stock here, a report from a local resident. “Strange Fires”
What Really Happened on Maui – I Was There
Dr. Kathy J. Forti
STACKS Library of Truth Author, Trinfinity8 & Ascension11 Holistic Software Inventor, Clinical Psychologist, Egypt Tour Leader
Published Aug 12, 2023
I live in Maui and am okay, but I was there in Lahaina that morning and the whole truth is yet to come out (please read my personal story below).
I want to thank all of you who have reached out to me from across the world after seeing pictures and videos of the devastating destruction that took place on Tuesday, August 8th which destroyed the Old Historic town of Lahaina. It also rampaged through agricultural lands in Kula in the Upcountry region of this beautiful valley island in the middle of the Pacific.
The death toll will easily reach more than 100 once they locate all the bodies. Thousands are homeless and so I ask that you give whatever you can to Hungry Homeless Heroes, a group that is now making and distributing over 400 meals a day to feed those who have nothing left.
Please give, even if it’s only $1.00 Here is the link to their Go Fund Me site: https://www.gofundme.com/f/HHH-FIRE-RESPONSE…
My story of what happened:
The Strange Maui Fires
A friend called me early on the morning of Tuesday, August 8th and told me he had a strong urge to visit Lahaina that day. Tempting me with lunch at Cool Cats, one of my favorite eateries in Old Lahaina, I said “Okay. Let’s go!”
The 30 minute drive was without incident, without winds, and without any warning advisories. As soon as we reached Lahaina, all power got zapped. Cell phone, internet, traffic lights, GPS, the 911 emergency system (which is never supposed to go down) and the power outage caused every store and shopping mall to immediately close. Nothing was open.
Then the winds came in, bringing with it a rare rainless hurricane with gusts from 60-80mph. Trees became uprooted and branches were coming down everywhere, along with power poles. I heard a crash behind me and where I was less than 30 seconds prior was a crashed and uprooted tree. It was time to get out of there.
No evacuation sirens ever went off that day when the fires began. They failed as well. My friend and I had to escape through the back road going all the way around the island as all traffic was blocked in the other direction. Many might not have known about this back route since GPS was down.
These fires were indeed strange. The night before both my friend and many others claimed to have had very restless sleep. I personally experienced a strange flooding wave of energy in my head, almost like seizure activity, which I have come to identity as dark energy coming in. This flooding energy continued on and off the next morning, more so when I was in Lahaina. This told me there was directed energy involved in what was occurring.
This was not just a random act of mother nature. It reminded me of the strange fires in Paradise, California a few years back which swept through and wiped it off the map. Their only crime was getting in the way of a high speed railway project slated to come through the town.
A little bit of history to draw your own conclusions: Historic Lahaina is the key harbor seaport on the island. The Lanai Ferry goes back and forth from there, all the commercial snorkeling and scuba diving firms set sail from there and tourists flock there in daily droves.
The problem with Historic Lahaina was that it had a large old Hawaiian community that was in the way of the developers. Now it’s like ground zero, declared a disaster area, and federal and states rules are probably going to be tossed aside. It’s a toxic mess. They will undoubtedly blame it all on climate change and welcome in the developers to totally bull doze and level it.
All over the island tracts of land are being bought up by corporations and no one knows who is behind them. Foreign interests? The people on this island are beginning to put the pieces of the puzzle together and suspect this was a major power land grab.
In January 2023 there was a Smart City Conference where they discussed turning Maui into a 15-minute “smart island”. Next month there is a Digital Summit to discuss turning the island digital and all AI. I kid you not.
Fires started in the agricultural lands upcountry first, the bread basket of Maui, and resources were sent there first, so Lahaina, when it happened, had few resources to fight the wall of fire that swept through the entire area trapping hundreds who could not get out and sadly perished. No sirens warned them to get out either.
Right now Maui needs your spiritual prayers more than ever to strengthen the land against these destructive forces. So many people are missing or homeless. We are not out of the woods yet. There are still ongoing fires.
