For some Alaskans, the connections to Hawaii and the town of Lahaina run deep.
But when wildfire ripped through the community and other parts of Maui, it knocked out the usual lines of communication, causing family members in Alaska to worry when they hadn’t heard from their loved ones.
That’s where simple sticky notes came in.
Seward resident Judy Odhner, owner of Zudy’s Cafe, was one of the concerned family members who asked someone in Maui to post a note on a board outside an evacuation center, looking for her Aunt Annie.
Odhner says she wasn’t sure what else to do.
Listen:
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The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Judy Odhner: So she’s 83 and alone, and we just couldn’t get a hold of her. And she has a lot of cat colonies. Her main mission is to get them spayed and neutered. So she has these colonies, and then she traps them and gets them spayed and neutered. And so we were just, because she is alone, and she’s kind of an introvert, we were very worried. My brother and sister lived in New York, and they hadn’t heard from her, and we just all kept in touch. But there was no text, there was nothing. And usually she’s really good about getting in touch. If something is up, she gives us a call right back. And we weren’t getting anything. And that’s when I contacted my friend who is from Alaska, lives in Maui, and she was volunteering. And I said, “Could you put something up on the board? So if somebody has seen Annie or heard, or seen her at Walmart or wherever, Costco, that they would let us know, or if she’s home.” So I kind of started putting my feelers out to find her.
Casey Grove: Yeah, and I guess it came down to kind of a simple sticky note, right?
JO: Yeah, it was this simple note. So she called my sister on Friday night, she went to the airport in Kahana. And apparently when she called us, she didn’t have any power or cell service (at home), but she was grateful to have two working flashlights. So we could hear that bit of joy, and it just brought us some joy and just smiles that she’s OK. And she’s reaching out to her community and her community’s reaching out to her, and I think they’re all really coming together and helping each other.
CG: Yeah, definitely. It seems like a really tough time, but that people are really coming together like that. But was there any question, I guess, for you that she would she would want to stay there? Or, you know, move on maybe from that place?
JO: I don’t know. I think when she talked to my sister, she did tell my sister that she had lost property and that she had lost friends. And I mean, I know it’s gonna affect her a lot. And I think that’s going to be a lot for her, as it would be for anybody. But she’s been there for probably 40 years.
CG: I mean, at the very least, she still has the cats, right?
JO: Absolutely. And the cats are her family. I mean, we’re her blood family, but her cats have always been there. We’re — my sister and brother in New York, I’m here. So that’s her family. And we’re OK with that, because we love her and we understand that and we’re good with that.
CG: I’m glad you were able to connect with your aunt, and that she’s OK.
JO: Yeah, I feel grateful, and I’m glad she’s there and the communication’s real spotty, and she does still go to the airport to get the two bars to just let us know every couple of days that she’s OK. And yeah, just the people and just the whole destruction of the whole town, completely ashes. And I think I think they have a lot more a lot more people to look for.
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Casey Grove is host of Alaska News Nightly, a general assignment reporter and an editor at Alaska Public Media. Reach him at cgrove@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Casey here.
