Outside Honolulu’s Hawaii Convention Centre, where thousands of cots are set up to welcome wildfire survivors, Jesse Jaspal’s voice wavered as he thought back to his old neighbourhood in Lahaina on the island of Maui, which was destroyed by the flames.
“My whole neighbourhood’s gone, the neighbourhood I lived at. All my neighbours, my friends,” he told CBC News’s Makda Ghebreslassie from Hawaii’s capital on Oahu.
“I get choked up about it … I don’t know what to say. It’s a gut wrench.”
Jaspal struggles to keep his composure. He says every time he hears from someone saying they’re safe, it’s a relief. But it’s not enough.
“A lot of people evacuated
