The Portland, Oregon, family of five arrived on Maui on Tuesday morning and were staying at the Honua Kai Resort & Spa in Lahaina when wildfires caused by the dry nonnative grass and strong winds from Hurricane Dora started to rage and turn Lahaina into a “war zone.”
At 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday, an alarm went off in the hotel and all guests had to evacuate. “Nobody gave us directions on where to go,” said Sierra Vega, one of the daughters.
“The smoke didn’t look bad from the hotel, but once we hit the street, it was pure red,” she said.
She said navigating the one road out of Lahaina was stressful with no street lights or cell service. “You just knew you had to stay calm,” Sierra added.
The family tried to find another hotel, but everything was booked.
Later that morning, the family arrived at the emergency shelter at the War Memorial Gymnasium in Wailuku. They couldn’t contact the hotel to see if they could get their belongings back.
The family plans to get a flight out of Maui as soon as possible.
There were at least 55 fatalities recorded as of Friday morning, though officials expected that number to increase. Hundreds of buildings and homes were destroyed, including all of historic Lahaina Town, and thousands of residents lost nearly everything and were displaced.
The Vega family is among the many Maui tourists caught in one of the deadliest wildfires in the nation in recent years. Amid the devastation, tourists are scrambling trying to flee the popular destination – sometimes without their belongings or after sleeping in their cars – as residents plead for visitors not to come to the ravaged island.
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