Kanemitsu Ohana loses home in Lahaina Wild Fires

—Update: May 21, 2024- Aloha! Once again, we extend our gratitude for all of the love and donations. We have now closed the donations, but would still like to keep the post up. This way we can still share between us and hear from you. Again, mahalo nui loa on behalf of our ohana! We will remain grateful for you and be vigilant as we forge ahead. We will continue on rebuilding our lives and that of our community.

much aloha!

—Update: October 15, 2023- .Aloha all! I would like to first extend the greatest gratitude that I can for all of your contributions and kindness during such difficult times for the community of Lahaina.

Shannon and her keiki are making amazing strides after such trauma. She has secured an apartment and are planning on using your contributions to furnishing their place! We are all so grateful that with your support, they have less headaches and worries of putting their lives back on track.

From here on, Shannon will be directly taking care of this gofund. She will be able to access what she needs, as she needs.

Again, mahalo nui loa to you and your ohana for your kindness and aloha you’ve shared my extended Ohana.

aloha,

Faye

Aloha,

I'm Faye Kehaulani Hiona, from Mililani, O'ahu now in Philly and I'm creating this GoFundMe on behalf of my dear friend, my sista from anotha mista, my family but not by blood, Shannon Kanemitsu (Nu), her keiki and ex-husband. They are among the thousands of residents of Lahaina, Maui who lost their homes on August 8th, 2023 from the devastatingly unexpected, fast-moving and fatal wildfires.

Their story unfolds simply, like so many of the other residents of Lahaina on this fateful day. What started as a normal day in Hawaii nei shifts drastically to days of chaos, pain, loss and despair. The sheer travesty of those fires is unreal. If you would like to read Shannon’s, Scott’s, Alika’s, Shayla’s, Tiare’s, Cody’s, Cookie’s and Buggy’s story, please keep reading below. If you are at all interested in donating to the Kanemitsu ohana, to help rebuild their home, to help clothe and feed their family, your blessed gift would be so greatly appreciated. It is my goal to help this family rebuild, to join in the re-establishing of Lahaina, and to bring back the strength, the mana, and the aloha that while ravaged, can never be lost. Mahalo nui loa for your kokua.

The Kanemitsu’s of Lahaina Story:

In the early morning of Tuesday, August 8th, from her apartment off Baker Street in Lahaina Town, Shannon texted to her sister, Lisa Haupu, who resides in Wailuku with her ohana, that she woke to her power, including cell service, being out. Since she had some power left on her work laptop, she would just work until she couldn’t, or the power was restored. At this time, 6:30am, Lisa had been receiving the high wind alerts that Maui County was blasting out, indicating that power lines were down in Lahaina Town causing road closures on Front St. At 7:03am, alerts went out that Lahainaluna Road was closed due to a developed brush fire. (The family home is right off this road) She had no idea Shannon was not receiving these alerts.

As the morning progressed, she texted Lisa that the winds were so strong it forced her to close all her windows to prevent all the dust the winds were kicking up. Lisa then received the alert at noon that Lahainaluna Road was reopened, with the brush fire 100% contained. At this point, Shannon’s daughter Tiare and Tiare's boyfriend, Cody, opted to make their way from Lahaina to Wailuku to do some shopping. The day continued and the winds grew steadily stronger. The winds had now spurred brush fires Upcountry in Kula and county alerts of multiple road closures in Lahaina with upwards of 30 downed poles/power lines. Shannon thought she was safe staying in her apartment at this time.

At the family home off Paunau Street, right off of Lahainaluna Road, was Shannon’s ex-husband Scott, their eldest son Alika and daughter Shayla. Although they did not need to evacuate during the first fire; live downed power lines in the area, near the Lahaina Bypass Road, were still sparking, causing small flare-ups that Maui Fire Department were trying feverishly to control. Living in Lahaina, the driest part of Maui, you get used to living with brush fires in the area. You have the brave men and women of Maui Fire working hard to keep you and your family safe. There are alert systems; the Civil Defense alerts & County of Maui Email/text alerts; they believed they were safe. But on this afternoon, what had been a mundane, hot and albeit windy Hawaii day, dramatically changed in a moment. Their neighbor came running, yelling, and banging to alert them that their home was on fire, for them to get out of the house now!! NOW!!!!! Scott pushing his kids out of the house, he’s running out of the home without a t-shirt, grabbing what they could in a short time… to each of their cars. They’re able to escape with their animals and the neighbor in their 3 vehicles.

