Tourists sleep in cars, scramble to flee as residents ask them to ‘leave Maui’

MAUI, Hawaii – The Vega family spent the first night of a 10-day vacation in an emergency shelter.

The Portland, Oregon, family of five arrived on Maui on Tuesday morning and were staying at the Honua Kai Resort & Spa in Lahaina when wildfires caused by the dry nonnative grass and strong winds from Hurricane Dora started to rage and turn Lahaina into a “war zone.” 

At 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday, an alarm went off in the hotel and all guests had to evacuate. “Nobody gave us directions on where to go,” said Sierra Vega, one of the daughters.

“The smoke didn’t look bad from the hotel, but once we hit the street, it was pure red,” she said.

She said navigating the one road out of Lahaina was stressful with no street lights or cell service. “You just knew you had to stay calm,” Sierra added.

The family tried to find another hotel, but everything was booked.

Later that morning, the family arrived at the emergency shelter at the War Memorial Gymnasium in Wailuku. They couldn’t contact the hotel to see if they could get their belongings back.

The family plans to get a flight out of Maui as soon as possible.

“We feel for the island,” Vega said. “It’s tough for us today, but we’ll get on a plane in a couple of days. But these fires have ruined people’s lives.”

There were at least 55 fatalities recorded as of Friday morning, though officials expected that number to increase. Hundreds of buildings and homes were destroyed, including all of historic Lahaina Town, and thousands of residents lost nearly everything and were displaced.

The Vega family is among the many Maui tourists caught in one of the deadliest wildfires in the nation in recent years. Amid the devastation, tourists are scrambling trying to flee the popular destination – sometimes without their belongings or after sleeping in their cars – as residents plead for visitors not to come to the ravaged island.

Death toll is climbing: How to help victims in the Maui wildfires in Hawaii

Tourists scramble for safety

Many tourists resorted to sleeping in their cars wherever they could park with the clothes on their backs because they couldn’t return to their accommodations in Lahaina. The main road to Lahaina continues to be closed to tourists on Thursday.

A line of cars was parked on the side of the road with people waiting to see if they could return to their hotel room on Wednesday.

“We have nowhere else to go,” one couple visiting Maui said.

Other visitors who landed on Maui on Wednesday morning didn’t even leave the airport and immediately rerouted their Maui vacations to other unaffected islands, like Kauai. A few said they would continue with their trips to Maui, looking for accommodations in areas that are still open.

About 11,000 visitors flew out of Maui on Wednesday, according to the State Transportation Director Ed Sniffen. About 1,500 more are going to fly out on Thursday.

Janet Han and 10 other family members landed on Maui the Friday before the fires. She and her family evacuated their rental townhome in Lahaina on Tuesday afternoon when her sister saw “billows of big gray, black smoke.” Han managed to book an Airbnb in Kihei, located in south Maui, and her original rental will refund her for the nights her family didn’t spend there. She hopes the road to Lahaina opens soon so her family can get the medical items they need.

Han said her family is “making the best” of their trip since they don’t get to see each other often.

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Please ‘leave Maui’

Hawaii is in a state of emergency until the end of the month, according to Acting Hawaii Gov. Sylvia Luke.

“Visitors who are on nonessential travel are being asked to leave Maui, and nonessential travel to Maui is strongly discouraged at this time,” according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority on Thursday morning. Travel to Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, and other parts of Hawaii Island remains unaffected.

Many airlines are offering waivers for flights going to Maui. Passengers can check Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines to see if their flights can be changed for free.

Hawaiian Airlines has added extra flights to help get people out of Maui, and lowered main cabin fares to $19 “to facilitate urgent travel needs,” a Hawaiian Airlines spokesperson said.

Hotel brands like the Outrigger are relocating guests to other properties across the Hawaiian islands, a spokesperson said. Hotels and activities booked on the entire island of Maui via Expedia Group subsidiaries like Hotels.com or Expedia can be cancelled without penalty until Aug. 31.

Those with vacation rentals booked on Maui through Vrbo will get a full refund for their cancellation and should've gotten a notification, according to Vrbo’s parent company Expedia Group. Airbnb said rentals can also be canceled for a full refund because the company has an Extenuating Circumstances Policy, which covers declared emergencies and other unforeseen events.

On social media, many Hawaii residents are asking tourists to cancel any upcoming trips to Maui so resources can be used to help locals who lost everything – especially as Maui was already facing a housing crisis.

Beatrice Hoopai, who was living at the Hawaiian homeless shelter in Lahaina, had to evacuate with her family of five on Tuesday night to the War Memorial Gymnasium shelter. She said that even though tourists lost their luggage, they can still fly back to their homes, while the shelter and her belongings are gone.

“The streets are my home now,” she said.

Kathleen Wong is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Hawaii. You can reach her at kwong@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tourists stranded, scramble to leave Maui amid wildfire devastation