COLORADO SPRINGS — A member from the Colorado Red Cross chapter will soon be on their way to help assist those affected by the destructive and deadly wildfires tearing across the Hawaiian island of Maui.
The Hawaii tourism authority and the Red Cross opened up a convention center Thursday for people who are displaced from the Maui wildfires can find shelter there as well as water and food.
Friday, Lee Meyer, a volunteer with the American Red Cross of Colorado southeastern chapter will be deploying to Hawaii with other American Red Cross Volunteers from across Colorado.
"It's really severe fire and it's compounded by the fact that it's on an island so you know it makes it much more difficult where you can't just put people on a bus and move them across the state line," said Meyer.
Crews will be stations to provide support and recovery assistance for those who have been affected by wildfires.
According to our national news partners, at least 53 people have been reported dead amid the fires. The rapidly developing fires tore across the island of Maui Tuesday afternoon, fueled by dry conditions and strong winds quickly left a path of devastation.
Hundreds of buildings on Maui have been lost including a majority of the structures in the historic city of Lahaina, once the historic capital city of Hawaii. Thousands of people have been left without knowing if their homes are still standing.
According to our Denver News Partners, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told CNN the Maui Fires reminded her of the of the 2021 Marshall Fire in Boulder.
"It reminds me very much of the fire that we saw in Boulder, Colorado at the end of 2021, where an entire community was burned to the ground, spread by excessive winds like we're seeing from this fire," said Criswell. "I think what we now see and the challenges that we're going to face is that it's, you know, limited our ability to where we can put people because it is isolated as an island. And so we're going to work closely with the state to understand what resources they need, and what types of creative solutions we're going to have to bring in to help this community in the interim recovery, but more importantly, in their long-term recovery."
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Multiple organizations have set up relief funds or fundraising campaigns to get resources directly to the Hawaiian communities affected by the wildfires.
Local to Hawaii, the governor's office has directed those willing to donate to the Hawaii Community Foundation, which has set up the Maui Strong Fund to "provide flexible, quickly deployed resources" to residents. Aloha United Way, a Honolulu-based nonprofit, also has a Maui Relief Fund with direct links to fire victims.
New Life Kahuku set up the Aid Lahaina fund to help supply resources like food to residents.
Besides funds, locals can drop physical donations to the Maui Food Bank, and the Maui Mutual Aid Fund has been creating "needs lists" of item donations it will give to survivors.
Larger organizations are also laying out ways to donate.
The American Red Cross is accepting donations through its Disaster Relief Fund on its website or by calling its hotline, 1-800-RED-CROSS, as is The Salvation Army on its Hawaii website.
GlobalGiving set up a Hawaii Wildfire Relief Fund to first help first responders meet the needs of survivors, then it will give the donations to longer-term recovery efforts.
In response to the devastating wildfires affecting Maui, the Scripps Howard Fund has established the Scripps Maui Wildfire Relief Campaign as a way to support local grassroots nonprofits who provide direct assistance to those affected by the fires.
You can donate by visiting this website, scanning the QR code above or texting "Maui" to 50155.
Scripps News Staff and Denver 7 contributed to certain parts of this article.
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