The wildfires in Hawaii’s Maui “lit up the entire sky” as those on the island tried to piece together what was going on with no cellphone service, internet, or power, Breitbart News’s Kristina Wong told Breitbart News Daily, as she was actually on the island as the disaster unfolded.
Wong was on the island of Maui, staying at a resort in Kaanapali, which she said is about an eight minute drive from Lahaina. She flew in Monday afternoon and said the winds were really bad, and things disintegrated pretty “quickly.”
She said power went out in the middle of the night, Monday night into Tuesday morning, and there was also no phone service. On Tuesday, she heard about brush fires and walked to a nearby town and found everything closed except for one boba tea store, and everyone went there because it was the only place opened.
“Monday night, Tuesday morning, the power went out, and I remember waking up really early, you know, 2 a.m, 3 a.m., and there’s no power and it was pitch black. And so I didn’t know what was going on. And there was no phone service,” she said, explaining that there was still no electricity, phone service, or internet when she woke up a few hours later.
Fires, she said, ramped up around noon on Tuesday, and by 6 to 7 o’clock they were in “full force.”
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“So I could see the fire in Lahaina from where we were, and it looked really, really bad. The flames really they were really high. They were really just enormous. I’ve never really seen anything like that. It was actually kind of scary because they lit up the entire sky, and it looked pretty close, but there was no one at the resort, really panicking yet,” she said, explaining that power, internet, and phone service were out the next day, and individuals began to buy up the dry goods as they ran out of food.
VIDEO — “Gut-Wrenching”: Burned-Out Cars Line Streets as Residents Survey the Ruins of Lahaina, Hawaii
Evacuations started on Thursday morning, and “hundreds” of people from the resorts gathered for buses to leave the island.
Wong recalled speaking to one hotel staff member who made her realize the extent of what was happening, as locals and vacationers were, quite literally, left in the dark, not knowing the extent of the devastation.
“He said, our main town is gone. And he said the National Guard is pulling bodies from cars, and people are melted on the sidewalk. And that was really the first time that I knew how bad things were,” Wong said, noting that “no one knew how many people were killed.”
“And I remember I was shocked when he said that, and I told another woman, she gasped, another vacationer,” she said, recalling the devastation she saw on her way to the airport to evacuate.
“There were a couple buildings that were still standing. You know, perhaps the wind had not gone that way and that building was spared for whatever reason; but everything was just devastated,” she said, adding that there were just a few structures left.
Burned cars and destroyed buildings are pictured in the aftermath of a wildfire in Lahaina, western Maui, Hawaii on August 11, 2023. (PAULA RAMON/AFP via Getty Images)
“Burnt trees and the poles were down, and cars were burnt… Some people say it looked like World War III or apocalyptic,” she said, describing everything as looking “burned in gray and ashy.”
Wong noted that just three percent of Lahaina has been searched as of yet, as police scramble to identify victims. She said that she would like to know “what happened in those hours” when the power initially went out.
“What did authorities do to alert folks?” she asked.
Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
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