After Maui fires, tendrils of hope amid loss. A reporter reflects.
In the immediate aftermath of the West Maui fires this month, much of the focus from outside was on devastation and blame. On the ground in Lahaina, our writer found evidence of agency and cooperation.
Sarah Matusek was struck by the act of generosity.
The Monitor writer had been offered fresh water as she walked through a decimated neighborhood in Lahaina, West Maui, by a man who had stayed behind to help others after the fires there. He was tending to the doves of a neighbor whose home was gone.
The logistics of reporting were predictably tough. But at nearly every turn Sarah was moved by the Hawaiian spirit of aloha, she says on the Monitor’s “Why We Wrote This” podcast.
“We know it as a greeting,” she says, “but it’s also a spirit of compassion and of respect. And I tried to demonstrate that in my interactions with the people I was interviewing.”
Her work called for balancing feelings of personal empathy with the brisk urgency of deadlines. Sarah also found hope, and a metaphor, in the story of Lahaina’s Waiola Church. Established in the 1820s, it burned in the Aug. 8 fire. But it also has a history of coming back from disasters.
“That’s not to minimize the grief or the challenge of rebuilding,” Sarah says, “but just to say that this church and this larger community has a record of transformation and of renewal.
“Lahaina has a long history,” Sarah adds. “And the neighbors that I met there are hopeful about its recovery. They want to be included in recovery.”
Episode transcript
Sarah Matusek: You know, reporting on generosity is no less important, even if it does become routine. In my view, it becomes all the more extraordinary that we can rely on those acts of human compassion in the midst of such intense grief.
Clay Collins: That’s the Monitor’s Sarah Matusek.
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Collins: When really difficult news breaks, news like August’s devastating fires on Hawaii’s island of Maui, one challenge for media outlets, beyond all of the logistics, is to be both responsive and responsible. The Monitor’s frontline reporter on Maui, Sarah traveled there from her Denver base. Her latest story, one on Lahaina, is a sweeping look at that cultural center’s transformations throughout history – and the one it faces next. It was written with reporting from Hawaii-based journalist Jack Kiyonaga, and it ran earlier this week, a week during which investigation of the August 8th fires continues.
This is “Why We Wrote This.” I’m Clay Collins, and Sarah joins me today. Welcome back to the podcast, Sarah.
Matusek: Hi, Clay. Good to be here.
Collins: Reporting from a place where there’s loss of life and property is of course such a delicate exercise. Before you went in, how did you prepare to present yourself as someone other than an intruder?
Matusek: Right. I got an assignment on a Thursday afternoon, and flew out first thing Friday morning to Hawaii. It can be challenging, you’re right, to jump in quickly and wanna do a good job as a journalist. And ahead of time, I made sure to reach out to Monitor colleagues who had some previous experience reporting in Hawaii, as well as locals there who I knew, even from friends of friends, just to understand what I could get wrong. And that included understanding the use of the word “Hawaiian.” In the state, the term “Hawaiian” is, you know, primarily used to talk about Native Hawaiians, not necessarily a good description for everyone residing there. Or even something as simple as saying that I’m “on” Maui, as opposed to “in” Maui, because Maui is an island. You know, those little details, I was told, could go a very long way, even though they’re small.
And of course, I’m continuing to read local news reporting once I land, and reach out to experts for more historical context. I also was really moved by the Hawaiian spirit of aloha. We know it as a greeting, but it’s also a spirit of compassion and of respect. And I tried to demonstrate that in my interactions with the people I was interviewing.
Collins: It sounds as though all that preparation paid off. In any way, did it fall short?
Matusek: I ran into a lot of access issues that are typical, I think, for disaster zones. I would call a local law enforcement department and announce that I was a journalist calling. And it sounded like someone hung up on me. There were also physical challenges to accessing the site. So Lahaina is a coastal, historic town right on the water in West Maui. And the worst wreckage of the August 8th fire happened closest to the water’s edge, in the downtown area and some of the neighborhoods next to it. And that area was really closely cordoned off to press. Even though some press had gotten there in the early days right after the fire, it was still an extremely dangerous situation to go to, and also would interfere with first responders, right? In fact, [at] the press conference I attended once I arrived, the Maui Police chief essentially accused journalists who were reporting in that area of trampling on human remains that they were still trying to uncover.
And, how do I stay clear of aggravating any of the grief and safety issues. And so for that, I chose to spend as much time as possible with residents of Maui, but beyond that area of worst wreckage.
Collins: Right. The first story you wrote, of five, including some short columns, was about people helping people. And that’s such an important early angle in stories like this, and it’s one that others beside the Monitor take too. How did you keep in mind what we think of as “Monitor differentiation,” and the values lens that we use to get at what stories are truly about?
Matusek: You know, reporting on generosity is no less important, even if it does become routine. In my view, it becomes all the more extraordinary that we can rely on those acts of human compassion in the midst of such intense grief.
