If you’ve been paying attention to the news, you’ve probably seen the fires in Lahaina, Maui, that have absolutely devastated the town. I spent a couple of months last year working in Lahaina at the 505, an area of shops and restaurants at one end of Front Street, the prominent and famous waterfront street in Lahaina. I worked for Maui Ocean Sports. From what I’m hearing and what I’ve seen, the 505 is completely gone.
Many people have still not been contacted, and the official death toll at time of writing is 67. I was able to reach some, but not all, of the people I was hoping to find who might have gotten caught up in the fires in Lahaina.
Many visitors come to Maui to see the beautiful and historic town of Lahaina. Lahaina has an important history to the kingdom of Hawai’i as well, and Front Street was once voted one of America’s “Great Streets” by the American Planning Association. It has since been absolutely decimated.
How do the fires in Lahaina change your vacation?
If you have a trip to Maui planned very soon – don’t go. While the economy depends heavily on tourism, tourism should never be at the expense of the locals. If your presence takes away the roof over a Maui residents head, food from their stomach, and resources from their recovery, your vacation is coming at their expense. If you have a trip planned for the future, my suggestion is to wait and see. Currently, however, the government of Hawai’i is asking all non-essential travelers to leave Maui, and for none to come because of the “extraordinary gravity of the situation” per the governor.
I feel for anyone who has spent a lot of money to come to Maui just for their trip to be canceled or postponed, I truly do. I firmly believe tourism can and should be a force for good; however, now is not the time. Imagine it’s your home town – if a disaster hit your town and you lost everything, are missing loved ones, have scratches and burns on you, would you want an aloha shirt-wearing visitor asking where the best beaches are? Or your boss texting to see if you can still come into work? Visit Maui, please – just do it respectfully, which means not going right now.
How to help the people of Maui
Be weary of sketchy donation sites. Bad apples pop up in times of crisis, but they are usually few and far between.
Here is a list of places you can make donations to help the victims of the fires in Lahaina:
- The American Red Cross
- The Hawai’i Community Foundation
- Maui Humane Society
- The Pac Whale Foundation ‘ohana relief fund
These are just a mere few organizations working to help. Mahalo for any of your donations.
Because this is a blog centered around tours and tour guides, here’s a quick story to connect you with the beauty of Maui and Hawai’i in general, to help you feel the love and aloha spirit of the ‘aina: My trip snorkeling Molokini Crater with PacWhale.
Here are a few random photos from my time living on Maui.
Tourism can and should be a force for good. Go visit Maui – but only when it’s responsible.
