Evansville trio who lived in Maui grieving the losses, trying to help after wildfires
EVANSVILLE — The headlines speak of a distant disaster in a distant land — but for three people in Evansville, the deadly blazes that scorched Lahaina, Maui last week felt like a gut punch.
Joji and Jessica Nagashima and Matt Stone lived as roommates several years ago in a house less than a mile from the worst-hit areas in the Hawaii wildfires. They still have about two-dozen friends there, including one who fled into the Pacific Ocean to escape the smoke and flames.
"I don’t know how, but the house that we actually stayed in is still there," Jessica Nagashima said Wednesday. "... Everything around it is gone, but that tiny little street — that one little street — made it."
More: 'Burned down to ashes': Why devastated Lahaina Town is such a cherished place on Maui
The Nagashimas have been in close contact by text message and Facebook with their island-based friends. Nobody they knew is among the more than 100 people killed and 1,000-plus who are unaccounted for in the nation's deadliest wildfire in more than century. The couple remains glued to Hawaii-based news outlets.
And they are trying to help.
On Aug. 26, Crescent City Tattoo, where Joji works as a tattoo artist, will offer what he calls "islandey, kind of tropical tattoos" and donate all profits to relief efforts. Crescent City will release more details in the days to come.
"It's all really kind of shocking," Joji said Wednesday. "It hasn’t settled in fully because we haven’t actually personally seen it, but yeah, it’s extreme right now."
One of Jessica's friends, a woman who lost her home in Lahaina, is volunteering for several relief efforts on the ground. Jessica has relentlessly promoted relief efforts on her own Facebook page.
"They have enough supplies, but everything is in lockdown right now, so they can’t even get it," she said. "They don’t have enough manpower to go through all those supplies that people have donated, so it is literally just sitting in buildings, not being used.
"(My friend) said right now what people need are the monetary donations that are helping out immediately."
'Who doesn't want to come check out Hawaii?'
The Nagashimas — Joji is from Japan originally and Jessica is a native West Sider — met in Evansville two decades ago, spent several years in Lahaina while Joji worked as a tattoo artist, then moved back here.
They were lured to Lahaina in 2008 by Stone, a friend in Evansville who had lived there previously on what he calls a "little personal adventure." Stone came back to Lahaina a second time, moving into a rental house with the Nagashimas.
Joji had been coming out to Hawaii from time to time to hang with Stone and do some tattooing, but he and Jessica finally succumbed to Stone's entreaties to live there full-time.
"Who doesn't want to come check out Hawaii?" Stone said Wednesday with a chuckle.
Stone returned to Evansville in about 2010, but the Nagashimas stayed until 2014.
In Lahaina Joji worked as a tattoo artist while Jessica spent her days as a stay-at-home mom and trained dogs. They returned to Evansville so Jessica could pursue her training to be a veterinary technician.
Jessica's heart grieves for the roughly 3,000 animals lost or missing following the Maui wildfires. Some are being found with severe burns and smoke inhalation. Some pets have injuries so severe they are unrecognizable, which makes reunification even more difficult.
More: 'I was crying hysterically': Maui residents search for missing pets after deadly fires
"Maui Humane Society is taking care of them, but it's — not a lot of them made it out," she said. "Joji's boss, his house was completely taken, and their cats were in the house."
Matt Stone's voice wavered at the mention of what has happened in Maui.
"It hurts," he said, pausing.
"It’s very gut-wrenching. I’ve lived a couple other places besides Evansville, but I’ve always considered Maui home. I’ve always wanted to go back.”
Into the ocean
During his first stay in Lahaina, Stone said, he lived with longtime resident Mike Cicchino and his brother — the same Mike Cicchino whose dramatic flight into the ocean with his wife made national headlines.
The couple jumped into the waves and spent more than three hours in the ocean before the Coast Guard rescued them at after midnight last Wednesday.
"There are points where we were starting to pass out and we were about to drown," Cicchino told NewsNation Prime. "Then, we got to come to shore. The cars parked next to shore caught on fire or were exploding. It was a leapfrog of fire. Go out, we’re getting burned. Come in, go out. Everywhere, we were getting burned or we couldn’t breathe."
Stone and the Nagashimas said Cicchino was a part of their tight circle of friends in Lahaina. During their first visits there, Jessica said, "Mikey" let the couple crash at one of his properties.
"He has some burns on his face and hands," she said.
Death toll tops 100, expected to rise
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Tuesday more than 3,400 survivors of the Maui fires have registered for aid and 1,200 of them have been granted payments worth a total of nearly $2 million.
While more registrations and payments are expected in the coming days, recent estimates illustrate the enormous magnitude of the losses.
The Lahaina fire caused about $3.2 billion in insured property losses, according to an assessment Tuesday by Karen Clark & Company, a prominent disaster and risk modeling firm. That doesn’t include uninsured property.
The blaze destroyed more than 2,700 structures in the historic town, according to Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, who said in a video posted late Sunday that "an estimated value of $5.6 billion has gone away."
The death toll — 106 as of late Tuesday — is expected to continue climbing. Asked if children are among those missing or killed, Green said, "Tragically yes. ... when the bodies are smaller, we know it’s a child.”
Jessica Nagashima spoke of a friend back in Lahaina who didn't flee the flames — he charged into the black smoke to help people. She checks on him frequently.
"I think he doesn’t physically have any burns, but they’re monitoring him for smoke inhalation and pneumonia and stuff like that," she said.
The disaster and the response to it demonstrates the resilience and kindness of Maui residents, Jessica said.
"Maui people take care of Maui people," she said. "They are strong, they are independent, and they will get through this — and they appreciate all the love that they have felt."
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Evansville trio who lived in Maui grieving the losses, trying to help