The old Hawaiian Ho’oponopono prayer chant to the ancestral land is: “I’m sorry. Please forgive. I thank you. I love you.” Please give in the Aloha spirt with your contributions, love and prayers. Forward this to others who might want the truth. Mahalo.
Dr. Kathy J. Forti
“Truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.”
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Our evacuation from the Maui 2023 wildfires
Minli Virdone
Advisor | BizOps | Parent
Published Aug 10, 2023
This is a record of our <24 hours in Maui from Aug 8-9, 2023. I’m typing this out quickly on my phone on Aug 9, and will come back to make any corrections, but I want to get all these down before the details start running together. Pictured above is the view from our hotel room at 2 am on Aug 9.
Added on Aug 12. We finally have news now about the sheer size and scale of this disaster. When I wrote this record, there was very little information on how devastating the fires were, and how the people of Lahaina were given no warning to evacuate. The stories we now know of the fatalities are beyond belief. This is a tragedy of epic proportions, and the thousands of Hawaiian people whose lives have been indelibly changed will need a lot of help. Our family has donated, and I have linked to organizations that are taking donations at the bottom of this article.
We arrive in Maui at 11 am on Aug 8; there are high winds but we don’t get any other notice that things are awry. By that time, our hotel (Hyatt Regency) and most of that side of the island have been out of power and cell service since 5 am that morning. But we only find that out after we drive the 40 mins from the airport and see that the traffic lights are out in Lahaina. Lahaina is 10 mins away from our hotel in Kaanapali, and is a historic town that used to be the capital of Hawaii. Note also that the Virdones are not regulars at fancy hotels; this is the first time we have booked a fancy hotel in years. We had wanted to do something special with the kids and decided a resort hotel with awesome pools would be just the ticket.
12:30 pm. We get to the Hyatt, and there is no power but minimal lights are on from their emergency generator. The winds are crazy strong, but we try to make the best of it for the boys by going to the pool since that is the reason for us choosing the hotel anyway. This is a short-lived attempt as the winds are so strong that deck chairs, side tables, and even people (heard this from another guest) are getting blown into the pool. Staff appropriately close the pool after that. We still try our best to walk around to see the resort, but it is like an obstacle course, with downed branches and trees, and even cabanas that have been blown into the ocean. At times, we are pelted by sand particles that have been whipped up by the raging winds from the beach. There is a feeling of “this is very strange, but hey, we’ll roll with it”. We learn that the winds are due to Hurricane Dora, far south of us, and that they should die down later that night.
2 pm. The poolside restaurant is the only place open in the hotel that serves food but the line is too long, and the selection is limited (salads or nachos). We decide to walk to Whalers Village, 15 mins away, on the off chance that the ABC store there is open and we can pick something up from the deli (remember, no cell service at all, so we cannot get any info on what is open or closed). We walk there and everything is closed, so we walk back, realizing that the only food option is the poolside restaurant, or the other restaurant that will open for dinner. On our walk, we see the smoke from a brush fire in the distance, coming from Lahaina. Not good.
5 pm. The fire spreads and the smoke continues to billow out to the ocean from Lahaina. We hope that it would be contained soon. Again, no cell service means we all have no information on what is happening and how bad it is. Oh, and 911 is down at this time too. I get in the very long line at the poolside restaurant because I figure I need to have food for the kids, and it’s our only option as we hear the line for the alternative (the steakhouse) is 3 hours long. The man in front of me shares that he needs a CPAP machine to sleep, and that he has asked the staff, but there is no way for him to get the power to use it. I wait in line for almost 1.5 hours to put in my order, and 0.5 hours to get the food after. I feel terribly for the staff who are trying their absolute best in this unprecedented situation, especially since many of them live in Lahaina and the surrounding area, and they can’t contact their families to know what is going on. The lady who takes my order shares that her house is over in that direction, and that she hopes her husband and son are ok. I can’t even. As a sliver of good news, all the guests I see are kind and respectful to each other and the staff. Camaraderie helps in these times.
