MAUI, HI (KFGO) – On Thursday, KFGO News brought you the story of North Dakota native Miles Patrie and his family, who lost their home and had to flee the wildfires in west Maui last week. Warning systems on the island appear to have failed and thousands of people had to run for their lives with no notice when dry conditions and high winds led to rampant wildfires. Over one hundred people died, making the natural disaster the worst in Hawaii’s history and deadliest wildfire in the United States in over a century.
Patrie gave an account of his family’s ordeal here.
A GoFundMe campaign has now been started by a friend to assist the Patrie family. In addition, Patrie’s wife Aparna also started a separate GoFundMe for the family’s au pair who lost a significant amount of cash in the fire. 24-year-old Noelia Gimenez was planning to attend flight attendant school after her time as a caregiver for the Patrie family’s three children ended, but all of her savings for that program were incinerated in the blaze.
Patrie said that, overall, he and his family feel very fortunate. They have a place to stay. They have friends and family helping them research and navigate the logistical challenges they now face. Friends have collected clothes for their kids. People have brought them food.
“In some ways, oddly enough, living here kind of reminds me of North Dakota in the way that the community has come together after this disaster. People have been really working day and night to help out at the emergency shelters and figure out ways to get food to the other side of the island,” he said. “It’s really an amazing place, not just because of the things you read about – the whales and dolphins and rainbows and amazing beaches – but the people here are really great too. It has that small town feel and sense of community. It’s really a heartbreaking time for people here. But, right now, we hope to stay.”
The Patries are currently looking for a home to move into on the west side of the island so that their boys can return to their school, which is re-opening on Monday.
“A lot of the housing on the west side is gone,” Miles said. “There are thousands of people trying to figure out where to live and very few homes available. Just trying to imagine the rebuilding and how long that’s going to take, what steps they need to take to clean up and redo some of the infrastructure before the rebuilding can happen, what it’s going to look like to try to find a contractor and architect, and get materials into west Maui for that many buildings, the whole thing is very daunting. It’s overwhelming.”
The Patries put together a list of charities and fundraisers that are verified and doing good work to help the greater west Maui community recover – links to each of them can be found below.
–Hawaii Community Foundation- Maui Strong Fund
–Sponsor a student – Maui Prep
–Maui Rapid Response- Mutual Aid Fund
