North Texas families caught in desperate rush to leave Maui

It’s hard to reconcile this week’s images of widespread devastation on Maui with photos the Badruddin family captured just hours prior.

“We were in that marketplace. We had gone through the shops. We had eaten there. We bought souvenirs, and everything just completely burned to the ground, everything,” said Sohail Badruddin.

Tuesday morning, Badruddin said the family woke early in Lahaina.

They thought little of the power outage impacting the small town as they set off around 6 a.m. for a 12-hour excursion.

“We had no idea what was going on behind us,” he said.

As the day ticked on, wind speeds reached 60 miles per hour and flames ripped through the heart of the town.

The Badruddins never made it back in.

They were dropped off 30 miles outside of town where they bunked with family staying nearby.

“The gas station was out of fuel already. People had lined up to get groceries,” said Badruddin.

It would be hours before they’d learn the condo they’d rented for the week had burned to the ground.

Quickly, their focus turned to finding their way home.

“At one point, my biggest fear was, now that they've announced or asked visitors to leave, how quickly can we get out? And if we delay it, then do we get stuck?” he said.

“It was just gridlocked. There's one road in one road out over there, and it was just locked down,” said Jordan Martin.

The Martin family, also visiting Lahaina from North Texas, spent two hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic trying to make it to the airport to catch a flight home to Aledo Tuesday night.

“They just kept delaying the flight as long as they could. And so we're just like, ‘No, I don't think this flight is going to leave,” said Jason Martin.

With hundreds already filling the airport and emergency shelters and every hotel fully booked, the family did the only thing they could think of.

“It was a race to get down to the car rentals because they were getting sold out of cars. We ended up finally getting a big SUV, and then we just kind of drove around until we found a place that seems safe. They have one Walmart in Maui,” said Jason.

“There were hundreds of people there. There were not very many empty spots,” said Jordan.

The next day they were among the lucky ones to catch a flight to Kona before heading to San Francisco and touching down at DFW early Thursday morning.

The Badruddins arrived back home later that Thursday afternoon.

But though grateful to be sleeping in their own beds, both families said their hearts are still with the people of Hawaii.

“I just hope and pray that everybody's safe. I hope the locals, the people that live there, are with their families, and that they get to get past this quickly. I hope it doesn't get worse. All we can do is pray for everybody,” said Badruddin.

The Texas Baptist Men are in Hawaii mobilizing resources for those in need. They're asking for monetary donations to help as many people as possible.