Maui Wildfire Relief & Audiology Community

A dear friend of mine is an audiologist in Maui. For those who are not familiar, audiologists diagnose and treat hearing loss. In doing so they help individuals with hearing loss to be able to communicate with their loved ones again. The Maui community is currently struggling with the devastating wildfires and are seeking help.

See message below:

Aloha,

It is with absolute grief and profound sadness that our clinic is reaching out to you for assistance. Currently, our island home of Maui is being ravaged by devastating fires. Many in our community remain unaccounted for, and there remains extremely limited communication with certain parts of the island. While we can confirm we have lost one of our clinics, our Wailuku office remains open and operational. It's absolutely devastating here. So much destruction and the fires are still burning. A thousand residents are currently unaccounted for. The bodies of those who were unable to flee fast enough are in the streets. It's apocalyptic.

Everyone I work with is Maui born and raised so the missing and dead aren't just numbers, they're family. Our clinic has deep personal and familial ties with local first responders, law enforcement, and fire fighters who are working diligently to keep us safe. It's unfathomable and immensely difficult to process. As they do their part, we strive to do ours. I've been beyond lucky so far. My home is fine as is our main office and hospital. We still have access to power, water, phones and internet. Many others are not so fortunate.

Nothing was salvageable for many of our pts who were able to make it out. One pt contacted us today informing us that her hearing aid melted due to the heat of the fire while escaping. We are working to ensure that those in our community who’ve lost everything don’t have to struggle with the additional hardship of untreated hearing loss. Any assistance you can provide us would be overwhelmingly helpful. Supplies and resources of any nature would be a blessing. Every little bit helps, and we need a lot of help.

A GoFundMe was created https://gofund.me/10f4de40. If you could please share the link with current students, faculty, the greater NSU family, and healthcare providers in the area it would be much appreciated. Please ask them to share with as many people in their personal networks as possible. As the only dx audiologist on Maui, I have deep ties to the medical community and will be able to help direct funds to our community's most urgent and pressing needs beyond our audiology clinic.

We still don't know the extent of the destruction as the situation is ongoing and rapidly changing, but I can assure you, it is much worse than the news portrays.

The only thing keeping me moving forward is knowing that I have the ability to continue helping my Maui ohana and that's what I intend to do. I appreciate any help and awareness that my NSU family can provide. It's going to be extremely difficult in the days and weeks ahead and I appreciate all the NSU love and support.

Shannon McCormick, AuD