When Charles Nahale checked into a one-bedroom time-share condo in Kapalua Bay, a tourist mainstay on Maui’s north-west coast, in mid-October, front desk staff told him he would only be staying for 12 days. Nahale, a Native Hawaiian musician who had lost his west Maui home in the ferocious wildfire of 8 August, wasn’t surprised by the blunt notice: he’d been bouncing from hotel to hotel, often at a moment’s notice, under a sheltering program run by the Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
After the move, Nahale turned his pickup truck into a storage unit – part closet and part pantry – filled with boxes of clothes and nonperishable food. He brought only toiletries and essentials into the hotel suite. When he was hungry, he went to the truck to grab a can of tuna. A ukulele, a guitar and a set of work clothes were the only possession he was able to save from the fire. “I live a nomadic life,” said Nahale, who’s in his 60s. “What’s the point of unpacking if I’m moving again after 12 days?”
