Volunteers and support personnel are on hand to help residents returning to their fire-damaged properties Monday in Lahaina. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photos
LAHAINA — Even though he had been back to his home twice after it was gutted by fire, Joey Tihada said it was still “really emotional” to return on Monday to his Kaniau Road home, where his wife grew up and where they raised three sons.
The neighborhood, one of the first burn zones to reopen so Lahaina residents could check on their properties, was “just devastation.”
“Kind of didn’t know where to start as far as looking for stuff, if we could find anything,” Tihada said. “We just went back to see just what we could kind of salvage, but everything was kind of down to the ground.”
While they could not find items that his wife, Sheri, received from her grandmother, they were able to find two of Joey Tihada’s four Division II Hawaii High School Athletic Association state football title rings he received as one of the coaches for Lahainaluna’s football team.
“That was on my mind from when it burned,” said Tihada, who is currently an assistant coach.
National Guardsmen check entry passes on Kaniau Street on the opening day of the Lahaina reentry program for displaced residents. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photos
Tihada was among the owners and residents in Zone 1C allowed to go back Monday morning using a vehicle pass, as Maui County works on getting all residents back to see their properties after the Environmental Protection Agency clears hazardous household materials.
Out of the 25 parcels in Zone 1C, there were 23 passes issued, said Darryl Oliveira, interim administrator of the Maui Emergency Management Agency. He added that some parcels have more than one home.
“So far meeting with the various families and pass holders, they are very appreciative of getting in here, something they have been waiting anxiously for,” Oliveira told reporters, whose access was limited to the bottom of Kaniau Road.
By around 10 a.m. Monday, Oliveira said 16 pass holders, who also brought along others, had gone in to see their homes. Some prayed before they entered their properties. Others went straight to looking for personal items. Residents were “taken aback” by the destruction and found it shocking to see their properties for the first time.
“I think initially, you know, people who haven’t been here since the fire, they are taken aback by the amount of, and the extent of, the destruction,” Oliveira said. “Talking to one property owner, he said, ‘Daryl, there are no words, nothing is here from my home.’ “
Wahikuli resident Chuck Hogan carries a macaw named I‘ilani while walking down Kaniau Street with Maui County public information officer Carla Raisler Monday morning. Hogan’s home was not damaged in the fire. He said he has been caring for the pet bird for a displaced neighbor, who is not allowed pets where he is staying. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photos
“But I think overall they came here prepared,” he added. “We know that for others, especially those with unaccounted for loved ones or may have lost family members, it’s going to be different.”
None of the residents who visited early Monday morning had lost any family members in the fire, Oliveira said, though he thinks there might have been one fatality in the neighborhood.
“So it’s just different experiences for the family, but I want to say overall it appears they are finally getting some closure, which is the next step with some healing overall,” Oliveira said.
National Guardsmen were stationed at a checkpoint on Kaniau Street verifying passes and identities as vehicles trickled in, with some residents already wearing white protective coveralls as they drove into the area.
Kaniau Street resident Chuck Hogan said he was “lucky nothing happened” to his home. He is currently staying in his house, which doesn’t have electricity but was able to hook up to water nearby.
Interim Maui Emergency Management Agency Director Darryl Oliveira fields questions from members of the media Monday morning on the opening day of the Lahaina reentry program for displaced residents. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photos
“I wouldn’t even be here right now, except it is nice to have some people in the neighborhood. It’s been completely empty since this happened,” Hogan told reporters as his friend’s parrot sat on his shoulder.
His friend’s house was burned in the fire, but he could not take the parrot with him to the hotel he is staying at.
“I haven’t seen a lot of my neighbors, really no one’s really come back up here,” Hogan said of the predominantly Filipino neighborhood.
Hogan, a contractor, also choked up recalling the residents who cried as they came back shortly after the fires.
“It’s just so hard. The fact that I made it, it’s just the luck, the way the wind was going, it just shifted, went the other way,” he said.
