From Ashes to Hope: Rebuilding Lives After Maui’s Wildfires

When fires swept across the island of Maui in August, Kat and Barrett Procell and their kids, like hundreds of other families, lost their home, their jobs and their sense of security. But with the help of Catholic Charities, they are on the long road to recovery.

After the first few nights spent sleeping in their truck, the family began staying at a local hotel where many other displaced survivors were being put up, free of charge. All were shellshocked by the speed and fury with which the disaster had turned their lives upside down. It was there that Kat and Barrett, who have been out of work since August, encountered the Catholic Charities Disaster Response Team, whose members were handing out solar-powered battery chargers for residents to charge their cell phones.

Kat, who went to Catholic school as a child in Michigan, was familiar with Catholic Charities and immediately knew they would assist anyone in need after the fires. “Everybody is so nice, and it didn’t matter how you came to them or your denomination — just come as you are,” says Kat, who has been in almost daily contact with the team at Catholic Charities Hawai’i since the fires. “It’s overwhelming. You’ve helped us pay bills that we’ve been behind in and given us a beautiful place to stay.”

Just before Thanksgiving, the family settled into a homey condo, even putting up their Christmas tree much earlier than usual because they all needed some holiday magic. They also added one more member to their family — a slipper-eating puppy named Maverick, a present for their two youngest children. He was meant to be a distraction. Now, he’s part of their trauma recovery.

“After we lost everything in the fire, we wanted the kids to have something good to focus on and something new, fresh. So, we felt like a puppy was a good idea. We call him our fire puppy,” says Barrett, who knows his family is one of the lucky ones — they escaped unharmed, and they had a place to call home for the holidays.

“We wouldn’t have been able to get in this place without Catholic Charities helping us out, and helping us with the deposit to get in, and helping us pay the rent,” says Barrett. “You have really, really been life-changing for us.”