7 HOPEFUL and HORRIFYING stories from Maui wildfire recovery

The wildfire in Maui was nothing short of tragic, and rescue and recovery efforts are still underway. While 300 names of the missing have been released to the public, there are still 1,100 people unaccounted for.

Many Americans, including Glenn Beck, have questions.

“I don’t mean to be callous on this, but it’s not that big of an island. It’s not like somebody, you know, is wandering off and is lost or whatever,” Glenn says.

To answer some of his questions, Glenn sits down to speak with one of the men on the ground in Maui: Mercury One Executive Director J.P. Decker.

Glenn asks Decker, who has been in Maui for almost five days, why officials are holding back the other 1,100 names.

“That is one thing that every single local is confused on that we’ve spoken with,” Decker says, adding, “I’ve spoken with a lot of people, and they said, ‘We don’t trust anyone. We do not trust what’s coming out of the government. We don’t trust what’s coming out of, not just the state of Hawaii, but the county and then also our federal government.’”

While the locals have been offered little solace by the government, there are some stories of hope Decker can tell.

One surfer who is famous on the island has been getting surfboards and fishing equipment for the locals, especially the kids who lost everything, including their surfboards as well as their mental health.

Decker explains these kids have seen too much. “Seeing people burning in cars and seeing their family members in their homes. This is the only thing that’s going to bring this community back to what we know and we love.”

The surfer plans to take the surfboards to the kids and the fishing supplies to the local fisherman who lost “literally everything.”

Decker tells Glenn that the people who are working to keep their community strong in the face of tragedy are “the definition of ohana, which means family. And that is community.”

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