I saw a lot of neighbors helping neighbors. I actually caught a ride on a boat from Kihei, Hawaii, which is south of Lahaina. And was able to see how a local boating company, a local excursion company, was coordinating a lot of donated supplies, including from one family of tourists I met, who have since left the island but had paused their vacation to help. And, you know, you make three points of contact in the boat and hold on, and you ride up the coast. And we stayed on the boat while the volunteers there basically handed off these huge trash bags of canned goods and baby formula and tarps to people who had been impacted by the wildfire and were still staying in the area. And it was an incredible experience. No one had to spend their day chartering goods back and forth between these areas, but they cared so deeply about their fellow Maui folks.
I actually met one source in Lahaina as I was walking through his neighborhood, because I remember him calling out to me asking if I wanted a fresh bottle of water. This is a neighborhood where houses were mostly intact, but there were still downed power lines kind of eerily, crisscrossing the streets, and there were sections of the neighborhood that were totally burned down. And so I turned to look who was talking to me. And this man came out of his mint-green house, and smiling very sweetly, just offered me, a total stranger, water. And coming up his driveway, I see that he [had] stockpiled his garage with just heaps of goods that his neighbors might need. You know, He had stayed back to help his neighbors, even though the situation was still grim. The air was still of terrible quality. He even was feeding doves at the end of his driveway. And those were doves, he told me, that his neighbor used to feed across the street. But now, if you stand in his driveway and look across the street at that neighbor’s house, that’s just a gaping hole now. And so it was so easy for me to report on generosity because I was on the receiving end of that.
Collins: So Sarah, how did you manage your feelings of, and expressions of, personal empathy and urgency? You know, you obviously felt pressed to get what you needed on deadline.
Matusek: Right. I think the most important part of my preparation ahead of reporting is understanding that the people I’m talking to are going through an incredibly difficult time. It was important for me to never let someone feel like they had to do an interview. I try to remember to let my sources know, if they do agree to an interview, that if there’s something they don’t want to talk about, that’s totally fine too.
I also, at the end of the day, want to make sure that I’m checking in with my own emotions. Feelings of sadness or being overwhelmed sometimes, those can be normal parts of the reporting process, and that’s OK to acknowledge and deal with. Sometimes that’s journaling, sometimes that’s walking on the beach, or calling my partner. But you know, we’re humans first and reporter second.
Collins: Right. I wonder, did you find issues of blame surfacing at all, directed at the public utility, or evacuation planners, or even to climate change and its presumed role? And if so, how did you balance the sides if you encountered those?
Matusek: I think that most of the narratives or debate of blame that I’ve encountered have primarily been written in news stories and not necessarily what the people I’ve been interviewing want to talk about first. People on the ground who have been impacted by wildfire, when I was there, were thinking about where they’re gonna sleep, right? Or whether they had cell phone reception. And for some of them, where are their missing family members?
I got a sense that discussions of blame really didn’t seem appropriate to them at that time. You know, it’s, I think, pretty normal to not understand the cause immediately after the event, right? I’m speaking to you now, during a time when an investigation, with multiple partners from local to federal levels, are still looking into the cause of multiple wildfires that were ignited. So it’s really complicated, and until we have all the facts, it’s really hard for me to want to feature that narrative, that would crowd out the voices of the actual survivors.
Collins: Right, right. Another inevitable and critical angle is going to be building back better. And those questions, of course, are also coming up now. You know, will there be a land grab by outsiders? Will Native Hawaiians be cut out? What does what you saw on Maui suggest about the prospect for recovery there, and for agency on the part of people who are there? And just, basically, what else would you want people to know about the island and its people?
Matusek: I think one metaphor to look at would be the Waiola Church in Lahaina, which was established originally in the 1820s by a Native Hawaiian queen. It burned down in the August 8th fire, but it also has a history of renewal and renovation. This church has survived previous fires, previous disasters, and has been rebuilt each time. And that’s not to minimize the grief or the challenge of rebuilding, but just to say that this church and this larger community has a track record of transformation and of renewal.
Lahaina has a long history. And the neighbors that I met there are hopeful about its recovery. They want to be included in recovery. They don’t want just another high priced tourist destination that makes it more uncomfortable for them to stay. The governor, Josh Green, has appealed to tourists to continue considering tourism in Hawaii and on Maui, just not West Maui, where the destruction was. But at the same time, locals are a bit uneasy about tourism right now, understandably, during such a difficult time. So I think for anyone who is still considering traveling to Hawaii, you know, go with that spirit of aloha, as locals will tell you, with that spirit of respect. Do your homework ahead of time, and talk to people you know there before you go.
Collins: Hmm. Thanks so much, Sarah, for your work from Maui and for all of your careful Monitor reporting and writing.
Matusek: Thanks for the chat, Clay. Glad to be here.
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Collins: Thanks for listening! Find our show notes, with links to Sarah’s stories including this week’s on Lahaina’s transformations, at CSMonitor.com/WhyWeWroteThis. This episode was hosted by me, Clay Collins, and produced by Jingnan Peng and Mackenzie Farkus. Our sound engineers were Tim Malone and Alyssa Britton. Original music is by Noel Flatt. Produced by The Christian Science Monitor. Copyright 2023.
