HONOLULU (KHON2) — Maui Mayor Richard Bissen unveiled plans to re-open all of Maui, including Kaanapali, to visitors starting Nov. 1.
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He was joined by all of Hawaii’s mayors to see Front Street’s devastation up close.
The overwhelming emotion could be seen on Mayor Roth, Kawakami and Blangiardi’s faces after seeing the devastation up close.
All of the mayors said when one island suffers, all of the islands come together, and they’re taking this as a learning experience too.
Each mayor discussed the overwhelming emotion of seeing Lahaina’s ashes up close
“This is simply, in my lifetime the most terrible thing I could see up close in person,” said Rick Blangiardi.
Mayor Roth spoke with one big island family whose father’s home burned in Lahaina.
He said all that was left was some melted jewelry and a small vase.
“There’s just no words to explain how devastating it was for them, I felt devastated,” said Mitch Roth, Hawaii Island mayor.
“When one of us is hurting we all hurt – one island hurts we all hurt – when one mourns we all mourn and it’s hard to find the words to express how I feel being here today in my heart and seeing families,” said Kauai mayor Derek Kawakami.
As all of Maui prepares to reopen Nov. 1 Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke announced a new way for people to help Maui the entire month of November.
“Thanks to the generosity of every single one of the mayors, they will be hosting along with our partners, especially the Lahaina town action committee, they will be hosting Maui vendor events on every single island,” said Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke.
MauiNuiFirst.com encourages all people to support local and will help Maui and families impacted by the fire.
“On behalf of Honolulu, all of our support to whatever we could possibly do to help everyone here on Maui were all in this together this isn’t just Maui it’s all of us we know it’s a long road ahead,” said Mayor Blangiardi.
Mayor Blangiardi added the tragedy on Maui was a wake up call and on Friday he held a risk assessment on Oahu with a packed room.
“It was a collaborative effort to make sure that what happens here doesn’t happen on Oahu, knowing full well that it could,” he said.
He continued by adding there is more to work on to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
To see how you can help Maui families during the month of November, go to MauiNuiFirst.com.
