Whew! Lots to read on this particular thread. Horrible and just devastating and, with the loss of lives.
It was the driving winds from Hurricane Dora that passed south of the Hawaiian Island chain that caused the main conflagration to Lahaina. Winds whipped over Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii contributing to the already dry areas of Waikoloa and Kohala that are buring now.
Driving winds continued after Hurricane Dora had pased to the South of Maui and Oahu then pushing into Haleakala and down the Alenuihaha Channel between Maui and the Big Island contributing to the firestorm that ravished Lahaina.
And Lahaina was once the capital of the Hawaiian Islands. It’s an old town built mostly of wood on wood on wood with some structures built illegally as add-ons. Gone are the days of Lahaina being a whaling port, yet the little harbor fronting the Pioneer Inn, in later years brought deep sea and visiting sailors from different ports of call. Gone, is the Lahania Yacht Club on Front Street where rowdy sailors congrigated for beers, grog and a pool table. Gone, are the festivities of Whaling Spree days only to be replaced by Halloween On Front Street.Gone is the Blue Max where you could hear many musicians on holiday drop in and pick up a guitar, sit down to a piano and enlighten patrons at dinner with songs for an hour or more.Gone is Jimmy Buffet and Cheese Burgers in Paradise. Gone is Bob “OLE” Olsen’s surfboard shop. Whats even more numbing is that a few folks of the erBB here have been touched by the Lahaina Fire so it’s even more heart retching for all of us here.
Keep Maui and Lahaina in your prayers and the folks that were lost ……