ATLANTA — So far, 93 people are dead after what's been deemed the most fatal wildfire in modern history devastated the Hawaiian island of Maui.
Crews are surveying the aftermath and Hawai'i officials are urging tourists to avoid traveling to West Maui as hotels prepare to house evacuees and first responders. The state is also working with AirBnB to make sure that rental homes can be made available for locals.
It's become clear that the historic city of Lahaina will have to rise from the ashes with some of its legacy lost to the flames.
Raleigh Williams, an insurance agent based in McDonough, said it's a stark contrast to the island he just visited. He said Maui is one of the most beautiful islands and it's tragic that as the economy was just bouncing back from the pandemic that it's faced with more hardship.
"There was a tropical storm that went through there a couple weeks prior to us going," he said.
Williams visited with some family for a week-long vacation that he said, miraculously, they changed the departure date for. His family missed the wildfires by a few days.
McDonough man describes leaving Hawaii just before fires began | Photos
"If we hadn't changed our schedule, we would have been dead in the middle of that," he said.
He said it was heartbreaking to see some of the most well-known landmarks ruined by the flames.
"Lahaina is a very old town; a lot of history there," he said. "One of the oldest hotels there burned."
Williams described one of the last photos he took before his flight: a banyan tree that had been there since 1873.
"Well it's not gone, but it did catch on fire," he said, adding that he hopes the roots are still alive and can bring back that small piece of history. "What you're seeing in those pictures of all that devastation looks like a war zone."
Maui wildfires, evacuations | PHOTOS
The McDonough man said as the wildfires have been put out he wants to get on a plane and go back to help. Friends he's made on the island have set up a site to help cook for the community and hopefully work to rebuild as thousands of jobs are gone and even more homes have been left in rubble.
"Maui is just now rebounding and getting some of the restaurants back from the COVID-19, that COVID-19 situation put a bunch of them out of business," he said. "And all the time that I'm there, we're trying to find restaurants there. There are not as many now. And they would all tell me we're just now starting to get back on our feet."
Williams is encouraging people to be respectful of the rebuilding process and to help with donations, whether monetary or physical items.