Hundreds of families like the Cascos are displaced and trying to chart a new trajectory for their lives following the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history.
Val Casco looks out onto the backyard of her home, destroyed in the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires in Lahaina, Hawaii, on Aug. 24, 2023. Photo for The Washington Post by Tamir Kalifa.Casey, one of her sons, searched for her aunt’s urn. Another son, Eric, scavenged for Val’s jewelry - finding a tiny box that held only soot, his mother’s wedding ring vaporized. The grandchildren yelled for Val’s cats, to no response.
Val Casco and her grandsons Hawea Casco and Hanuola Casco stand at the entrance to her home, which was destroyed in the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires in Lahaina, Hawaii, on Aug. 24, 2023. Photo for The Washington Post by Tamir Kalifa. The nearly manic rush of adrenaline that first propelled the survivors forward has begun to dissipate. Now comes something arguably worse: reckoning with the burdens they face in the long, complicated journey toward recovery.Val Casco, whose home in Lahaina, Hawaii, was destroyed in the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires there, hugs her grandson Hawea Casco on Aug. 23, 2023, at her brother-in-law's home north of Lahaina that became a refuge for members of the Casco family displaced by the fires.
Ryan, 45, FaceTimed in. “I think I found a two-bedroom, two-bathroom. It’s in our budget range,” he told Val. It didn’t last long. The wind tore off that roof, too, sending the family scrambling. They spent the night in their cars. But within a few days, the home began bursting with donations. There was more cereal, granola and Spam than they knew what to do with. “I have a year’s worth of toilet paper, but nowhere to live,” she laughed.With an excess to share, the Cascos began holding dinners in the front yard every evening. Neighbors, friends and anyone passing by were invited to a plate.
“One size does not fit all,” Val joked to the gathered women about the mounds of donated clothes she’d received. “And I’m not going to wear printed tights. Just because I lost everything doesn’t mean I have to wear whatever people give me.” Kali was a year ahead of her “and was a popular jock,” Val laughed. “And I was just a simple, homely kind of girl.” They became friends until he left for college in California. “He would send me letters, and always end it with, ‘love, always,’ and my mom was like, ‘Hey, this boy likes you.’” The love letters continued after she graduated and left for college in Oahu. She kept every single one. Those, too, were lost to the fire.
Every task felt enormous. Val had been wearing the same set of eye contacts since before the fire - now filmy from all the tears - but the line to pick up replacements was too long. Kali’s medical appointments following his July heart surgery were all delayed and needed rescheduling. The next night marked the 11th birthday of one of Eric and Lei’s sons. They would usually spend the day at the beach, but dinner in the Napili home’s yard would suffice this year, the parents said.
Hawea, her 9-year-old who had spent the majority of the party sitting by himself, announced that he wanted to sleep. He lay down in one of the family cars, but he came running back within minutes and clutched his grandma. The wind was strong that evening and had rattled the car. “The wind, it scares them now,” Val whispered, “since their roof ripped off the night of the fire.
A few days later, the Casco family gathered again. They spent Sunday afternoon at a free concert put on for the survivors at a beachside park. The breeze was cool, the ocean sparkled, and the trees swayed. Common Kings, a band with Hawaiian roots, wooed the tired crowd, coaxing them out of their lawn chairs.
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