You don't have to
live in Hawaii
or even be
Hawaiian
to embrace
the Aloha Spirit
...Mark Ellman
This is a photo taken in Hawaii when we visited to celebrated our anniversary in 2012. This was the view from our hotel room.
It was a month ago yesterday when the devastating fires tore through the island of Maui. It will be a very long time for the destroyed town of Lahaina to recover and rebuild, along with its residents who lost family, friends, homes and businesses. What a sad and tragic loss.
One of our local TV stations raised 1.1 million for the cause but they will need so much more. It is sad that investors (vultures) were swooping in to try and purchase people's destroyed land/property while they were in shock and mourning. Mortgages will be deferred for a year or more so they will not be in foreclosure. The government is helping to protect them for now.
6,000 residents were displaced, 115 died and 285 are unaccounted for.
Hawaii and its islands are beautiful and called paradise for a good reason.
This year, fire all over the earth showed its power to people. I hope this will open the eyes of at least a few people. Although the behavior of the developers shows that the fun continues.
It is heartbreaking what those poor people went through. what makes it worse is that the news pummels us with stories like this leading up to and during these catastrophes and then once it's over, silence. Then most of the rest of us go on with our normal lives and the people in the aftermath are pretty much forgotten.
So beautiful! The light and colours are just stunning! (extra super on black!) Fav! And yes, such a horribly tragic situation for the people of Maui! So heartening to hear of the fundraising efforts of your local TV station. There is still goodness in the world (I'm not even going to talk about the "vultures")
@skipt07 Sad that this happens. The Maui fires happen, then the Florida hurricane hits and captures the news, then everyone moves on to the next big thing and the people are sadly forgotten.
@photographycrazy I hope Florida can rebuild too. I visited Fort Meyers and Sanibel before the hurricane last year. Now hurricane Idelia…never ending weather destruction.
Thank you for the comments and favs. It will take billions of dollars and time to recover. I hope they can keep some of the small town Hawaiian charm and are not over developed.