Kula resident Kyle Ellison has been heavily involved in Maui’s wildfire recovery over the past year. He recently returned from disaster-stricken North Carolina, where he witnessed the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and helped with the cleanup.
“Everything’s covered in garbage and people’s personal belongings. Twenty feet up in the trees are people’s backpacks and bottles of syrup that are unopened and a couch and Polaroid pictures of someone’s dog,” he told HPR.
“Because their homes and businesses and stores just were swept away, and it’s all this detritus of people’s stuff, all covered in mud and sand in the trees and littered everywhere, and you don’t even know where to begin, and this extends for miles.”
Ellison has family ties to the area, and he and his wife lived in Asheville for a few years. He started a paddleboard business there in 2015 before moving back home to Maui…