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Speaker 1: Hello, Tommy, are you there?

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Speaker 2: Hello? Hello, Oh my god, there you are.

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Speaker 1: Hey, our own Tommy de Dario is in Maui right now.

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Speaker 1: And how far away from Lehina are you? And are

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Speaker 1: you okay?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we're okay. Thank you for asking. We're about

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Speaker 2: thirty forty minutes from Leahina, which, as you know, is

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Speaker 2: ground zero. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And it's gone. I mean they're saying it's it's down,

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Speaker 1: it's gone, right, I mean is that an exaggeration or

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Speaker 1: is it gone?

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Speaker 2: No? No, the entire town is completely wiped out, and

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Speaker 2: it's it's just so sad because you know, obviously a

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Speaker 2: lot of people know Leahina town because Taurus love it.

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Speaker 2: But it's so much more than that. This is this

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Speaker 2: was the original capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom. The locals

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Speaker 2: cherish this town. It's a place that has so much history.

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Speaker 2: It's a place that has generational stores and shops that

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Speaker 2: are just so important to the community here, and everything

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Speaker 2: is gone. It's it's just so alarming. There's never been

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Speaker 2: a fire like this out here, right.

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Speaker 1: And of course, other there are other areas like up

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Speaker 1: up like elevation wise, I mean, there are other areas

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Speaker 1: that have been devastated about this fire as well.

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Speaker 2: Right, yeah, yeah, you know, as of right now here

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Speaker 2: it is what time is it about one am? There

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Speaker 2: are three acts of wildfires still burning on Maui. The

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Speaker 2: conditions have improved weather wise, but the fires have not

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Speaker 2: been contained. So this has been going on now for

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Speaker 2: quite some time. GEO and I were at a restaurant,

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Speaker 2: I guess now two nights ago, having dinner, and we

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Speaker 2: saw the fires in the mountains and we just kind

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Speaker 2: of thought, Okay, it's not uncommon out here in the

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Speaker 2: mountains to have these fires. They're going to probably just

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Speaker 2: be staying up there. And then overnight they swept down

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Speaker 2: and uh, you know, we woke up to the news

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Speaker 2: that thirty six people have died now and that's that's

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Speaker 2: at least thirty six.

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Speaker 1: Wow, that is frightening. A little backstory, Uh, Tommy, his

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Speaker 1: husband Geo. They went to Malay on vacation last week. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: of course, not knowing any of this was going to unfold,

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Speaker 1: and then their trip, their beautiful, beautiful male vacation turned

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Speaker 1: into a very very very frightening situation. Now Geo, of course,

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Speaker 1: good Morning America, ABC News on the ground, so he's

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Speaker 1: reporting from I mean as close to Lahina as he

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Speaker 1: can get right, So you have to say, okay, Geo,

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Speaker 1: be careful, get home safe. So is he there now

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Speaker 1: as we speak or is he is he resting?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Right now, he's out there. And we actually drove

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Speaker 2: out yesterday. I went with him. You can't get into

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Speaker 2: the town, but we were right outside of the town

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Speaker 2: and we met some locals who were displaced, and God,

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Speaker 2: the stories we were hearing. Ell this, I mean, it's

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Speaker 2: devastating what they're going through, losing their homes, being separated

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Speaker 2: from their partners, not knowing if they're safe. We met

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Speaker 2: this one guy, Steve, who was in his home when

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Speaker 2: the fires surrounded him. He actually had a hose on

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Speaker 2: property and tried to fight off the fire himself to

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Speaker 2: salvage whatever he could salvage, and then it just got

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Speaker 2: so dangerous he had to leave. But his car got

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Speaker 2: engulfed in the flames. So a random woman who he

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Speaker 2: doesn't even know, said, take my car. I have a

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Speaker 2: second one. I don't care where you take it, just go, go, go, go,

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Speaker 2: And he went and took his car, and we were

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Speaker 2: talking to him, and he used our phone to try

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Speaker 2: to call his wife, who he still can't reach. Oh

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Speaker 2: my god. So when people are saying go, where are

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Speaker 2: they going? Because this thing is moving so fast, we

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Speaker 2: saw that people are having to jump into the harbor

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Speaker 2: to get away from it. Where's the escape? Yeah, so

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Speaker 2: Lehina has one way in and one way out, so

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Speaker 2: you just had in their windy roads, so you just

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Speaker 2: have to get out and reach safety, which is kind

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Speaker 2: of down the mountain. And they're hanging out in parking lots.

