'Looks like a war zone': Couple from Maui devastated after wildfire burns their shop down
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Wildfires fueled by strong winds from Hurricane Dora caused massive damage in Hawaii over the past couple days -- including historic buildings burned, dozens of people killed and countless others reported missing.
"It looks like a war zone," said Jeannette Lucero, who traveled to Wisconsin last week from Maui, Hawaii, for a wedding. "We had heard that this got burnt down, this neighborhood got burnt down, the apartment across the street got burnt down...we still, we still believed that it could still be standing."
Lucero never thought she'd return to her hometown covered in ashes.
"Given the limited amount of emergency personnel available to the island at the rate that the wildfire spread, they weren't able to keep up with it and at that point they had to make the decision to save life over buildings," she explained.
Lucero's boyfriend Maui McMillin is safe, but his popular, colorful shop known as "Maui Mike's Beach House" that's attracted people from all over the world for the past 11 years, has fallen victim to the wildfires.
"That really is everything I am, is my business and the families I'm connected to," McMillin said with tears in his eyes.
McMillin told CBS 58 on Thursday that it's scary to think about the future.
"Well, I've got a 16-year-old daughter and, you know, we're putting her through school, and she's got some health problems, and you know, I just have no income, I have no business, I have nothing," he said.
But McMillin knows the current struggle is temporary and better days are ahead.
"We're very resilient, it's going to be very hard to get rid of us, you know?" he chuckled. "We're going to make it work."
The couple said their "plan B" is start up a food truck -- a backup idea they had when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. They told CBS 58 News they acknowledge rebuilding everything will take time but they are hopeful.