
Lahaina Strong
Donation protected
Aloha,
My name is Sophie-Jo Barcoma, my family and I have been displaced due to the Lahaina fire. I normally don't ask for help because I am too stubborn and prideful and I've been humbled and continue to be. I've been so blessed by our Heavenly father that I feel I shouldn't be asking. We are currently 14 people in a 3 bedroom apartment as my older brother has been so kind as to take us in to stay with his already growing family. As much as I love and appreciate him, I don't want him to lose his home because we are over crowded, we need to get back to our home and start from the bottom.
On the day of the fire, it was my first day off of work, my little sister, who lives with me, was still at work. Every since covid arrived and she tried to warn me and I told her, "covid shmovid, this will pass in 2 weeks" well... now she's my mini boss, whenever there are natural disasters, anykind of problems that come up, she's either calling/texting me to prepare and since covid, I learened my lesson. So she texted me as soon as she finds out, "sis fire up lahaina luna road and most traffic lights out"... I'm thinking, "okay, our power is out too" next text, "sis power's been out since 5am" I'm getting irritated, "I know this, I woke up and it's hot!" another text, "You're gonna have to get propane. 12 electric poles down in lahaina so electric will be out for a few days estimated" So now we're up, getting ready to start stocking up and prepping ourselves. Power lines are down and now we are not receiving any messages. No internet connections and no way to communicate with each other so my husband says, "Let's just get ready and you can drop me to work and finish your errands."
We have 5 kids, starting from the oldest, Ezekiel 16, Tzipporah 14, Dzyon 12, Ezra 11, and our baby Szariah 9. My kids don't normally want to come drop their dad to work with me, but on that day, Tzipporah 14, Ezra 11, and Szariah 9, wanted to come with. We have a little Honda Civic so I told my oldest, Ezekiel 16 and middle child Dzyon 12 to stay home, I'll be right back. On our way to work, we get rerouted to lahaina front street because electric poles are down and wires are live. On our way, we see more lines down, roof tops were lifted off people's homes and land on the streets, we're starting to see traffic.
We get to his work and they tell him, "we've been trying to reach out to you, we don't have power, we're closing for the day" He was supposed to start at 4pm. On our way back home, we get stopped and turned around by police, "fire is getting bigger, you can't go this way" I'm telling my husband, "go tell them my kids are separated from me, I need to get home to them." He tells me, "we'll just wait, we'll get to our boys when they open the road."
We ended up being separated from our boys for 24 hours. All stores are closed because there's no electric, there's no way to communicate with my boys. Road block was pushed back to Roy's Kaanapali so I'm thinking "Perfect! We're right here to see if they open the roads.
We had to sleep in our car with our 3 kids, I parked where my husband works and we tried to sleep on the benches while our kids slept in the car. I stayed up praying because the sky lighting up red/orange and nothing but smoke. Fire is getting bigger and closer, we're hearing explosions, all night it sounded like fireworks going off. Lahaina wind is strong... and with this hurricane, it was strong all day and all night.
I couldn't sleep that night, all I'm thinking about is my boys at home and my little sister. Are they hungry, thirsty, is the fire getting close to them, are they getting evacuated, were they already evacuated, where are they? All sorts of things are going through my head, I can't text any police officers I know in our ward because there's no service. I stayed up praying all night for Heavenly father to keep my sister and my boys at home safe.
The next day, I'm up waiting to see if the road opens and nothing. it's already noon, I hadn't slept so I pull out the blanket I so happen to have in the car and sleep on the grass. 3pm rolls around and something wakes me from my dead of my sleep to "look around". I look towards the road and I see someone pulling over to park... it looked just like my sisters truck, so I'm calling my daughter Tzipporah to go see if that's her aunty. I'm yelling, "SIS!!!....SIS!!!" Just hoping it is her and she doesn't drive off somewhere else. Finally she hears me and she's looking... IT IS HER! She parked by me and explained she just ran out of gas and so happened park right where I was napping. We hug, tears are flowing and I'm trying to explain that my boys are stuck on our farm at home and we can't get a hold of them... she's not paying attention to me because she's staring and I hear her... "That kid looks like, Dzyon... and that one looks like Ezekiel...IT IS THEM!"
Heavenly father delivered my sister and my boys to me... in Kaanapali. My boys walked 3 hours through the fire to get to me. When my boys told me what they saw along the way... I'm relieved that they are half me and half their dad. Crazy and Hammah! Mental and strong willed is all I have to say.
I wanted to spank them for being so crazy to walk through all that but was so proud that they stuck together and knew what to do to get to us. We had no way of communicating, how did they know where to find us? How did my sister know to park right where I was? My oldest, Ezekiel 16 said, "Mom, we saw some things along the way that Dzyon shouldn't have seen... bodies on the ground with rags on their faces, animals that were dead because the smoke was too strong" All I was thinking was, how... he said they had to rest a couple of times because Dzyon kept complaining that his legs hurt from all the walking. I asked Dzyon, "what did you see?" He said, "Mom, all the churches we passed, are not burned...everything around it is gone"
I know that Heavenly father and Jesus Christ lives, I know that they love me and my family, I know that he does not give me anything I cannot overcome. I know that he will test us to make us stronger. He's blessed me time and time again, watched over my family and kept us safe, Heavenly Father is the only reason we are alive, safe, and together.
We would be blessed with anything, anything donated will go toward rebuilding our home and putting our farm back together.
Organizer
Sophie Jo Barcoma
Organizer
Lahaina, HI