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Speaker 2: I mean, they're they're going to some shelters if they

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Speaker 2: need food or care, but they're just trying to get

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Speaker 2: as far away from that town as they can get

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Speaker 2: and who knows when they can get back in. But

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Speaker 2: nothing's there, Nothing is there. It is so devastating, and

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Speaker 2: I don't think people truly understand the magnitude of this

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Speaker 2: because sadly, we see fires popping up all the time

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Speaker 2: now and we can never get desensitized to it. But

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Speaker 2: these people need help. They've lost everything. That's my question.

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Speaker 2: Have they set up like a phone number or website

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Speaker 2: someplace that people can donate to help. Yeah, absolutely, so

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Speaker 2: there's a site because when things like this happen, unfortunately,

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Speaker 2: you never really know where to go. And there's a

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Speaker 2: lot of scam sites that pop up. So there's a

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Speaker 2: website called Maui Rapid Response dot org. Geon and I

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Speaker 2: have a friend here on island who is leading the

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Speaker 2: emergency volunteer effort himself. So the site has a few

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Speaker 2: foundations that you can donate to to truly get the

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Speaker 2: money into the people's hands that need it. And like

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Speaker 2: I said, they need it. I mean, the people we've

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Speaker 2: spoken to said, Maui will never be the same like

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Speaker 2: it's so said Islent, it just won't be.

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Speaker 1: By the way, if you need to link over, you

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Speaker 1: may be driving right now. I can't remember the site

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Speaker 1: that Tommy just described. If you want to find that

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Speaker 1: link to donate, it's already on our Instagram at Elvis

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Speaker 1: Durand Show. Oh it's on the story the Elvis durn

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Speaker 1: Show story on Instagram. You can link over. It's right there,

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Speaker 1: the same one that Tommy just mentioned. And you know what,

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Speaker 1: you know, the history behind Leahina, the history behind all

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Speaker 1: of Hawaii is just so rich and so fascinating. But

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Speaker 1: that is, as you said, the epicenter of the history

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Speaker 1: and so many different stories, the folklore even right there Lehina.

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Speaker 1: Are you familiar with the Heina. Are you there's like

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Speaker 1: an old, old tree in the It's a storied, famous

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Speaker 1: tree right in the middle of Lahina in the town.

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Speaker 1: Are you familiar with that, the Banyan tree, the Banyan tree, right,

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Speaker 1: I wonder, well, I wonder if it's still there.

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Speaker 2: It's said to be gone. I haven't seen that. I

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Speaker 2: can't confirm a one hundred percent, but it is said

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Speaker 2: to be gone. And even something as simple as a tree,

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Speaker 2: you might be thinking as you hear this, it meant

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Speaker 2: so much to the people there. It's historic, it's been

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Speaker 2: there for ever, and even that's wiped down. In fact,

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Speaker 2: the gentleman Steve who we were speaking to yesterday, said,

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Speaker 2: when he sees that tree gone, that's going to be

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Speaker 2: the moment when he just loses it because it feels

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Speaker 2: like a piece of his heart is gone. The culture

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Speaker 2: is gone. I mean, it's just it's it's devastating and

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Speaker 2: and it's and to give you an idea of how

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Speaker 2: powerful this is, we're about thirty minutes outside of Leahina.

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Speaker 2: Our entire resort smells like it's burning. Right. There's no

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Speaker 2: smoke here, but you walk outside and it just smells

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Speaker 2: like everything is on fire. It is so eerie.

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Speaker 1: Gosh. I have so many memories when I was much

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Speaker 1: younger going to Lahina, like David Paul's Leahina Grill that

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Speaker 1: was that was like the hip place everyone used to

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Speaker 1: go to, and then just everything else and the people

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Speaker 1: there were just so fascinating and so beautiful and well, look,

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Speaker 1: so what about you, Tommy, what about you?

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Speaker 2: And g O?

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Speaker 1: Are are you going to be able to come back

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Speaker 1: to the state or the connin of the United States

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Speaker 1: anytime soon? Are you there for a while? What's your story?

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Speaker 2: Uh? Well, you know, there's a lot of displaced people. People.

