Surviving the Maui fire and other disasters Part 1

So, you just lost your home and everything you owned, and you are thinking “great, now what am I supposed to do?”

Five years ago, I was exactly where you are now.  My wife and I survived the 2018 Camp-Fire in Magalia, which is a little rural town next to Paradise, California.  We lost our house, half of our town, along with the whole town of Paradise, and everything we owned.  We had a little time to grab a few things, but for the most part it was “grab and go.” I remember looking through the trees behind us and seeing the fire just 2 or 3 houses behind us.  We grabbed our cat, and another stray who had been coming around lately, and made a run for it.  We were lucky, we made it out alive.  Officially, eighty-six people didn’t make it, and I would say probably even more than that.  The fire was so hot that it melted the engine block in my van and bent an Olympic barbell almost in half, so it was definitely very hot.  So hot that I would say half the bodies turned to dust and were unrecognizable, let alone retrievable.  We had a huge population of homeless in our area, and I’m afraid they weren’t found because of that.  You may find that to be true in your town as well.

Old wood and high winds together generate a lot of heat. In our case it was old homes and pine trees.  In your area it might be old buildings and palms.  Dried palm wood burns fast and hot by itself, let alone when you add high winds.  If you have ever seen a blacksmith forge, you’ll know what I am talking about. It’s a tremendous amount of high temperature heat.  This article is part 1 on surviving the Maui fire and other disasters.

The first step in your recovery is to be thankful you survived and got out alive. I’m sure not everyone did.

Things could have turned out so much worse. By the grace of God, you are alive, and have another chance at life. Will it be easy?  No, of course not, but you can do it.  You’re alive for a reason.  Obviously you have a purpose to be here, so be grateful.  Get up every day and say thanks for the new day, even on those days nothing is going right.

The second step is to try to be patient.

That’s hard to do after a disaster like a fire, but you need to let them try to recover bodies.  It’s hard and often gruesome work.  They need time to do their job.  Our fire happened on November 8, and we weren’t allowed back in until December 2.  Twenty-four days after the fire, they opened up our zone, while they were searching other zones.  We were already prepared for the worst, because a sheriff had sent us a picture of our driveway and what used to be the house.  The minute I saw the familiar FEMA X in a circle spray painted on the driveway, I knew there was no chance for our house, and I was right.  The day we were allowed back in, we rushed up to our house, and found it completely gone.  Where the house had been, was a sea of ash and burned junk, very little being recognizable.  We tried to look through the ash but didn’t find much that was salvageable.   We did find some of my wife’s collectable porcelain figures lined up on the back terrace, which told us looters had already snuck in and were going through our stuff.  Looting is going to be a huge problem.  I’ll talk more about this later on.

Focus on finding food, water, and shelter

So, while you are waiting to go see your house, focus on finding food, water, and shelter.  By now you have probably acquired some of that.   Recovery is a slow process, because a disaster like a fire really messes with your head.  We still have some people living in cars, tents and trailers, because they just can’t seem to move forward.  While some were living in cars, and tents, others found a trailer or a rental.  Here is where the greed comes in.  Some of these opportunistic landlords evicted the tenants because they hadn’t been around for a month, and then they jacked up the rent, because they could get away with it.  It was supply and demand, and with all of Paradise, and half of Magalia gone, a real home was a commodity worth more than gold.  They gouged tenants and got away with it for awhile.  Gas was the same way at first. It was horrible, until the president declared us a national disaster zone, which meant they could not gouge us anymore, and magically prices started to drop.

Acquire your supplies

So now that you have found food, water, and shelter, you have to start moving forward and start to figure out how to recover long term from this mess.  This will be a long process, almost like a marathon.  You won’t be made whole overnight.  Slow and steady wins the race.  By now the churches should be setting up distribution centers, Red Cross should be set up, along with Salvation army and a few other charitable organizations.  Go to all of them and see what they have to offer.  Gladly take their free blankets, and gift cards, Batteries, canned food and water. Keep your eyes out for tents, tarps, sleeping bags, blankets, and cook stoves, along with pots, pans, and cooking utensils.  Ask about shoes and boots, because you will definitely need them.  If they are giving out Tyvek suits, rubber gloves or real N95 masks and goggles, grab as many as they will allow.  You are going to need them at some point when they let you back into your property.  We’ll cover that in the next post.  Right now we are trying to get you to begin seeing yourself as a real survivor and a scavenger.  All these places will let you meet other survivors, and if you listen, you will find out where to go get the next free stuff.  You can go to www.ready.gov/kit to see a list of bare essentials you will need.

Take what you can.

What you don’t use, you can give away or trade to someone who does need it.  If you purchase anything, make sure it is either rechargeable, or it runs on AA batteries, because those are the batteries they will have at the supply distribution centers.  Grab them while you are there too, even if you haven’t purchased anything that uses them yet.  We have an Amazon page with lots of gear that meet those criteria and much of it has been tested by us already.

You are a survivor which means you are trying to secure as many resources as you can.

It’s how you will survive this.  You have gone from a normal life to having nothing, and now you have to try to build a life back up for you and your family.

Right after the disaster, everyone is so caring, it feels like a huge, close family.  You all just survived the same event and have common stories.  You are “fire brothers and sisters.”  People will need to share what happened the day of the fire, so go ahead and listen to them.  Everyone’s experience will be a little different.  You’re helping them work through the trauma, and you might learn something important in the process, besides, they might just end up becoming a friend too.  You never know.  Pay attention to what each place is offering and pass that information on to others that you meet.  You will find that you will all start looking out for each other, at least for the first year or two and that will be really helpful for your growth and survival.  Thank God for the churches who served two meals a day for almost a year.  It not only brought us together, but we honestly didn’t have the food or energy to cook at first.  All the stores were closed or burned down, and we spent half the day looking for resources to acquire.  I’m sure you will have something like that soon, if you don’t already.

Be patient

Remember to give yourself time.  Like I said earlier, this is a marathon, not a sprint.  It will take you a couple weeks just to get over the shock and trauma and become functional again.  You need to start thinking rationally and formulate a recovery plan and start thinking rationally again.  You are now a refugee and survivor, and you must learn to think like one.  I cannot stress this enough, don’t be a victim, be a survivor.  Keep going to resource centers.  If it is free, take it.  You may need it later, or someone you meet may need it as well.  Keep your eyes open and swallow your pride.  That should have burned up in the fire like your home did.  Like a phoenix, you will rise from the ash and be stronger than before.  This is about your survival, and not your ego. Lose the ego and pride, and focus on getting yourself whole again.

Help yourself by helping others

Lastly, if you can, help someone else.  Volunteer. Go find resources.  Keep yourself busy and productive each day so you don’t wallow in self-pity.  What happened to you is a terrible tragedy, but you can’t let it keep you down, or they have won.  It’s a struggle but you will make it.  Be thankful you’re alive.  All that stuff you lost is just that.  It’s just stuff.  Your life and your family are way more important.

Remember you aren’t starting from scratch.  You’ve already been where you were, so it will be easier to get there this time, and you will find yourself in a better place, because you know what you want and what to discard.

Save your land

And do not sell your land for anything.  That is your land and there are people out there who would love to cheat you out of it.  Don’t let them.  It belongs to you and your family.

Stay tuned for the next vlog on surviving the Maui fire and other disasters..  This is the first in a series on surviving after a fire or disaster.  If it has helped you at all, please like and share it with others.

I want to help you survive this and avoid the mistake I and others have made.  We are survivors and fire brothers and sisters.  You’re going to make it.

For the CNN article, Click here

Be well,

Michael

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