Hawaii

Survivors of Maui fires set up their own aid network as trust in government falters

Some residents are organizing their own relief efforts to get supplies to people who are unwilling or unable to venture far from their destroyed properties

By Jon Schuppe and Corky Siemaszko | NBC News • •

Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Supplies for Lahaina fire victims are gathered and delivered by Hawaiians sailing on a large catamaran in Maalaea, Maui, on Monday, Aug. 14, 2023.

One week after wildfires roared across Maui and devoured their property, residents who have called this island home for generations were watching over the ashes.

Distrustful of the government's response to a tragedy that has already displaced hundreds of families and fearful of outsiders' swooping in to take their ancestral homes, they were organizing their own relief efforts to get food and supplies to people who are unwilling or unable to venture far from their destroyed properties.

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"We are taking charge," Maui County Council Vice Chair Keani Rawlins-Fernandez said Tuesday.

Rawlins-Fernandez, who hails from the nearby island of Molokai, said the reasons many native Hawaiians are staying put instead of evacuating are both practical and rooted in a history riven by colonialism and land speculation.

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As the search for missing loved ones continues, people who lost their homes are staying close by with family and friends, she said.

Drone footage shows the aftermath of the devastating wildfire in Lahaina, Hawaii, after it swept through the city, leaving scores of people dead and thousands homeless.

For more on this story, go to NBC News.

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