Rebecca Johnson and her roommates were sleeping when the wildfires erupted in Maui. What she awoke to early in the morning on Tues. Aug. 8 was the stuff of nightmares.
The power had gone out the night prior due to severe winds from Hurricane Dora, and electrical lines were already downed in her neighborhood in Lahaina in west Maui. One of her roommates was awake and spotted smoke rising across town. Soon after, a neighborhood gas station exploded. A police officer was going through the neighborhood telling residents to evacuate, but many couldn't hear the advisory over the 70-mile-per-hour winds, Johnson said. She and her roommates split up, and she and one of them left on foot with nothing but the clothes on their backs and their dog.
