Travelers returning to Chicago from Maui described the devastation from the wildfires on the island.
The state is discouraging all non-essential travel to Maui, and chaotic images have come back from the airport there showing hundreds of passengers sleeping on any available surface overnight as they wait to return to the mainland.Suzie Burgin and her 80-year-old mother Susan returned to Chicago Thursday after a harrowing ride home.
"I feel so sorry for all those people who've lost their house," she said. "I mean, it's just nothing there. And their cars are just burned out and it's sad. It's very sad." "We went for a walk, turned the corner and Lahaina was just on fire," Mautino said. "I remember getting back to our place. We thought a storm was rolling in and it was all the smoke from Lahaina."Mautino and his wife arrived at O'Hare Airport early Thursday morning from Maui, some of the only passengers from the scorched island on a connecting flight from Honolulu.
Officials said that at least 36 people have died in the horrific fires, whipped up by very dry conditions and intense winds."A lot more damage than I was aware of - very devastating losses to our community," Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen Jr. "Upwards of hundreds of homes, businesses, and dwellings burned to the ground."
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