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Speaker 2: It's very important for me to say, do not come

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Speaker 2: to Maui. They don't want you here right now. If

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Speaker 2: it's non essential travel, do not come here. It's only

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Speaker 2: going to make everyone's jobs here that much harder and

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Speaker 2: worse as they try to recover and rebuild. So for

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Speaker 2: right now, stay put. If you have a flight, do

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Speaker 2: not come. They're trying to get tourists out as fast

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Speaker 2: as they can. We're going to be staying around for

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Speaker 2: a couple of days. Geo's going to actually be anchoring

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Speaker 2: Good Morning America from on the ground out here on

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Speaker 2: Saturday and Sunday. I'm going to stay. I want to

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Speaker 2: get involved in the community a little bit and hopefully

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Speaker 2: we'll get back Sunday. But it's it's it's it's scary.

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Speaker 2: I mean, there's another way to put it. It's just frightening.

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Speaker 2: And the people they need our help. And I can't

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Speaker 2: stress to you enough, even though they're going through so much,

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Speaker 2: their spirit there really is something to be said about

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Speaker 2: the spirit of aloha. They have it. It's beautiful and

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Speaker 2: no matter what they're going through, they still have smiles

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Speaker 2: on their faces and want to help each other out,

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Speaker 2: which is amazing. Wow.

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Speaker 1: So if you're there with the island of Hawaii there

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Speaker 1: line is a sort of western you can actually go

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Speaker 1: even further where Kapalua is located. And of course the airport.

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Speaker 1: Is that airport even operating right now? I don't even

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the airport, it is operating, okay, good, Like they

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Speaker 2: want people out, so they're adding flights actually and really

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Speaker 2: trying to pack them in because they just need to

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Speaker 2: get everybody out. And you have to remember when tourists

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Speaker 2: flew here, the fires started and they couldn't even leave

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Speaker 2: the airport. So I think there was something like fifteen

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Speaker 2: hundred and nineteen hundred people just kind of in the

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Speaker 2: airport waiting, displaced to see what's going on. I mean,

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Speaker 2: we've heard people yesterday at our resort coming here seeking

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Speaker 2: shelter from the west side where Lahaina is, just to

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Speaker 2: get away. So it's I mean, it's chaos. It's chaos everywhere.

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Speaker 2: You know. There's obviously a lot of kids on island.

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Speaker 2: They're scared, but we're all just doing the best we can.

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Speaker 1: What do you need from us? I mean, I will

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Speaker 1: once again say if you go to Instagram our at

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Speaker 1: Elvis Durin show on our story right now is a

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Speaker 1: way to link over to donate. But is there anything

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Speaker 1: else we can do for you or for anyone else there?

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Speaker 2: Thank you? I'm fine, listen, It's about the locals, not me.

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Speaker 2: We're just happy that we can hopefully be here and

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Speaker 2: help in any small way that we can. And I

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Speaker 2: think sharing the link is the most important thing. Maui

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Speaker 2: Rapid Response dot org. There's a couple of things, a

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Speaker 2: couple donation sites linked on that. It's really important. People

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Speaker 2: need everything. People lost everything, houses, cars, Some have lost

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Speaker 2: their family members, so they are they're starting from the

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Speaker 2: ground up now and they need our help. And when

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Speaker 2: you see it this closely, it forever changes you. It

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Speaker 2: really does. You're not just watching it on TV. You're

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Speaker 2: here experiencing it and it's devastating.

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Speaker 1: Well, Tommy, thank you so much, and we're so proud

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Speaker 1: to have you in our family as one of our

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Speaker 1: own and being able to not only give us the

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Speaker 1: facts but also give us the emotion that is so

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Speaker 1: important with a story like this. Geo, our love and

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Speaker 1: you guys, be safe. But if you think of anything

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Speaker 1: you may need, you will not hesitate to get in

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Speaker 1: touch with us. Do you understand me.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you. You know I love you. Guys.

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Speaker 1: We love you too, Tommy. We can't wait to see

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Speaker 1: you safe and sound and like right here, we're here

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Speaker 1: all day, so let us know if you need anything. Okay,

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Speaker 1: all right, thank you, Tommy. To Dariel, be safe. There

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Speaker 1: you go from Lehina again if you go to at

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Speaker 1: Elvis Duran show on Instagram on our story right there

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Speaker 1: the link to donate