Before we evacuated Kaanapali last Thursday, we had very limited info about the situation around us.
Tues 6 am 80 mph winds knock out power to West Maui.
Tue 4 pm: brush fires cut off highway access in/out and at about the same time, cell and internet go down inside West Maui.
Tue night/Wed AM: the brush fire reaches the town and jumps the highway into downtown Lahaina. From talking to local residents there was no evacuation warning, no sirens/horns. The only notice they got was when their neighborhood caught fire and there were people in the streets yelling to get out. Exit from West Maui via the highway is not possible because of fire and/or downed power lines. The only route out is the treacherous narrow twisty northern cliff hugging road (single lane in some areas).
Wed: State of Hawaii begins evacuating all visitors in West Maui with buses.
Recovery and relief is complicated because there's only 1 highway in/out, fires are still burning (refueling depot caught fire on Friday), limited power, limited communications, tap water is unsafe, the town is a dangerous/biohazard search and recovery zone. A lot of people want to get into the disaster zone to look for their 1,400 - 1,500 missing loved ones. I think estimate is 80% fire damage is to residential areas.
I hope Lahaina Divers and the other dive ops are able to rebuild. We had some great dives with them last week. The attached photo highlights the slip where the 2 LD boats were docked. In the background is marked where their building used to be.