Lahaina fire recovery for Amanda & Zach

Hello family and friends, as you probably know by now Zach and I lived in Lahaina on Maui, and my mom (Ann) lives here part-time. Unfortunately on the 8th of August, Hurricane Dora, which was a Category 4 storm at 5 a.m. HST Wednesday, passed roughly 800 miles south-southwest of Hawaii, spinning off extremely powerful winds. She brought no rain with her. A fire started around 3:00 pm, we had little to no time to pack our belongings. To keep this on the short side, we ended up stuck in traffic multiple times, we went to a couple of our friend's houses and alerted them to the approaching danger. While we were northbound traffic was gridlocked, and people weren't making decisions. I had to hop onto the oncoming lane to make any progress as I knew that situation would turn deadly if we got stuck there. I was cautious and got out of the way if there was a vehicle approaching. I was not reckless, I stayed calm and committed to my movements. I noticed traffic was not moving north so I decided to go south. It took us 2.5-3 hours to get to Maalaea Harbor, that drive is normally a 30-minute drive. To add insult to injury, I recently found out that I was denied help from FEMA because I have renters insurance. We lost our jobs, town, as well as our home. Our friends and family are safe, we are so thankful to have made it out alive. We are still in shock. Thank you for taking the time to read this, I will go live soon to tell our full story. These funds will help us with renting a new home, replacing our belongings, and overall just helping us recover from the devastation. Please share if you are unable to donate.

With love from Maui,

Amanda, Zach, & Ann