The town of Lahaina, one year after a wildfire tore through it. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
In the first weeks of August, 2023, fires broke out on the island of Maui. It was clear very quickly that they would be bad, and bad they were. By August 8, officials declared an emergency declaration, and by the time the fires were extinguished, over a 100 people were dead and the level of destruction was almost unimaginable. Lahaina was one of the hardest hit areas, and a year later, the rebuilding process is still just getting started.
Jesse G. Wald, a drone pilot and Realtor on Maui, did a fly over of the entirety of Lahaina on the one-year anniversary, and, even after the cleanup, it shows the scale of the damage. As of this writing, the fires cost somewhere in the range of $6 billion.
There are many reason why Maui burned so fiercely. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the area burned by wildfires there has quadrupled in just a few decades, and experts blame it on the spread of nonnative vegetation and hotter, drier weather due to climate change.
When the fires began, some 20 percent of Maui county was in a moderate drought, while 16 percent was experience severe drought levels. High winds, low humidity levels, and hotter than normal temperatures fanned the flames when a power line fell over.
While the fires will likely never be forgotten, Lahaina is slowly rebuilding. It was an iconic place filled with historic buildings that cannot be replaced, but the people of Maui will rebuild. It was recently announced that plaintiffs in a lawsuit reached a settlement worth a little over $4 billion, which will help — at least financially.
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