7-10 pm. At around 7:30 pm, I overhear staff telling the remainder of the folks in line that they have run out of food. We retire back to our room, which is pitch black. We can see the smoke from the fires in Lahaina from our patio; they do not look contained. There is light in the hallways, and some of the hallway sockets are working enough to charge devices (hurray). I bring our depleted devices out for charging. Each outlet is being used but people are generous and after waiting a while, I get access to one. I chat with a family from California about how weird this whole situation is, and how we should be used to power outages after our experiences over the last year. At some point that night, an overhead announcement comes on saying that breakfast would be served from 6:30-8:30 am in the morning. A kind lady on our floor tells us that she heard that all of Lahaina was evacuated. As it’s only 10mins away and we still see the smoke not abating, it’s jarring news. She invites me to her room to take a look from her patio, and I see that instead of mostly smoke, we can now also see many flames from Lahaina. She advises that I pack all our bags in the event of an evacuation, and has her family watch our devices (still charging slowly) while I return to the room to quickly pack everything up. I don’t get her name, but her kindness is pivotal to the decisions we make later that night. I hope she and her family got out quickly enough after; we didn’t see each other after that.
10pm+. Both kids are fast asleep, it’s been a day for them since we were up at 5:30 am PT for the flight. I’m still attempting to charge the devices, as I figure the kids had been such troopers that day, but another day of this stress, without any access to their devices, would be miserable for everyone involved. So I’m still sitting on the hallway floor while the battery percentages slowly tick up. At one point it’s 4 mins per % but better than nothing. I start chatting with Lorene, another mom from California charging devices for her kids, and JT, a young man from Arizona traveling with his wife on their anniversary trip. We talk about what’s happening, hypothesize about whether it’s possible to drive north around the island to get to a place with cell service, and whether the fire is contained and how long that would take, etc. I also invite Lorene to my room to see how the fires are progressing, as her hotel room did not face that direction. These conversations also help us with the decisions we make later.
11pm+. The fires do not look contained at all. Our car was valet parked because that was the default for the first day. I fess up to my heightening discomfort/ paranoia and Paul and I decide that he will get our car out of valet parking and into self-parking in the event that we are told to evacuate. We figure that there is no way we will be able to get our car from valet parking if evacuation orders are issued. I have a small panic moment when it takes Paul a bit longer than expected to get back to the room. Freak scenarios like him getting hit by a downed branch or tree swing through my head. I had heard a story earlier that day of a truck in the parking lot that was completely smashed in as a tree fell on it. Paul comes back safe, and we have a small laugh at my panic moment. I tell him that I’m using a specific tall tree in the distance as a marker of whether the flames are moving towards us.
12 midnight-ish. Fires are still not contained, those flames are still licking hungrily. Paul and I decide to now bring our two big duffels into the car, because if we get evacuation orders, it would be awful to haul those down five flights of stairs, much less in a crowd. We discuss if “thinking things may be ok” may be like the musicians on the Titanic playing while the ship goes down. The earlier announcement from the hotel about breakfast at 6:30 am certainly feels similar to that.
1am-ish. I swear the fire is closer and we can see the flames continue to burn hungrily. The winds are still high, and we can hear the occasional explosion as buildings ignite or cars explode. We seriously discuss if we should wake the boys up and just leave, but also worry that that may be an unnecessarily scarring experience. Plus the option to leave is to drive north on the tiny windy freeways (the Honoapiilani Highway and Kahekili Highway) that the front desk has recommended against, saying that they are narrow and route along the cliffs, and that police are likely to close them. And given the winds from that day, who knows if there are downed trees anywhere along that? That said, I did hear from JT that he did part of the drive that day with his wife and that it wasn’t bad.
