Bakersfield native on Maui opens his home to Lahaina displaced - video Dailymotion

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8/16/2023

Latest Kern County, California and US & world news from 23ABC in Bakersfield, Calif.

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00:00 Bakersfield native and Centennial

00:01 High School graduate Chris Houston

00:03 moved to Maui about a year ago and

00:05 he says it's been one of the best

00:08 years of his life. But now his

00:10 island paradise has turned to ashes

00:11 due to the devastating wildfires.

00:13 And now he's doing everything he can

00:15 to help the community he loves.

00:17 These are the most important

00:19 people I've met in a long time,

00:21 and they have nothing like

00:23 everything is gone. Chris Houston

00:24 works at Captain Jack's Barn

00:26 restaurant in the Lahaina Wharf.

00:27 That was my group.

00:29 My social group.

00:30 Those my coworkers and friends.

00:31 Houston saying he was off working at home

00:33 when he learned from a friend about the

00:35 fires. There's a couple cool things

00:37 going around to try and locate people.

00:39 There's a Google Doc going around

00:41 where people ever, you know,

00:42 they'll put in the name of missing.

00:44 And then if anybody has seen or

00:46 confirmed that they're found and

00:47 they mark it out, but there's yeah,

00:49 there's a couple of people that are

00:51 still unaccountable from our social group.

00:53 Houston says it was three days before

00:55 he heard from his best friend in Lahaina

00:57 and another two of his friends were

00:59 unable to contact him because they

01:01 lost their phones when they jumped

01:02 into the ocean to escape the flames.

01:04 You've got people that are safe,

01:06 but nobody. Nobody knows and you know,

01:09 you start going a couple of days

01:12 of not hearing from somebody and.

01:15 Knowing that there's thousands of,

01:17 you know, over 1000 people missing,

01:19 it's a struggle, but there is still hope

01:21 when they arrive at our shelter here.

01:23 They register the shelter into the shelter.

01:26 It's all computer system here,

01:27 so we know who is who and where is where.

01:30 I would say that most of the people here

01:32 in our shelter have lost everything.

01:34 Bakersfield Red Cross volunteers

01:35 will be on the ground in Maui,

01:36 assisting with recovery efforts

01:37 for the next three weeks.

01:39 There's some tearful moments,

01:40 but I can tell you that everywhere

01:42 I talked to is like thank you.

01:44 Thank you for Red Cross.

01:45 Meantime, Houston has been taking

01:47 in residents from Lahaina and

01:48 offering shelter in his own home.

01:50 I'm blessed to have this place and I.

01:52 This isn't like a weekend storm.

01:54 It's going to be. A long process,

01:56 so I I've already signed up and told

01:59 people you can stay here for weeks,

02:01 months, whatever,

02:02 whatever it's going to take,

02:04 and he feels the love from his hometown.

02:06 I've had people back home ordering

02:08 things at Target and we go pick

02:10 them up and and so it's a huge

02:13 thanks to everybody back home.

02:14 And if you'd like to help Houston

02:16 with his efforts in Maui,

02:18 we have a link to contact him on this

02:20 story on our website turned to 23.com.

02:22 Veronica Morley connecting you.

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