I can't believe it's been roughly 5 months since the Lahaina fires in early August of 2023 and everyone is still just trying to take it in. There's been just so much devastation and loss. I talked about this awhile back. There were some silver linings with Maria Lanakila Church in the last message I did, which is beautiful.
Wood Frame vs. Concrete Construction
Today, I'm going to talk about something that's a little bit close to home. This is reminder of things that can stand over time, which is construction. You hear about the story of the "Big Bad Wolf" and the different construction materials. A lot of Lahaina Town was built with wood framed construction. There's not a lot that has survived. Some of the oceanfront condos such as Lahaina Shores (and Lahaina Roads) that were concrete made it.
Noah's Ark on Front Street
However, one thing I want to talk about today is back in the early 80's when I first moved to Maui. My Grandma and her husband at the time, Peter Knight built a spec house along Front Street. We always joked about it. We used to call it "Noah's Ark" because it literally looked like Noah's Ark. We also had another nickname for it, which was "The James Bond House" because it was really cool at the time and we were little kids. We weren't used to seeing anything like this. It had surveillance cameras, a wine cellar and a home cinema/movie theater. It was just really cool and something different.
"Noah's Ark" Seen from Front Street
It was definitely "out of the box" for its time. It was a funky house. It wasn't for everyone, but it was built out of concrete. Everything I'm sure is toasted on the interior, but the shell of it still remains. The irony here is us calling it Noah's Ark over all those years ago. You know, Noah surviving the flood (in the Bible) and now this structure here on Front Street survived the Lahaina fires.
Once again, there's not a real good takeaway. From a memory standpoint, most of what I knew as a kid in Lahaina is gone and it's nice to see one thing that is still standing. My sister was able to get into Lahaina with a friend, who has property there and got a few photos.
Our Old Home after Fire
Puamana Nui after Lahaina Fire
Remnants of 221 Puapihi St. and Tennis Court Next Door
Our old house in Puamana Nui is completely gone. The tennis courts are still there, but all throughout front street it just looks like a war zone. I'm sure everyone has been seeing it over the news the last 5 months now. A lot of commercial property is completely gone. 505 Front Street was a waterfront commercial property with a lot of great restaurants and memories in that place. Huey Lewis had a restaurant there back in the day as well.
There's a lot of history in Lahaina and I know everyone is working to rebuild and it's going to be a long haul ahead. My heart goes out to all the fire fighters. I've got friends that are firefighters there on the island and I just couldn't imagine what they went through... Wishing everyone an awesome 2024!