Many Americans think of Hawaii as a tropical paradise, a place they dream of visiting.
That may be true, but images from Maui during the last week conveyed a different sentiment — anguish. Dozens of people died in massive fires on the island. Thousands of people lost their homes and businesses. Communities were destroyed and forever altered by the flames.
"Tragedy that hits one of us, is felt by all of us," Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen Jr. said. Though we are thousands of miles away from Hawaii, we share this sentiment.
We also share in the horror at the lives lost and properties decimated by the fast-moving fires, which were fanned by a hurricane south of the Hawaiian islands. A fire in Lahaina, a historic community that was once the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii, spread so fast that people jumped into the ocean to escape.
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The fires on Maui were the deadliest wildfires in the U.S. in recent years. Officials said more than 90 people perished.
"With lives lost and properties decimated, we are grieving with each other during this inconsolable time," Bissen said. "In the days ahead, we will be stronger as a 'kaiaulu,' or community, as we rebuild with resilience and aloha."
A video posted on Twitter showed the devastation in Lahaina, on the island's western shore. The town, which dates to the 1700s, was home to historic buildings and was a favorite of tourists.
A well-known ocean-front street is now lined with burned and crumbled buildings, burned cars and rubble.
"It's horrifying. I've flown here 52 years and I've never seen anything come close to that," said Richard Olsten, a helicopter pilot for a tour company. "We had tears in our eyes."
Though parts of the Hawaiian islands are tropical, dry grasslands also cover parts of the islands. As a result, wildfires are not uncommon.
A combination of factors, which are exacerbated by climate change, made the fires worse in Maui, scientists said. Abundant, dry vegetation was especially flammable. High winds from Hurricane Dora, which passed 500 miles south of the islands, fanned the fires.
While no one event can be directly linked to climate change, warming temperatures globally are contributing to an increase in extreme weather events.
"It's leading to these unpredictable or unforeseen combinations that we're seeing right now and that are fueling this extreme fire weather," Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz, a postdoctoral forestry researcher at the University of British Columbia, told the AP. "What these ... catastrophic wildfire disasters are revealing is that nowhere is immune to the issue."
That is a sobering reminder of our vulnerability, and our connectedness. As we mourn for Maui, we are sadly cognizant that these tragedies are likely to become more frequent as our planet warms and our climate changes.
