Summary:
- At least 111 people killed in historic Hawaii wildfires.
- Maui's Emergency Management Agency head resigns amidst criticism.
- Survivors facing challenges in the aftermath, with hundreds still missing.
- Local businesses, like Wailluku Coffee Company, contribute to relief efforts.
- Partnerships with Fox and the American Red Cross raise significant funds for victims.
One major criticism coming out of Maui is that disaster sirens were not activated as devastating wildfires tore through part of the island. And now just days after defending the move, the head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency has resigned.
At least 111 people were killed in these historic fires and now survivors are picking up the pieces after the wildfires turned more than 2,000 buildings to ash. Families are healing, you know, and it's a touchy situation right now. A lot of us haven't even had time to grieve when we're just slowly getting out of the survivor mode. Today, recovery efforts will continue to search for the hundreds of people still missing and help survivors get into more permanent shelters. Here at home, a Seattle local owner of a small business in Maui is doing everything they can to help victims.
Megan Kanakova has lived in Maui for about 20 years and owns Wailluku Coffee Company, and she's working alongside several others to do everything from running collection sites to providing food to families. Her company is also donating all daily profits directly to victims. There's a Google Doc that's being updated all the time, and it has all the families that were affected. The last time I checked, 652 people were on this list. We're taking all of our extra earnings from our sales since the catastrophe. And just every night, I crunched some numbers to see what we have to spare and send it out to our local families. With tourism at a halt, Kanakova says one way you can help support Maui small businesses is by shopping on their websites.
And we have a link to that Google Doc on our website. If you'd like to donate directly to the families affected, Fox is also partnering with the American Red Cross to help out victims. And so far, we've raised more than one and a half million dollars. For a link to donate, you can head to fox13seattle.com.
Recovery and support efforts are underway as Maui grapples with the aftermath of the devastating wildfires.