Shannon, at her apartment just under a mile away from the family home that Scott, Alika, Shayla and the dogs are retreating from, completely unaware of what’s happening to her family, is startled by the loud banging as roofing material was being blown off the roofs of the apartment buildings. The neighbors decide to move their car to the Outlet Mall parking structure across the street. After more loud noises of the roofing materials falling and what sounded like glass breaking, she decides to move her vehicle to the parking lot of the outlet mall adjacent to her apartment complex, to prevent the debris from causing damage to her car. As she is driving out a friend that lives a few doors down asked if she was leaving, but at this time she still thought the safest place from the winds was in her apartment. As she parks the car; she sees this curtain of black smoke and embers sweeping through the parking lot. She pauses but there are still no warnings, no alarms ringing. She waits in her vehicle hoping the winds will slow a bit as she sees small fires start around the perimeter of the parking structure. She sees her neighbors come back to their car and they tell her that the building behind their apartment, across the street from them is on fire and that they should all leave. Shannon grabs a towel from her trunk as embers are flying around the parking structure and getting caught on her feet. As she walks back to her apartment covering herself in the towel so her hair wouldn't catch on fire, embers blowing across her legs; she can hear all the smoke alarms in the apartment building blaring their warnings. She gets back to her apartment which is filled with smoke; with the alarms going off and worries for her family; she knows she just needs to leave. She grabs her purse, work backpack and 8 bottles of water and walks out the front door. As she is leaving her apartment, the apartment roof across the parking lot is already on fire.

Scott, Alika (with dogs: Cookie & Bugzie) and Shayla (with neighbor, James) are each in their own vehicle, following one another from Lahainaluna Road, to Wainee Street. Wainee crosses with Baker Street, where Shannon’s apartment is. However, Scott, at the end of the convoy, gets stuck and is forced to break away and goes in the opposite direction. When Shannon gets stuck in the traffic heading to Front Street; she backs up into the outlet mall driveway to shelter her car behind the building from blowing embers and debris; as cars move she pulls out of the outlet mall, onto Papalaua Street, she comes across Shayla and Alika going in the opposite direction. Shayla tells Shanon that there is a fire ahead and they wouldn't be able to get through Front Street that way. Shannon joins the convoy but doesn't realize the gray truck that she sees is not Scott.

They head back in the direction of Shanon's apartment on Wainee Street towards Kenui. As they are driving, they come upon Smokehouse BBQ restaurant completely engulfed in flames. They proceed to drive towards Kenui Street when the SUV in front of Shayla stops and turns around to go back the way they came from. Shayla waves for Shannon to come next to her as they decide what to do. Both sides of the road are on fire making the roadway narrow; thick smoke and a downed power pole and lines in front of them. Shannon decides to take the lead because at this point, they are literally running for their lives through flames and if they are, if this is what they must go through, she is going to protect her family, by being first to make a way through for her kids. To ensure it was safe for them to follow and escape. (I can’t even imagine this thought, I mean let alone everything going on until now, but to face the possibility that you will head into the flames to protect your ohana… I’m at a loss)

The wind continues to wreak havoc, spreading the fires throughout each street of Lahaina Town so furiously. The panic sank in for them all. The kids realize now that it was not Scott’s gray truck, he is not with them. As they finally make it to the highway, and clearer air; heading to the evacuation site, Shannon starts getting pings on her phone as over a hundred text messages from the day are pouring in. Somehow, someway, the 3 of them made it out of Lahaina Town and onto towards the shelter. They still don't know where Scott went or why he diverted. Because they had no power since early that morning’s outage, Shannon’s phone is 20% from being dead. but she continues to talk with Lisa. She’s calm, even after going through what she described herself immediately after driving through the apocalypse. Lisa’s convinced she’s just numb from what they, her family and her community are going through.

As they are sitting in traffic; she takes the time to call her daughter Tiare that is in Wailuku to let her know she is safe, following Shayla and Alika to the Civic Center. Thinking Scott fell behind; tries to call but there was no answer. She also calls her sister; Lisa to let her know she was safe and following her 2 kids to the evacuation site. She asked Lisa to keep in touch with Tiare and the rest of the family to let them she was safe and would update her if and when she could and then gets cut off. Once they arrive at the Lahaina Civic Center to shelter; she is waiting for Scott to pull up when the kids tell her that it was not Scott behind them when they first met up by the Outlet mall.

