On the 16th local time, the governor of Hawaii said that the death toll from the Maui fire had risen to 110.
Before the fire broke out in Maui, Hawaii, the place had always been the first choice for many Americans to travel and vacation. The Cardenas, from Sacramento, California, take their children to Maui every year, but this year their vacation there was interrupted by a fire and they had to flee Maui. After returning home, they told ABC reporters about their escape experience.
The Cardenas family lived in a hotel only 4.8 kilometers away from the town of Lahaina, the hardest-hit area of the fire. In the early morning of August 8, strong winds blew up on the island. According to local residents, some power poles were blown off.
Ana Cardenas, tourist fleeing Maui:After my husband got up at 7 am on the 8th, he went to Lahaina to see if it was normal there. When he came back 25 minutes later, he said that there was no power there, and I wanted to fill up the car, but the gas stations were closed, and we only had 1/4 tank of gas left in the rental car.
Angel Cardenas, tourist fleeing Maui:Initially we thought it was just a power outage, but seeing the other side of the beach, Lahaina smoggy with the strong winds, we thought something was wrong.
On the afternoon of the 8th, although there was no signal on the mobile phone, because the alarm did not sound in Maui and the local area did not issue a mandatory evacuation order, many tourists were unaware of the imminent danger. However, the Cardenas couple have experienced several California wildfires. They found that the situation was wrong and began to prepare various emergency supplies.
Ana Cardenas, tourist fleeing Maui:We’ve seen this too many times in California – people get stuck, too many people trying to get out at the same time causing traffic jams and cars not moving. These images have been etched in my mind, we must leave early. So we packed all our bags and put them in the rental car so we could get out quickly if we needed to. We prepared water, food and a knife.
At 3:00 am on August 9th, the fire blew up and they immediately started packing their bags and going to the emergency shelter for the night. Due to the rapid development of the fire, they had to move from one shelter to another, and finally with the help of friends Bought a plane ticket back to California.
Angel Cardenas, tourist fleeing Maui:We headed to the airport and it was surreal going through Lahaina, it was like the ground zero, you could smell the smoke, you could hear people crying. I wish my family would erase these from their memory.
Tourist fleeing Maui Andrew Cardenas:It’s so scary, you can see the smoke coming right out of the back of you.
Angel Cardenas, tourist fleeing Maui:We finally got on the plane home, slightly relieved. But at the same time you feel guilty because there are other people out there struggling to survive.
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责编：杨煜 ]
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2023-08-18 09:51:00
