Maui wildfire resurrects memories and emotions for Marshall Fire survivors, including Louisville woman who grew up in Hawaii
When Neigh LaRue opened Punch Buggy Shave Ice in Boulder County four years ago, she wanted to share a piece of her beloved state of Hawaii with Colorado.
She never dreamed the two states would share a devastating wildfire driven by hurricane force winds.
"Yesterday was a lot of shock, disbelief, and sadness. It brought up a lot of feelings of what we all went through not too long ago," she said.
LaRue was visiting family in Hawaii when the Marshall Fire erupted here. She came back to find her home still standing but her Louisville neighborhood gone.
"It looks... a little too familiar from what it looked like here afterwards. The way they are describing it is like a war zone ... just complete devastation and it just like my neighborhood did after the Marshall Fire," she said.
Her family, she says, lives on the big island about 30 miles from the fire burning there but she has friends in Lahaina who have lost everything.
"Like here, right? Running with the clothes on their back, stuck in traffic. There's one road in and out of Lahaina. If you ever been there right? There's one road and you see the cars backed up and the... I mean the videos online are horrifying. Those that I know are accounted for we but still don't know right? The whole clean up process and going from house to house and... seeing what's there is still a part of the process," she said.
She was just back in Lahaina in February with her childhood best friend.
"We were walking up and down Front Street. We sat down on the picnic benches underneath a Banyan tree... sipping on our coffee," she said. "To know that that's gone is kind of hard to wrap your head around. There's so much history that's lost. Museums and history monuments. Even the oldest Banyan tree."
She had planned to go back next month.
"It's my happy place. I work really hard all summer so that I can go back there and recharge my battery," she said.
At least two other Marshall Fire survivors were vacationing in Maui when the fire started. One of them posted online how she was dodging downed power lines and trees and saw fire all around her.
"It felt like the Marshall Fire all over again," she said.
LaRue says her biggest concern is getting help to the locals in Lahaina. She's posted the names of organizations she knows and trusts on her website - Punchbuggyshaveice.com.
Another Marshall Fire survivor, who is in Oahu right now, is trying to help set up a Slack channel similar to the one Marshall Fire survivors have used to communicate with each other.