College Station residents stuck minutes away from Lahaina fire return home

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – When a devastating and deadly wildfire destroyed the historic Hawaiian town of Lahaina last week, a College Station resident and his son were just three miles away.

Today, they’re grateful to be back in Texas but will never forget this trip.

What began as a vacation to celebrate his son’s graduation took a turn for Clayton and Avery Huet. After a stop in Honolulu, they headed to Ka’Anapali located just six minutes away from Lahaina.

Early last week, winds from Hurricane Dora began picking up on the island. This knocked out power at their hotel and left many without a clue what was happening down the road.

“Wednesday it was pretty much told to us that the food was running out. The generators went out, there was no cell phone signal and so we had no information. We saw some fires in the background, we could see some but we had no idea how bad it was,” Clayton said.

Wednesday night the pair heard of a bus they might be able to catch in order to get to the airport. But, the only way to and from Ka’Anapali is the main thoroughfare of Lahaina.

“As we were driving out everybody could see when we’re driving through town, the square Main Street was already burned down. So it was basically just houses on both sides that were still burning, the lines of cars up and down the road where people had tried to get out a couple of days before but couldn’t. No emergency lights, no fire trucks. Like there was nobody out there trying to do anything. It was pretty much just vacant,” he said.

Clayton and Avery were able to get a flight off the island to Honolulu. From there, it took almost two days of traveling from Hawaii to Seattle to Georgia to Austin, in order to make it back home to College Station.

While they’re grateful to be safe at home, the images of what they saw before and after the fires, won’t leave.

“It was really beautiful. In fact, the guy that was driving us up there was telling us all the history of the town and how long it had been there. The original capital of Hawaii and all the historic buildings. It was the most important city to everybody there in Maui,” he said. “There’s going to be a housing shortage for sure. There’s going to be a food shortage for sure. Now, I know they can fly a lot of that in from Honolulu, but it’s going to take boots on the ground.”

According to the American Red Cross, the fires destroyed as many as 2,200 buildings, many of which were homes. Currently, the death toll is 101 with thousands of people still searching for their loved ones. The Red Cross Hawaii Wildfire relief fund can be found here.