'It's heartbreaking': Without food and fuel, Maui locals lean on neighbors to survive

LAHAINA, Hawaii − Marina Sanchez and Dustin Akiona drove through dizzying, winding roads overlooking the ocean, desperate to find a way into Lahaina with the hundreds of dollars worth of supplies they had gathered for their neighbors− water, gas, flashlights, batteries, baby food, diapers. A law enforcement roadblock was making it difficult for people to get into the historic neighborhood that had been nearly leveled days earlier by what has become the deadliest wildfire in recent U.S. history, killing at least 93 people and destroying nearly 2,000 residential buildings.

Sanchez, 28, leaned out the window of the Toyota Tacoma, phone in hand, trying to get enough cell service to post an Instagram story asking for volunteers for help to complete another supply drop.

“I can’t believe they’re making it so hard to go and help people,” Akiona, 31, said Saturday as they inched closer to the checkpoint.

Sanchez told Akiona they would find a way to get to Lahaina with the supplies. 

"Even if I have to swim," she said.

Five days after the fires began in Maui, residents said it has been difficult to get food, fuel and other resources to those in the worst-hit areas, including the hundreds of people who lost their homes. Law enforcement road closures and slow communication from a government that many accuse of failing to adequately warn them about the fires has prompted residents to create their own aid systems as neighbors turn to one another for shelter and other necessities. 

Neighbors provide food, protection

Residents leaned on one another, too, days before as the fires swept through their neighborhoods.

Archie Kalepa wasn't home when the fires began, but his neighbors, including Shaun "Buge" Saribay, 42, knew that if his house caught fire, the others in the tightly packed cul-de-sac next to the Lahaina Civic and Recreation Center probably would burn. They joined firefighters on the front lines to protect his home, using water from a spigot on his property as bright orange flames and dark black smoke ripped through different parts of Lahaina.

Saribay wasn't sure he would live to see the next day. "With the survival mode in my head, I said, 'If I don't make it, if I don't make it, I'm going to hide this phone where I think they can find it, where it's not going to get touched, it's not going to get burned," he said. "And if they do, my kids can, my family can watch this video on how me just saying how much I love them."

The flames burned down Kalepa's garden shed behind his house, but the neighbors were able to save the main home on the land.

"They held it right to the bitter end, right here," said Kalepa, 60.

On Saturday, just steps away from the fresh pile of rubble, ash and burned-out cars, volunteers set out stacks of drinks, food, medical supplies, pet food and toilet paper outside Kalepa's house. Trucks rolled into the makeshift rescue center throughout the day, dropping off necessities like gas and water.

Kalepa, a former lifeguard better known as Uncle Archie, said the cul-de-sac has become "a starting point to the rebuilding of our communities."

"Right now, this is not my home," he said, sporting a neon vest and a Walkie Talkie strapped to his chest, directing dozens of volunteers. "This is our community's home."

'I'm just doing everything that I can for everybody'

Sanchez and Akiona gathered supplies after visiting Lahaina on Friday, going house to house and asking people what they needed. Residents and reporters who visited Lahaina last week discovered the treasured town, home to cultural and religious sites that date back centuries, had turned into an ashen wasteland.

"It's heartbreaking. It's hard to come here and see how many people have been displaced, lost their homes," Sanchez said. "I'm just doing everything that I can for everybody."

Police were restricting access into West Maui because toxic particles from still-smoldering areas could harm people. Meanwhile, an unsafe-water advisory was in place in the Lahaina and Upper Kula areas, where some running water had been restored, Maui County said.

As they moved slowly toward the roadblock, Sanchez got a call from a woman they had met the night before who said she has 15 condos in Kihei that people in need could use at no cost. Sanchez told her to post it on Instagram and promised to also share it with her followers.

"Unfortunately, our government sites are not fast enough in getting communication," Sanchez said. "And the one thing that's good about Hawaii and our community is that we will, we are always on top of it with helping people and sharing information and letting everybody know, you know, uncle so-and-so auntie over here, she needs this."

When they finally reached the checkpoint, an officer told them they couldn't get in without an ID showing a Lahaina address. That meant the supplies couldn't get in, either.

"It's just ridiculous," Sanchez said. "I know there's protocol, but the protocol is sometimes prohibiting people from getting what they need."

Akiona pulled over while Sanchez called anyone she could think of who might have an ID with a Lahaina address. Unsuccessful, they drove back the way they came, desperately asking other drivers in line if they could take one of their passengers to get through the checkpoint. After several failed attempts, Aaron Panlasigui, 35, hopped in their truck. He knew Uncle Archie, too, he said. Panlasigui flashed his ID, and the officer let them, and their supplies, in. Everyone in the car breathed a sigh of relief.

'People who live here are stuck here'

Kalepa's friend Na'alehu Anthony, 48, arrived with a Starlink terminal, allowing people to use the internet via satellite system to contact their families. Usually, traveling to Maui was relatively simple for Anthony, but because of the road closures, getting where he needed to go had turned into an odyssey, as it had for many.

"I got in the car, I got on a plane, I got on a 4-by-4, I got on a boat, I got on an ATV, I got to here," he said.

He said a "distribution problem" had caused resources to pile up in places like Oahu. That prompted the community in Lahaina to self-organize, turning Kalepa's home into "ground zero for access to resources," he said.

Anthony said many roads and beaches have closed, "so people who live here are stuck here, and they need resources coming through."

Saribay is one of those people. He said all of his family members, including his three children, made it out safely to another part of the island. But he lost his ID in the fire and doesn't want to leave Lahaina if he can't get back in.

"I mean, no one's going to run around looking for their ID when their life is in danger," he said.

Saribay said he lost three of his own properties, a home that had been in his family for generations as well as a tattoo shop he helped run on Front Street. He worries that many of his neighbors will sell their land, which would drastically change their community, but he hopes that won't happen.

"All I can say is this is gnarly," he said. "Does it break my heart? Heck yeah, but I don't know. I just feel that this is going to make the community stronger if the community can stick it out."

Contributing: Jeanine Santucci and Claire Thornton, USA TODAY; The Associated Press