Last Wednesday, a day after the wildfires, the county asked visitors to leave Lahaina and the island as a whole as soon as possible.
Officials soon urged people to avoid the island entirely, except for essential travel. “In the days and weeks ahead, our collective resources and attention must be focused on the recovery of residents and communities that were forced to evacuate,” the Hawaii Tourism Authority said.
Many travellers heeded the advice. In the immediate aftermath of the fires, some 46,000 people left the island.
But thousands did not. Some ignored requests to leave Maui immediately, while others flew in after the fire - decisions that have angered some.
“If this was happening to your hometown, would you want us to come?” said resident Chuck Enomoto. “We need to take care of our own first.”
I used to live in Hollywood, CA. Tourists are the worst. They think they own everything, they happily push you off the sidewalk so they can take a selfie, and they leave trash everywhere. Hollywood sucks anyway, but they make it so much worse.
I’m in San Diego. Yeah they are. The ones in LA are typically a little different, but as much as I love summertime, the “Zonie” plague, and the rest of the “hot states” gets REALLY old.