Survivors experience first anniversary of tragic Maui wildfires

LAHAINA, Hawai‘i — There are as many memories of the Aug. 8, 2023, Maui wildfires as there are people who experienced the horrors of that day.

Some survivors of the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century are ready to share their stories freely, while others still struggle to speak. All remembered and marked the first anniversary of one of Hawai‘i’s worst natural disasters in their own way Thursday.

Official commemorations were part of Kuhinia Maui, nine events named from a Maui chant referring to the island’s beauty and richness. Some 4,000 people went to a paddle-out at Hanaka‘o‘o Beach Park, the first of the Kuhinia Maui events that will run through Sunday.

More than 300 people registered online for the Kuhinia Maui afternoon luncheon at the Hannibal Tavares (Pukalani) Community Center to recognize Upcountry Maui’s resilience. More than 1,500 were expected to end the day with a visit to Kuhinia Maui’s “Lahaina 1-Year Memorial,” a solemn gathering to honor loved ones who perished in the tragedy.

The county-supported events, which were driven by the communities of Lahaina and Kula, are aimed at offering hope to those grappling with the harsh realities of a fire that killed at least 102 people, burned nearly 3,000 acres and destroyed or left uninhabitable some 3,900 structures that were mostly homes housing multiple families.

They also are about bringing a fragmented population close again. In the aftermath of the Maui fires, some residents have had to move, at least temporarily due to the shortage of housing on the island, especially in West Maui.

Michael McCartney, 61, who lost his cousin Carole Hartley and childhood friends Albert Kitaguchi and Michael Misaka, was among those who filled the Lahaina Civic Center gym for the “Lahaina 1-Year Memorial.”

McCartney, who estimates that he grew up with and knew 40 to 50 of the other victims, was dealing with a range of emotions as he entered. His house was initially ruled uninhabitable, “but we ended up staying anyway,” surrounded by neighbors’ properties that were turned into ash and rubble.

Among his many emotions, including grief, McCartney and his wife, Martha, “have survivors’ guilt because we’re still standing while everything else is gone.”

When asked how the West Maui community was faring at this juncture, he hesitated and said, “I don’t know if ‘fractured’ is the right word.”

McCartney estimates that he has driven about a dozen friends to the airport so they could relocate.

He said some have told him, “I can’t take it anymore.”

“It’s still culture shock just driving to the other side of the island where nothing happened,” McCartney added.

Financial pain

Yeshua Michael, 52, lost the one-bedroom unit that he was renting on Kopili Street to the fire.

“It’s gone,” he said.

He now lives in a studio apartment off Lower Honoapi‘ilani Road that rents “for over $2,000,” compared with the monthly rent he used to pay of $850.

Business also has slowed at the restaurant Michael works at, adding to the financial uncertainty in the year since the fires.

“My bills have more than doubled,” he said.

Dee Wilkie, 86, lives outside of Lahaina in Mahinahina, but her daughter, Dove Bergman, 60, moved to Lahaina from Colorado two months before the fires “and lost everything.”

As they entered the Lahaina Civic Center, Wilkie said, “I feel like crying and I haven’t lost anything.”

Gov. Josh Green and Maui Mayor Richard Bissen were at the paddle-out, which included Maui’s three Lahaina canoe clubs and and the Hokule‘a, the Polynesian Voyaging Society canoe known for bringing people together and preserving Hawai‘i’s treasured values.

“It’s no surprise (that so many people are in attendance); people are healing, and this is an extraordinary way to gather on the one-year anniversary of the tragedy,” Green said.

He said a woman told him during a housing dedication Wednesday how she and her husband clung to a rock for 10 hours in the water and barely survived.

“I just can’t help but think about the people going into the water now in safety and as a community — it’s profoundly different. Some people have farther to go, but in this moment a lot of healing is evident,” Green said.

Bissen planned to attend all nine Kuhinia Maui events.

“My thoughts are with the families of the 102 victims that we lost. All of the people here honor those people by their presence. That’s what gives me gratitude to see all of this and more (people) trying to get here,” the mayor said.

Theresa Marzan, president of the Napili Canoe Club, said at least 100 club members were participating in the paddle-out, and she expected similar numbers from the Kahana and Lahaina canoe clubs.

“We had a private paddle-out for all the canoe clubs in Lahaina about a month after the fire. There’s way more people today — more media, more community members, more officials. It’s overwhelming. But it’s what I call an ‘eagle-skin’ moment. I say ‘eagle-skin’ because eagles soar,” Marzan said. “I feel the mana not just from our community, but from the whole island and beyond.”

