The Hawaii fires are a dire omen of the climate crisis’s cost to Pacific peoples | Kiana Davenport

As temperatures rise across Oceania, droughts are becoming more extreme and strong winds drive catastrophic fires

Hawaii was never paradise. Since the day my ancestors first stepped ashore, our islands have been devastated by hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes and erupting volcanoes that buried whole towns.

But fires are something new. We were not prepared. Our officials were not prepared, for a raging inferno of 1,000-degree heat that moved at lightning speed, reducing our historical town of Lahaina – once the capital of the Hawaiian kingdom – and 2,000 homes to ash. More than 1,300 people are still missing. At this stage, many will not be found. Cadaver dogs whine with frustration. They are uncovering mostly ash.

Kiana Davenport is a writer of Native-Hawaiian and Anglo-American descent. She is the author of eight novels and three anthologies: Prize-Winning Pacific Stories