Aly Snyder, victim of Lahaina Fire

My parents didn’t know their trip to Maui would be a rescue mission. A rescue mission to save me. But that’s what it turned out to be.

After a harrowing landing through the 100 mph winds that Hurricane Dora was thrusting over the Hawaiian Islands, I picked up my family at the airport. My dad, always the big tough guy who never seems to worry about what most people do, was quick to tell me that this was the scariest flight of his life. Thankfully I was able to use my friend’s car to pick them up. My car had been inoperable for two months and was sitting in front of my house in Lahaina. I let the insurance lapse because I couldn’t afford to have it repaired yet…. No big deal, I thought. It’s safe.

We drove to Lahaina where the power had been out since 4:00 in the morning. By the time we arrived the winds were only growing stronger. Whatever, we thought, this is Hawaii. High winds are a way of life here. After driving to my cute little home near Front Street I grabbed the one thing I thought I would need - my bathing suit. My house wasn’t much, I shared it with two roommates, but it was home for me, and I loved it. I was 25 years old, and living the dream in Maui, working on a sailboat and loving my life. Before leaving, I found my dad standing in the kitchen talking to one of my roommates. They were talking about this little brush fire that just started to throw a little smoke into the beautiful blue, Hawaiian sky.

Our next stop, the beach! One there, the little fire that was barely noticeable 30-minutes ago had now grown at an alarming, pace. We decided that it may be best to try to get a hotel room for the night because getting back to my house didn’t seem likely. But we couldn’t find a room anywhere. We decided to try to get back to my house, if we could. I mean, come on, there’s no way the firefighters are going to let historic Lahaina Town go up in flames. This is Hawaii’s oldest town, once the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii. The buildings on Front Street have withstood floods, fires, Tsunami’s, wars, you name it, for hundreds of years. We’ll be safe there. Everybody will be safe.

We drove towards Lahaina, and quickly hit stopped traffic. Trying to get back to my house wasn’t possible. We hopped out of line, turned around and drove to a friend’s house where we hunkered down for the night. When we woke up early Wednesday morning, the devastation became apparent, and we were getting hungry. People were driving around with their lives packed in the back of their trucks. Locals were seen crying, screaming out of control, after realizing they lost everything. Animals burned alive, loved ones missing, lives shattered, lives filled with happiness and Aloha, gone. All roads were closed. Rumors that Lahaina Town was gone started to circulate. Within a few hours we would learn the rumors were true. Everything in Lahaina burned to the ground, my house included. Everything that was mine was gone: My home, my uninsured car, my clothes, a little bit of money that I was saving from the tips I made. But my family was safe. We didn’t die, but many did. Those who weren’t able to move faster than the fire, burned alive. How many? We still don’t know. 1,500 lives are unaccounted for at the time of this writing.

On Wednesday afternoon, out of nowhere, 15 text messages came through on my phone. One of them, informing me that the highway was opened, but only for those leaving Lahaina. We wasted no time. Within minutes we were on the road, with 30 miles of gas remaining. The devastation we saw was appalling. Everything was gone. Stores, homes, cars, trees, beautiful trees that had withstood all sorts of dramatic weather events for centuries, blown out of the ground with their roots intact, or burned from the fire, gone, smoldering, flames still roaring away on many structures. This doesn’t happen in America. We are safe in America. We are protected from things like this. Scenes like this happen where there are wars and poverty. Not here. Not in Hawaii. Certainly not in Maui. But it did happen. We saw it with our own eyes. We cried. Paradise was no more. Everything I had here was gone. Now I would have to go home with my parents. It turns out, they were here to save me and they didn’t even know it. I would have been stuck in my house on Tuesday night. There’s no doubt about it. Would I have been able to escape the speed of the fire? I don’t know. Maybe. Nobody was evacuated. Not on my side of town. Calls to 911 were not answered. Everybody was left to fend for themselves and many people were not able to. I was lucky. I will go home with them, share a room with my sister, go back to school. But I have no money and there is only so much they can do to help me, and that is the purpose of my go fund me page. Anything will help.