It was still dark early Thursday morning when Leimana Purdy began chanting an oli called “Ke Lei Maila” at the site of the crosses that were placed to honor every person who died.

There was only the sound of her voice and an occasional sniffle for much of the hour or more that volunteers and staff from Malu i ka ‘Ulu, a group that promotes mental health and self-healing for Maui residents, took to place posts and lei at each of the 102 crosses for the confirmed dead and at some additional markers, and then connect it all with a 600-foot ti-leaf lei.

“The chant was about giving a gift to somebody or receiving one,” Purdy said. “When I was down in the chant, I was feeling the emotion. I felt (the victims); it really got me working. I didn’t have teary eyes, but I felt it in my leo, or my voice.”

Purdy cried when she finished, and others shed tears, too. But some found peace as the rising sun illuminated the clouds. By the end of the lei-draping, warm orange and pink tones bathed the skies above the Lahaina Wildfire Impact Zone.

Prayer gathering

Lutheran Church Charities and Emmanuel Lutheran Church of Kahului also co-hosted an afternoon memorial event and prayer gathering at their Hearts of Mercy &Compassion on Hokiokio Place. The Rev. Chris Singer, LLC president and CEO, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that one of the strongest indicators of resilience and transformation from grief is going through it collectively as a community.

“Grief is a journey. Some individuals may be able to really start sprinting right now in terms of feeling hopeful and ready to move on,” Singer said. “But there may be those in the community who are just not at that point yet, so the idea is to be able to make the path long enough so that everyone can stay on the path and stay together.”

Workplaces across Maui marked the day. Bissen announced a stop-work policy for construction/utility work in the burn zone and related areas. Ka‘anapali Beach Resort, where displaced residents were housed at various properties for 10 months, held a moment of silence on the beach, followed by a flower drop.

Informal events took place across the island. Jareth Lum Lung chose to spend the day saying mahalo at a local-style gathering at the Kahana boat ramp, where in the dark days after the fire, boaters brought supplies from all islands, especially from Molokai.

Lum Lung, who helped organize the convoys, recalled, “We didn’t have gas, we didn’t have propane. We didn’t have food or other supplies. People were hungry. There was sheer panic, but once the supplies started coming, you could see the relief in people’s faces. They had our backs 1,000 percent.”

Molokai Boat Capt. Robin Dudoit said, “We’re small but that didn’t stop us. If we can help, we will.”

His friend Dion Wilhelm said, “It’s about aloha. If we had to do it again, I’d be on the first boat.”

The anniversary opened the floodgates for many survivors, and their plans to revisit and remember extend into the future.

It’s that way for Leila Torgerson, who was expecting a child with husband Mick when her mother, 57-year-old Jeanne Eliason, died in the fire. Their son Kaed was born Oct. 1.

Torgerson said Kaed has begun getting to know his “outgoing” grandmother through a collage of pictures made for her celebration of life.

“He would touch her face and start cooing at it. In the beginning my husband and I would just lose it,” she said. “I feel like he kind of has a sense of who she was to us just because of our emotion behind it. She was just so loving and there for you — just literally the sweetest.”

She said her mother’s employer, Cool Cats, plans to honor her with a bench under the historic Lahaina Banyan Tree.

“Once Lahaina ends up opening, I would love to take my son there and have a shave ice under the banyan tree,” Torgerson said.

Melissa Kornweibel, daughter of Theresa Cook, 72, a visitor from California who was one of the people who died in the water during the fire, plans to visit Maui on Aug. 16 with her 7-year-old daughter.

“She was a really great grandma, and she played with my kids really well,” Kornweibel said. “My daughter is most similar to her in spirit — she is just very lively and outspoken and gets along well with strangers, which was a characteristic of my mom’s.”

Lorine Lopes said in an email that her family is gathering on Maui to honor her “feisty” mother, Sharlene Rabang, 78, who escaped the fire but died Sept. 4 of fire-related complications.

“She was a fighter and a pancreatic cancer survivor. She survived so many things,” Lopes said. “She fought hard to stay alive after the fires. I can remember the look in her eyes when she knew it wasn’t going to work out. The entire energy of the room shifted, and I just started to cry.”

Lopes said she and sister Mikel Raphael and stepfather Weslee Chinen are flying over from O‘ahu to meet up with brother Brandon Rabang, nephew Branden Rabang and her mom’s great-grandchildren Briena, Breyden and Eiyanna.

“This trip is not only about our mother’s passing, but about our family that went through this horrific event and made it out. It’s about all the families and the community,” she said. “We’re going to pay our respect to all that has been lost and all that was not lost. We will go to give our love to Maui.”