As they are at the Civic Center and James is reunited with his grandfather and father. They spent the first hours at the site searching for Scott, hoping he had made it there and was parked in a different area. After a few hours; they are hearing that they may now have to evacuate from there as the fire is moving towards that area. As they are on their way towards Kapalua, to the next shelter site, she gets a short spot of connectivity and calls Lisa. She’s trying to tell Lisa where she’s going until her phone finally gives up. Lisa is frantically redialing Shannon, but it’s just going to “no service”.

All that Lisa had was the county alerts, the radio and the news. She spent hours and hours of waiting that night to hear from Shannon, the kids and Scott. She didn't know if even her mom or younger sister Aloha, who also live in Lahaina were ok. (They are safe and ok!) The dropped call with Shannon was the last word heard from any family in West Maui.

In the early morning hours, the Kanemitsu’s had made it to Maui Prep for shelter, since Lahaina Civic Center had to be evacuated. They were able to walk to the coastline and by some miracle cellular wavelength that bounced off from Moloka’i, made a garbled call to Tiare, Shannon’s youngest daughter who was in Wailuku, safe. They were able to send a message that they were ok, but they didn’t know where Dad was.

Scott’s saga continues from his initial detour, when he was forced to break away from the pack leaving Lahainaluna Road. Initially, he would have followed Alika, who was following Shayla, when they made a right-hand turn onto Wainee Street towards their mom’s place, Scott got held up and redirected to make a left turn. He knew he had to go back in the opposite direction to get to the Civic Center, but at every chance, he was forced away. Through billowing black smoke and fire, he’d turn down one detoured street to another. Every attempt to right himself, only to end up going back towards Wailuku, surrounded by whipping wildfires. He had to go towards Kapalua, not Wailuku!! As he continued to fight the deviations, through the smoke he could see someone walking. He cannot see who it is, it doesn’t help here that his eyesight’s kinda shot, too… but he’s trying to ensure he’s being as safe as he can driving in this fire war zone. As he slowly approaches this person, he realizes that it is his eldest sister!! Earlier in the day, because of the winds, she had her daughter pick up her truck while she was at work to keep it from being damaged by the wind’s debris. As the fires erupted, with no power and cell service, she was forced to walk through this inferno, in hopes to make it to their auntie’s house a few blocks down from Front Street, which sadly was already completely consumed by fire. Something led him to her. Whatever it is, whatever you believe in or can imagine, he was meant to go through all those detours to get her.

Today, August 12th, was the first confirmation that both the apartment and home off Lahainaluna Road have been burned down.

The Family Home on Paunau Street

The Kanemitsu’s; They are all safe, sound and together now. Fortunately for them, they have a place to stay and are surrounded by loved ones who are out getting them the essentials they need to live each day, while they fill out FEMA/Insurance forms. After initially being denied, Shannon got a whopping $700 from FEMA. It will be a long road ahead for them, for so many on the island of Maui.

The tragic events of August 8th devastated an entire community with so much property loss, but worst of all stole the lives of so many people. And we pray for those who've lost loved ones, especially. This horrendous fire took so much from so many, but we know it will not take their strength to get through this dark time and build back all that made Lahaina so remarkable. The people from back home, across the islands, and across the Pacific, are doing everything they can to help the people of Maui. And in the spirit of supporting one another, if you can, please consider contributing to the Kanemitsu Ohana.

(All money raised will go directly to Shannon and her family to find new housing and all of life's essentials.- I'm making this because it's really hard being so far away from home and not being able to do more to help people I love and the people of my home)

To donate via Venmo; @Shakane72

I know there are so many in need and I know many of you are contributing to numerous families and organizations already. Even if you aren't able to contribute here, mahalo nui for doing what you are able to for the people of Maui.

Mahalo Nui Loa,

Kehau

Tiare, Shannon, Shayla, Scott and Alika

Lisa, Shayla and Shannon

Alika, Shayla, Tiare and Buggy

Cody and Tiare

Cookie

Buggy

The Paunau Street house

Scenes fleeing Lahaina

Shannon's Venmo for direct donations: