An Afternoon in Lahaina
Created | Updated Sep 2, 2023
An Afternoon in Lahaina
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When the reports of a disastrous fire in Lahaina started coming in, I looked for the notes I took during a family trip I took to Maui in 1995. Actually, they were post cards that I sent to my co-workers in the Dedham Library. I photocopied them when I got back to the library, and made the copies into a nice little booklet which I called "Letters from Maui."
Recently I transcribed them and posted them.
In this travelogue, I make a brief reference to Lahaina, which my family visited on the afternoon of Monday, June 12th. I wrote two lines about the visit: "There is a vast banyan tree in the center of Lahaina. It covers an acre. Across the street is a three-story urban mall with a koi pool. Further down the street is a store with a sand floor." As I rack my brain, I also recall that there was a commotion in the street, from some young guy who was shouting at everyone else, and being shouted at in return.
As regards the banyan tree, I remember it fondly. When I emailed my family about the fire in Lahaina, I worried that the banyan had been destroyed. Some of my relatives seemed to think that I was referring to a different banyan, one that we had seen on the Big Island of Hawaii two days earlier. Others said that I was right after all. Then I came across this in Youtube. Maybe there's hope for the banyan after all. There are probably lots of other banyans in Maui, but another h2g2 researcher has also mentioned this one. Deadslug in 2008 wrote this: "The banyan tree along Front Street, however, is quite nice." Wikipedia mentions that the tree was planted in 1873 "to mark the 50th anniversary of the arrival of [the] first American Protestant mission." Lahaina's website says that it's the biggest banyan tree in the USA. I doubt that I was the only person who thought about the banyan tree upon hearing about the Lahaina fire.
The unfolding tragedy of human loss from the fire is monumental, and no one knows what the final figure will be. It is already the greatest loss of human life in a century, and there are still thousands of people unaccounted for. I gather from news reports that the fire was aggravated by two things: 1. a hurricane that passed within 500 miles of the island, with unusually heavy winds, and 2. The topography of the area. Lahaina is in a basin, with a range of mountains to the east. The winds whipped up the fire, and the mountains prevented the flames from spreading anywhere else, so the heat was intensified. The cause of the original blaze seems to have been the wind knocking over some telephone poles, which produced sparks, which set fire to the surrounding area. The resulting electrical outages made it hard to pump the water that would be needed to put the flames out. Maybe the electrical grid needed upgrades. Maybe a way of pumping water when there's no power should be developed too. This is sure to be investigated.
Can Lahaina recover from this? Many of the survivors are not sure. There was already insufficient housing in the area. It was hard to get carpenters, plumber, electricians, etc. These are the very people that will be needed for rebuilding. Where would they stay while they worked?
In "Letters from Maui," I mentioned that B.K., my brother's sister-in-law, lived in Maui, near the bottom of Mount Haleakala. She still lives there. She was at a family gathering in New Jersey when the fire hit. Her house is a long way from Lahaina, but fire did come to another house about a block away.
These are worrisome times for Maui. It's not a very big place, so the loss of most of this town of 13,216 (2020 census) is sure to be felt. Maui had 164,754 people in 2020. The Associated Press reports that 70% of every dollar generated in Maui comes from tourism. More than a million tourists visit the island every year. Tourism is strongly discouraged right now as recovery efforts proceed, so Maui is going to be hurting for some time to come. It's hard to express the sadness I feel about this tragedy. The many millions of people who have visited the island over the years must be feeling a great sense of loss too. All any of us have is the memories of trips we've taken in the past.
If you get a chance, I hope you will read "Letters from Maui." I remember what a wonderful place it was. Here's to a full recovery.
