![]() Every day, she remembered another little thing she lost.Īs night set in, the family mapped the days ahead. She wished she had nail polish, and she needed to get a new debit card. She berated herself for leaving behind her favorite black pants. Just because I lost everything doesn’t mean I have to wear whatever people give me.” “And I’m not going to wear printed tights. “One size does not fit all,” Val joked to the gathered women about the mounds of donated clothes she’d received. Donations of food, clothes and other items for the Cascos. And so was Val and Kali’s.įrom left, Robert Casco, Kali Casco, Eric Casco, Hawea Casco, and Kennedy Casco and her daughter, Brady. So was Val’s cousin’s home, which neighbored hers on Malo Street another cousin’s home, just behind them on the same plot of land, was gone, too. “Lahaina is gone,” Val said, tears streaking her face.Įric and Lei’s apartment was reduced to rubble the elementary school that their children were supposed to attend was leveled. The next morning, the family showed up at Kali’s brother’s doorstep in Napili. The wind tore off that roof, too, sending the family scrambling. The family of five fled the heart of Lahaina and joined the rest of the family on Malo Street for safety. Val’s middle son, Eric, and his wife, Lei, who lived about a mile down the road with their three young sons, called: Their apartment’s roof had blown off. She, Kali and Casey stayed hunkered down in their home, thinking the storm would pass. The power had been out all day, and the wind howled in a way she had never heard, she said. It was the wind that warned Val something was wrong on Aug. The Casco family prays before eating in Napili, Hawaii. ![]() Now comes something arguably worse: reckoning with the burdens they face in the long, complicated journey toward recovery. The nearly manic rush of adrenaline that first propelled the survivors forward has begun to dissipate. Others found temporary shelter in the hotels they worked for on the tourism-reliant island, while still more leaned on official resources erected by the Maui County, Red Cross and Federal Emergency Management Agency. Some took refuge with loved ones across West Maui, packing a dozen or more to a home. Many have bounced from one lodging to another, grasping for a place to stay put. In the weeks since the fire, Lahaina’s families have been wracked with uncertainty over what the future holds - if they will rebuild, how and when - and have often been unsure of things as basic as where they will sleep. “You think you’re set in life, ready to retire,” Val said. For what felt like the umpteenth time since the fire, she and her family were about to lose what little they had. Earlier that day, Val had been told that her temporary housing at a local hotel would run out in about two weeks.
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