COLORADO SPRINGS — A Colorado Springs couple was in Maui on vacation when the wildfires started, and today they're grateful they survived.
They’re also keeping the Maui community close to their heart, as they face a long road to recovery ahead. It’s the same community that helped them evacuate the state during the devastation, despite many in the community losing everything.
Katie Unger was vacationing with her husband for four days, and then the fires began. She shared photos and videos of those few days, and the night before the fires started. That Monday night, she was at a cafe in Lahaina, as a musician was playing guitar.
“The few days before the fires were amazing, like these are the most loving people even to tourists like ourselves,” said Unger. “We would walk up and down the downtown area and enjoying making friends.”
No one expected what would happen less than 12 hours later on Tuesday.
“It was just a lot of happiness before everything, and then to see it kind of go all up in flames, really quickly. It's just a lot,” said Unger, who added everything is still heavy right now.
Unger and her husband woke up to no power on Tuesday morning, so they drove to other parts of the island to see if other areas had power and to find a bite to eat. She said they passed two grocery stores with very long lines. The two started heading back to Lahaina about an hour later and began seeing smoke around that time.
“We saw the power lines, wind was knocking over power lines, power lines were swinging, trees were getting knocked over,” said Unger. “We just thought it was going to be windy. We didn’t think about fires.”
The couple tried to drive back to their hotel in Lahaina to figure out what was happening. They saw police stopping people and preventing them from going into the smoke. The couple then turned around.
“We didn't get any sirens, no notifications on the phone, no warnings,” said Unger. “There was nothing. We were just waiting to see what all the smoke was about and talking to other people trying to figure out what was going on."
That afternoon, they eventually evacuated and found safety at a nearby harbor. Unger described the wind, saying it was blowing so strong, their ears were popping. Once at the harbor, they had barely any food, one bottle filled with water, and the swimsuits and towels they left their hotel with.
They watched everything burn on the island around them, and saw people coming out of the smoke with burn injuries.
“It’s hard because you want to help you feel so helpless,” said Unger. “There was a a guy that we saw and he was on a dirt bike, and he had burns all over his body and cuts and scrapes. We saw a guy grab two kids because they were exhausted and running away from the fire delirious.”
Unger and her husband flew back to Colorado less than 48 hours after the fires started. She said today, she’s thankful for the Maui community, because they stayed to help her and many others.
“They're still working in the airports to get people out of there. They're still working, making sure people have water and food,” said Unger. “You look at them and they're helping you and it's like, you can't tell that anything is wrong. But these are the same people that are trying to figure out if their family is okay or if they have last lost loved ones.”
Unger has seen photos and videos of the devastation since last week. She said all she can think about now, is the community coming together to help one another out.
“Some of them experienced trauma, so much trauma, and they don't they don't even show it. They just go about their day, they’re thankful to be alive, and they're helping all the people around them. It's such a great community,” said Unger. “I can’t wait for them to get past all of this.”
News5 interviewed Unger via Zoom, because she is visiting family out of state.
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