. Unfortunately there are those who will loot and scam. The ugly mean people will take advantage. Displaced folks will need to be absorbed into other communities, some may be forced to move away from the islands unable to afford rebuilding a life here, especially the renters and now unemployed who don’t have insurance or anything. There will be big ripples in the tourism economy, then the waste management and construction industries. We will all grieve Old Lahaina. For some Lahaina was a vacation destination, a piko ohana, a workplace, the seat of the kingdom, ancestral lands, historic grounding, home. Not everyone will be ready for a New Lahaina, maybe ever. We will struggle.
All while people will replay in their minds over and over what they could’ve done different to have a better outcome. We need to pace ourselves and our aloha because the kokua is going to be needed for a long long time.
SO…take time to really think if you are helping the situation. Perhaps focus on smaller specifics so we don’t get fatigued, and let’s aloha in shifts. Have compassion as everyone processes differently - think if reposting something on social media is helpful - is it true? Is it necessary? Will my comments offend someone? Is the info sensitive? Consider precious resources others will need, and make sacrifices.
And our keiki…our keiki will need extra support to come out of this feeling safe and ok… there will be some whose makua will not ever hug them again, and they may never look at fire the same way. Our kupuna won’t have it in them to restart anything from scratch. They may want to haawi pio. There are ohana who lost everything - every valuable, important, useful, sentimental thing. Every original document that you need to even rebuild life. We lost museums and national treasures of the lahui. We lost pieces of our identity, our livelihood, the things that make us who we are. We will continue to redefine our losses over time. So be gentle in holding each precious life spared - people, waa, hale. Truly protect and support.
Rise Up, e ka Lahui!
ALOHA. ALOHA WINS EVERY TIME. So, lets aloha gangy, in every way, with the mana of 8,000 resilient Kupuna of Kalaupapa in our veins….Rise Up and malama, and love like it’ll last 103 years til we lanakila. 💚
