Burlington County family tries to navigate dream vacation in Hawaii amid wildfires
MAUI, Hawaii (CBS) -- A long-awaited trip to paradise for a family from Burlington County turned into a much different trip last week following the deadly wildfires in Hawaii.
A cell phone video shows part of the Hawaiian island of Maui left scorched by wildfires last week, just a few days after Jaimie Dubuque of Delran and her family landed for their dream vacation that had been a year in the making.
"You have to book a lot of things in advance because, obviously, summertime. It's gonna be a big popular tourist location," Dubuque said.
She says they arrived in Kahana, located in West Maui, on Sunday night last week excited to be in paradise.
However, Tuesday brought whipping winds so strong it knocked out the power.
"So before the fires start, there's a power outage on our part of West Maui," Dubuque said. "We figured it was just a blip on the radar of our vacation. We expected to go to the beach and do the things we were planning on doing."
Then the wildfire started. A photo from Dubuque shows smoke rising as the fire burns.
"It was basic smoke. It did not seem like it would be the kind you would be concerned about in any capacity," Dubuque said.
As the fire grew, Dubuque grew concerned.
"It's devastating to start to think that it could possibly come your way. The winds had not stopped, they were relentless," Dubuque said.
She tried to stay calm for her kids, but then came Thursday and the fire got bigger, even blocking main roads.
The power remained out. Now, they were showering in the dark in cold water and food was running low.
"This is supposed to be your dream vacation. This is supposed to be going smoothly," Dubuque said. "You've done all the planning. You've done everything with the packing. Everything should be coming together and it's not."
On Thursday, the family decided to book a flight home but there wasn't any availability. The internet was out, too.
"I started to panic that there wasn't really an out to this," Dubuque said.
She called home in New Jersey, and her family booked them an Airbnb on the other side of the island.
This was just the first half of their vacation.
"It was like stepping into a snow globe that you would get at the airport that says Hawaii. The sand is beautiful. It's still breezy out. People are taking surfing lessons," Dubuque said.
Some life lessons learned: always carry cash when traveling and rent a car instead of relying on a rideshare app.
"That van became a lifeline with charging phones and being able to reach out to people," she said.
She and her family made it home safely Sunday after a week away.
"I didn't realize until we touched down in New Jersey the breath I had been holding in thinking at any given moment this could still go awry somehow," Dubuque said.
The question remains, will Dubuque ever go back to Hawaii?
"I think that for us we just want to appreciate what we have here and not necessarily get caught up with what's next."
Dubuque says she's grateful her family is home safe. She urges anyone able to donate to Hawaii to do so.