2 am-ish. The tall tree I am using as my “marker” of flames coming too close is gone. Engulfed in flames. We can smell the burning from Lahaina. We hear the police calling out to the people living in the community across the street to evacuate, but not us yet. Paul and I decide to wake the kids up and go, even though there are no official evacuation orders. The fire is too close for comfort and even if it doesn’t get to us, the lack of power, cell service, and (likely) food for the next day is unnerving. Note: we are ok with water because we used tap water, and I kept all our bottles filled in case of an evacuation.
2:30 am-ish. We drive out, the roads are relatively empty and we decide to head to Napili, which is 15 mins away. We get information from the car radio (the first official info that we get), as we hear an NPR report on how the fires are raging uncontained in Lahaina. Even though we had seen that from our room, we are still shocked because we had hoped for progress in containing the fires. I have also never appreciated radio more; it is the single source of outside communication we have had. We find a parking spot so that we can sleep for a bit. Paul and I haven’t slept a wink and that would be bad if we decide to drive around the island on those windy highways later to get to cell service. The boys also conk out.
4:30 am. Paul is refreshed enough to drive the hairy roads, and we begin. It’s dark (no lights, power outage remember?), and maybe that is a good thing because that way we can’t see how close the road is to the cliff edges. It is very windy, and at times, just a single-lane road. We take it slow; there still aren’t many cars on the road.
6-7 am+. We get to Kahului, and finally have consistent cell reception. We head to a 7-Eleven to get hot food for the kids while we figure out our next steps. 7-Eleven hot food is their one comfort in this disaster. This says much. Z gets spam musubi, K gets ramen. We hear from a lady in line that she too did the drive, and her house was burning when she left. She has her 6 pets in the car with her (cats and rabbits). It’s sad and almost incomprehensible what is actually happening. We drive to Keopuolani Regional Park to find a table to eat and for the kids (and us) to clear our heads. It’s surreal to be in an area with blue skies and no Armageddon-looking fire/smoke, but know things in Maui are definitely Not OK. Paul and I decide that even though we had just arrived yesterday, we should call it, return the car and get the first available flight out to Oahu. En route to the airport, we see three National Guard helicopters in flight and hope they are on the way to help with the fires.
7:30am+. The car is returned, we are at the airport, and we have rebooked ourselves on the 9:20 am Southwest flight to Oahu. The fires are now front-page news on CNN. It’s been a strange <24 hours. I can’t stop thinking about the people who lost so much in the fires, the people who still haven’t been able to contact their loved ones and know if they are ok, and those still at the hotel, where evacuation must surely be harder as more people decide to leave.
All in all, we got out safe, and relatively quickly. I believe it was because we connected with several people in the same predicament, who were all thoughtful and kind, and we all shared information to help each other make better decisions. With cell and emergency services down, none of us got any alerts about how bad the situation was getting. All we had was what we saw with our own eyes.
Paul and I also optimized for optionality, and decided to just do things to prevent us from being stuck (e.g. getting the car out of valet parking). We were also incredibly lucky to have access to the resources that we had (the car, and enough fuel to make the trip). For our kids, they say this was the longest 23 hours they have ever had. I’m still running on adrenaline, and as I write this from the safety of Oahu, with ample access to power, cell service, and food, I can’t yet fully name the various feelings coursing through me. Relief that we are out and safe. Pride in my kids for being absolute troopers through a harrowing day. Pride in Paul and I for being in lockstep through it all, without missing a beat. Appreciation to my fellow travelers for their camaraderie. And most of all, deep, deep sadness for the people of Maui who have lost so much and have long journeys of rebuilding ahead.
The people of Maui, and Lahaina especially, need all the help they can get right now. Donations can be made to the Maui Strong Fund of the Hawai’i Community Foundation (https://lnkd.in/gFf34ywu) or any other organizations listed in this article (https://lnkd.in/gehhDJSw). Please help spread the word. If you’ve ever visited the Hawaiian islands or appreciated any part of Hawaiian culture, you know how lovely and generous the people of the islands are. They need your help now. This is devastating for the beautiful people of Hawai’i.