Letter from Lahaina: Reporting from Maui’s wildfire zone – by boat
Packed in a hurry, the raincoat came in handy after all.
I sat in a boat bouncing on the choppy ocean, a reporting effort to see a donation drop-off up close. The journey just wasn’t splash-proof.
Through the polka-dot pattern of saltwater drops on my glasses, I made out the black trash bags at our bare feet. Labeled with tape, the sacks were full of food cans, baby formula, and tarps, launched from a boat landing in Kihei, on the southern side of Hawaii’s island of Maui.
The effort was organized by a local business, Blue Water Rafting, which let me tag along. We headed west up the coast to people affected by the Aug. 8 wildfire that razed
