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Speaker 1: This is a kill bill one of two point seven.

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Speaker 1: It is a kiss FM. Ryan Seacrest with you. I

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Speaker 1: want to jump on with John Matthew. So. John is

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Speaker 1: at our iHeartRadio station in Honolulu, Hawaii, joining us now.

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Speaker 1: John's a program director for news radio eight thirty KHVH

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Speaker 1: and news director as well for the whole Honolulu group

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Speaker 1: of stations that we've got there. John, Good morning, and

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Speaker 1: thanks for coming on. It's Ryan here.

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Speaker 2: Helloha, Ryan, thanks for having me on.

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Speaker 1: Aloha my friend. Well, so, first of all, big hugs

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Speaker 1: to you and to everybody there. What's today look like

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Speaker 1: where you are? Just set the scene a little bit

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Speaker 1: for us. How you doing well?

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Speaker 2: Today is a beautiful day in Hawaii. But the cleanup

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Speaker 2: continues on the on the island of Maui, and the

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Speaker 2: search continues for those that are that are unaccounted for.

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Speaker 2: There are some one thousand people that still we need

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Speaker 2: to account for from that day now two weeks ago

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Speaker 2: over in Lahina, and clean up efforts will continue from

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Speaker 2: now until probably the end of the year on the island,

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Speaker 2: on the island of Maui in Mahinas as we try

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Speaker 2: to really process this tragedy. I don't know if if

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Speaker 2: we've really even processed how much the destruction has really

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Speaker 2: affected the island of Maui, it is it's almost unfathomable

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Speaker 2: that the worst fire in one hundred years of American

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Speaker 2: history happened just two weeks ago on Maui.

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Speaker 1: I just when you hear it doesn't make any sense,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's it's so remarkable, and there is such

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Speaker 1: a unique and incredible spirit and sense of family there

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Speaker 1: on those islands. I've spent time there. You guys have, well,

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Speaker 1: how are the people coming together?

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Speaker 2: What have you seen? John? It's been incredible here. The

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Speaker 2: generosity has been amazing. There are several different ways that

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Speaker 2: people that have reached out to help, whether that's been

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Speaker 2: to raising donations or sending over palettes of goods and necessities.

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Speaker 2: Supplies from other islands like here on Owahu almost immediately

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Speaker 2: supplies things like personal care items and clothing and things

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Speaker 2: like that for people that lost everything. Most of you

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Speaker 2: have seen the pictures of Lahaina. It was burned to

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Speaker 2: the ground and three point four square miles of that

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Speaker 2: town all gone, and the people that lived there. Now,

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Speaker 2: that was a town that had anywhere between I've heard

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Speaker 2: ten and twelve thousand people living there. Eighty six percent

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Speaker 2: of the buildings that burned were all homes and everything

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Speaker 2: is gone. So as we pulled together here, that was

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Speaker 2: the initial response, and now, of course fundraising efforts through

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Speaker 2: organizations like the Hawaii Red Cross and others are pulling

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Speaker 2: to their money to help the victims in any way possible,

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Speaker 2: and the generosity has been stupendous, not only from here locally,

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Speaker 2: but people around the world. As you said, a lot

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Speaker 2: of people hold Hawaii really near and dear to their hearts,

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Speaker 2: whether they've been here or not. It's a dream vacation

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Speaker 2: for some people and they've never been here, or there

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Speaker 2: have been people who have been coming for years and

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Speaker 2: years and years. But no matter what, no matter what

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Speaker 2: the circumstance has been, the state receives so much love

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Speaker 2: back from everybody and it's been an amazing thing to see.

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Speaker 1: So you mentioned the Red Cross. Also, iHeart Helps Mali

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Speaker 1: dot com as a site you can go to as

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Speaker 1: well if you want to lend a hand or just

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Speaker 1: see the different things that you can do. iHeart Helps Mali.

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Speaker 1: And this John Matthews is on from our radio's sister

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Speaker 1: station there. This is in Honolulu where he is, so

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Speaker 1: I hear you know, people would think some people would say, well,

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Speaker 1: it's not a good time to go there now with

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Speaker 1: everything that why he's dealing with. But I hear your

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Speaker 1: governor say, world for business.

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Speaker 2: Should people come, Yes, absolutely, Governor Josh Green. In fact,

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Speaker 2: when President Biden came to visit on Monday, the Governor

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Speaker 2: made a special effort to say, please come to Maui.

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Speaker 2: Maui eighty percent of its comomy is dependent upon tourism,

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Speaker 2: and this comes from a very good place. When this

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Speaker 2: tragedy first occurred, there was an initial message that went

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Speaker 2: out that said don't come to Maui, and looking back,

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Speaker 2: that was well well intentioned at the time. It has resonated,

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Speaker 2: but realized that the part of Maui that's which is

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Speaker 2: West Maui, that will be closed through mid October at

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Speaker 2: the very least. So the resorts in that area. Obviously

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Speaker 2: Lahaina is all gone, but there are other resorts that

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Speaker 2: are further up the road in an Apoli and Kapulua.

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Speaker 2: Those hotel rooms are being used to house those who

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Speaker 2: lost their homes, and it's just there's no way that

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Speaker 2: we can use those resorts for now, especially in the

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Speaker 2: light of this tragedy. But that's West Maui. Maui is

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Speaker 2: a big island, and all the resorts in South Mali

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Speaker 2: are open. Everything else is open island wide. But we've

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Speaker 2: seen a huge drop off in tourism. There were eight

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Speaker 2: thousand arrivals per day as of August first into the island.

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Speaker 2: That's dropped down to less than two thousand per day,

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Speaker 2: twenty five percent or less. That's all we have without

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Speaker 2: the tourists coming here, they're already hotels saying that prepare

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Speaker 2: for layoffs.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I would saying the message then if you're just

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Speaker 1: tuning in here. John Matthews is there in Hawaii, works

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Speaker 1: with iHeartRadio is saying hey, you will help out by coming.

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Speaker 1: You want to help out, come, come busy.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that makes sense absolutely. And when you think about

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Speaker 2: how people book travel to Hawaii, it's always I'm going

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Speaker 2: to come in a few months. If you are planning

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Speaker 2: to come next month and you're thinking, oh I shouldn't,

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Speaker 2: I'll get in the way. I'll be in this this

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Speaker 2: this area that's been devastated. It's only the one section

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Speaker 2: of Maui. It's a tragedy, but please book, yes, please come,

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Speaker 2: please come for Christmas. We need you.

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Speaker 1: And why'd you point that out? Because I think it

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Speaker 1: is something where there's mixed messaging right now. Well not

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Speaker 1: only that, I don't know if everyone myself included understands

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Speaker 1: the vastness of those islands right And like he says,

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Speaker 1: you're talking about one area of Maui and to you know,

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Speaker 1: keep other people working that have to work, that need

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Speaker 1: to work right now, come, don't wait book it, John.

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much for coming on. Much love to

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Speaker 1: you and all of our iHeart colleagues or family and

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Speaker 1: your friends there.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much, appreciate you absolutely. Ihearthelps Maui dot com.

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Speaker 2: It all goes to the Hawaii Red Cross and they've

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Speaker 2: been on the ground since the beginning of this and

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Speaker 2: they continue to do incredible work over there.

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Speaker 1: We'll be watching and we'll see you soon, I hope.

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Speaker 1: Thanks buddy. Mahalo mahalo Bye bye, John Matthews. Interesting that message.

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Speaker 1: It's not it may not be what you think. Go

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Speaker 1: book it.

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Speaker 2: Help.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Fifty minutes of NonStop kisses. Next long free guys,