Dressed in protective gear Monday morning, Noelani Ahia of Maui Medic Healers Hui explains the work that the group of volunteer health care workers and cultural practitioners is doing to help Lahaina residents after the fire. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photos
Residents returning to Zone 1C on Monday and today will be provided with assistance as they enter their properties. Nonprofits along with government agencies were on hand to provide mental health and spiritual support, along with drinking water, water to wash their hands and assistance to safely sift through ash.
John and Gay Williams, co-directors of Hawaii Pacific Baptist Disaster Relief, were among those assisting residents.
“Some of these property owners and residents, this is the first day they are seeing their home, their property, and that’s going to be a stressful, emotional day,” Gay Williams said. “We are here to help in anyway we can.”
Hawaii Pacific Baptist Disaster Relief is part of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, which is located in all 50 states.
John Williams said they were not there to tell residents what to do but provide service and resources to folks.
Residents pick up items that survived the Aug. 8 wildfires on a Kaniau Road property in Lahaina on Monday. The neighborhood was the first zone to be cleared by the county so residents could return to check on their properties. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photos
“We have emotional, spiritual care folks here ready to help them,” Gay Williams said. “We have people who can help them look through the property safely to recover any items. There is also mental help and there is also physical help people here.”
Todd Taylor, program manager for U.S. Disaster Relief at Samaritan’s Purse, said what the homeowners are going through right now is “standing in front of a loved one and they are telling it goodbye.”
Once residents have the opportunity to grieve and are ready, Samaritan’s Purse, along with Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteer teams, will help them shift though the ash “to try to find anything that survived.” The sifting is done with screens close to the ground to limit the ash going airborne, Taylor said.
In the ashes of the Kula fire, Taylor said the were able to find wedding and engagement rings, military medals and a mortar and pestle to crush up herbs that had been in the family for 80 years. They were also able to help a retired fire chief find his badge.
“So it is very important for these homeowners to have that time and look through the ash to see what’s there,” Taylor said.
Samaritan’s Purse is a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world, according to its website.
The Maui Medic Healers Hui was also offering help to Kaniau Road residents. One of the founders, Noelani Ahia, a health care worker with roots in Lahaina, was suited up in her white personal protective gear so she could quickly respond in case of a medical emergency.
“I am grateful we can be here and not just being people from the outside, cause if it wasn’t us, we don’t know who it would have been, and it might have been organizations that do not have a connection to our culture and our people. So it was important for us to be here, to support our ohanas,” Ahia said.
She wanted residents to know “we are here and we are not leaving.”
The Native Hawaiian-led team mobilized after the Aug. 8 fires and had more than 400 volunteers, including doctors, nurses, mental health providers and cultural, lomi lomi and acupuncture practitioners, according to the organization’s website.
Two hours after reentry began, Ahia said she hadn’t had to respond to any medical incidents but was helping residents put on their personal protective equipment.
Oliveira said officials will review how the initial reentry went and use resident feedback to improve the process for other zones. He said one suggestion is that the visits begin earlier than 8 a.m. due to the heat.
Residents with passes will be given two assisted visits. Afterwards, they may come back on their own to the properties.
“We are going to try to pick up the pace with not only the number of zones but even the size of the zones and areas to include those subdivisions or areas that have standing structures and people would like to get back,” Oliveira said.
He anticipated that announcements of the next zones reopening will come by the end of this week or earlier, with reentry to continue next week. Oliveira said he hopes all residents will be able to visit their properties in the next month or two.
Tihada first went back to his property shortly after the fires, when access wasn’t yet restricted and the property was still smoking from the fire. He later went back to walk around.
On Monday, with the help of Samaritan’s Purse, he and his family were able to sift through what was left on the property.
He recommended that others get the same assistance.
“They help out and they have a group of people that help search for what you are looking for. They have machinery and stuff like just to help cut things if you got to get in,” Tihada said.
“I might drive back (today) to kind of sift through some things. It just depends on how I feel.”
The search for remaining belongings is just the start.
“Later on we will go back and we plan to rebuild and hopefully get back to our house,” Tihada said.
* Staff Writer Robert Collias can be reached at rcollias@mauinews.com and Staff Writer Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.
A sifter is used to sort through the rubble of a property on Kaniau Road in Lahaina on Monday. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photos
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