Texas couple gets emotional explaining why they returned from Maui so resources can go to natives

Nearly a week after a hurricane sparked deadly wildfires in Maui, Carol and Tony Ruggeri boarded a plane Monday night, leaving their vacation home on the island and returning to their permanent home in Dallas.

“We've owned a place in Maui since 1989, so it's very much, it's really home. It's part of our soul,” said Tony Ruggeri.

Reminders of brighter times in where they call their ‘happy place’ are sprinkled throughout their Texas home – photos of excursions throughout the years, their favorite restaurants, and a collection of infamous parrot photos.

The couple spends about four month out of the year on the island. Just days before the storm, they’d said their goodbyes to their children and grandchildren who were leaving Maui after visiting them for vacation.

“We knew that the hurricane was coming and we were going to have big winds,” said Tony Ruggeri.

Still, they say there was no indication of the devastation to come.

“Everything happened on Tuesday,” said Tony Ruggeri “We lost power about 5 a.m.”

The phone lines went down next, leaving them in the dark and without a means to communicate with the outside world.

“It took a couple of day because when you guys were getting the news, we were getting nothing,” said Carol Ruggeri.

Eventually, they found cell service at the top of one of the mountains in their neighborhood – only then learning the full extent of the destruction.

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