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.