BILLINGS — Hawaii is thousands of miles away from Montana, but it’s a place close to Tina Power’s heart.
The Billings woman says learning of the devastating fires there left her feeling heartbroken and helpless.
“Beautiful, beautiful country, beautiful people. My son went to college over there, so I had to go over there once a year. And they would do anything for you. The first thing I thought is I have to do something,” says Power.
One of her best friends, Virginia Cantorna, is a psychologist there. The two had both worked as nurses and became fast friends about 25 years ago. Tina first learned of the fires from Virginia’s post before the fires began getting the attention of national media.
“This is the first picture that she sent me and look at that. That’s the front street,” she says, pointing to a picture that her friend sent her of the devastation.
While I’m there, Virginia gives Tina a call and we get an update from here on the situation. She’s safe, but she knows at least two of the people who have perished. Several of her clients have also lost their homes.
“We have lost so much. Just devastated—people’s homes are gone. We counted about 271 buildings affected. Businesses gone. Schools gone, churches—apartments whole apartments gone,” Virginia says.
She says the fires took no time to explode into quick-moving infernos.
“It was just so fast. People left their cars in the middle of the road and had to run to the ocean. They ran to the ocean because they were surrounded by flames and I’m hearing that there were some drownings,” she says.
The death toll had reached 56 people as of Thursday night, but hundreds of people on the island are still missing.
Tina and Virginia both hope that the people of Hawaii won’t be forgotten in their time of need.
Diane Wright is the director for the Montana Red Cross chapter based in Great Falls and says the Red Cross deals with disasters all the time, but she's never seen anything like this.
She anticipates one volunteer from Helena will be deployed as early as tomorrow with others to follow in the coming weeks.
One of the best ways to help is by donating at redcross.org
You can also call 1-800-RED-CROSS to make a $10 donation.
