on August 8. Ninety-seven people have died to date, and 2,403 residential housing units were destroyed, not to mention all of the businesses and historical landmarks in Lahaina. And now, on top of this enormous and unimaginable amount of collective grief, the island is facing an additional crisis: an economic crash.
“For the first two weeks after the fires, all life kind of just stopped, and there was this grace period where the entire island was focused on: How do we take care of? We were in emergency response mode,” explains Kainoa Horcajo, a Native Hawaiian cultural consultant and volunteer atThis is going to be really dangerous.”
It’s a world that has left many locals, especially business owners on other parts of the island, struggling to stay afloat. Garrett Marrero, CEO and co-founder of, Hawai‘i’s largest craft brewery, says that his beer business, which had one location in Lahaina and two in other parts of the island, has been severely impacted by the lack of tourists—and he wants to encourage people to come visit to help boost the economy.