Just before noon on Aug. 9, Courtney Teague felt a rush of adrenaline. The newsletter editor for Honolulu Civil Beat had the draft of a text message to the news site’s audience in hand. She was about to share news of the first fatalities from the wildfires in Maui, which began just days prior.

Teague felt shaky. She wanted to get everything right. “Because knowing that when they get this update, it’s gonna be horrible, horrible, heartbreaking news for our state,” Teague said. “Just really sad.”

She clicked send.

“Breaking: 6 people have been killed in wildfires raging across Maui, fueled by dry winds from a hurricane passing to the south of Hawaii. Hundreds of buildings were destroyed, including much of historic Lahaina town. More than 2,100 people spent the night in shelters.”

A massive brush fire devastated much of Lahaina, a historic area of Hawaii’s Maui County. The inferno was swift, destroying land and properties — and claiming lives.

“It was just a heartbreaking time as we started seeing these fatalities come in, and of course, they started going up so quickly,” Teague said on Wednesday, a week after she sent the first text message about the wildfires. “People had nowhere to go as they were trying to leave, so the death toll started rising fairly soon after we first learned that it had been a deadly disaster.”

Photos of a scorched Lahaina began circulating on social media, along with reports from residents saying they received no warnings from officials as the fire rushed toward their homes. Journalists across the globe are following closely what is now considered the deadliest wildfire incident in the United States in over a century. But for journalists in Hawaii, the impact is much closer — and more personal. Their teams are balancing coping with the tragedy and covering it.

“Maui is a renowned tropical paradise,” said Jay April, president and CEO of Akakū Maui Community Media, a public access channel with a studio in Maui. “We like to brag ‘Maui nō ka ʻoi’ – ‘Maui is the best’ … We take care of each other. We have something called ‘ohana,’ which is extended family. We really have always bonded together during crises like this. But no one could be prepared for what happened here. Fireballs came down the mountain and literally devastated Lahaina, the famous old whaling port.”

April said the fire came down “like a lightning bolt from hell” and caught the island’s entire apparatus by surprise, including every level of government. And, of course, the people.

April said his staff mobilized as soon as they heard about the calamity. Akakū suspended its normal operations, he added, and has been broadcasting 24/7 in an effort to help people stay informed.

Established in 1992, Akakū Maui Community Media is an independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is “Empowering Our Community’s Voice.” Akakū operates multiple channels, including radio and cable TV and a livestream app called Maui Stream. April said his team’s coverage is a blend of field reports, news, aggregation from other media, press conferences, announcements from civil defense and the county, and more.

“All the world’s media is here. I mean, I’ve never seen so many press, but they’ll be leaving in a few days,” April told Poynter Wednesday. “We’re going to be here for the long haul, so we have a huge task in front of us — putting this in perspective for people, but also providing essential information that people need to make it through. We’re gonna be OK.”

April said it’s an unsteady environment right now, and Akakū has had to remain fluid as an organization. He added that some social media users have caused a lot of problems by spreading conspiracy theories. “I mean, I got a call yesterday saying they were Russian drones sending direct energy beams down to Lahaina. This was what caused this distrust,” he said. “Social media is breeding all kinds of rumors and distrust of government and one another.”

One challenge Akakū Maui Community Media has faced in the wake of the fire, April said, is making sure, if they aggregate any information, that it’s verifiable. He said he saw some social media posts he wished they hadn’t put on air. “So today, we’re focusing on improving our quality control of the stories that go out, so that we don’t spread lies and misinformation,” he said. “That’s a real important aspect of what we’re doing.”

Patti Epler, editor and general manager of Civil Beat, said her staff of both young and more experienced journalists have all stepped up to cover the wildfires. The news outlet rented a condo in Maui for the next 40 or so days, so staff members can stay there while covering the story.

Epler said Civil Beat does not typically cover breaking news. Their work focuses more on deep dives, and investigative and explanatory journalism. Epler said Civil Beat staff can opt out of covering a topic if they see the daily newspapers or TV stations are already on it.

“This time it was like, nope,” Epler said. “This is really a life-changing story, and one that does have a huge impact on the reporters and editors and our engagement team, and everyone. So we’re just now totally committed.”

Civil Beat is based out of Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii, located 80 miles northwest of Maui on the island of Oahu. Epler said the staff has been divided into an on-the-ground team of reporters and others who are pursuing more investigative stories. Epler said one full-time staff member lives permanently in Maui. The reporter and her family had to evacuate from their home. They lost it to the wildfires.

As of Wednesday, Epler said her staff has been flooded with tips for follow-up story ideas.

“I would say our plan is to basically stand in front of the fire hose and try and grab whatever we can that comes out of it,” she said. “I mean, there’s so much on every level. And as you might imagine, people here in Hawaii are super angry, super empathetic, super emotional about what’s happening.”

Epler said the staff is also making preparations to cover a visit early next week from President Joe Biden and his wife, first lady Jill Biden.

Since Civil Beat became a nonprofit in 2016, the news organization has worked to reach out and engage the community. Epler said they have for the first time over the past week tried to field calls from residents who need help in an attempt to connect them to the correct agency. She acknowledged it’s been tough for some of the team members fielding these calls. Plans are in the works to hire a therapist on retainer for any staff members who need to talk to someone.

Epler also sent a note to staff earlier this week to make sure everyone is doing well. She wanted to let them know that there’s nothing wrong with just walking away from a story or the newsroom. “It’s very traumatic for the folks who have actually been into Lahaina and seen this massive devastation. We had a couple of people who went in the first day after the destruction, and there were dead animals laying around burnt to a crisp,” she said. “Everything was just so incinerated. I mean, it was just unreal. I’ve had a couple people say, ‘I’m never gonna forget this.’ It’s just had its impact.”

Teague said she and her team at Civil Beat have been hanging in there. As of Wednesday, the adrenaline is starting to wear off, she said.

“It’s starting to hit people pretty hard. Obviously, the photos have been horrible and it just breaks our heart to hear about the horrible ways that our neighbors have died,” she said. “It’s been hard work. We’re all tired, but at the same time we’re motivated by the fact that people need answers about what happened. People need information about what’s going on, on the ground. We’re in there, we’re hanging in there, and we’ll be covering this for obviously the foreseeable future.”

On Thursday, shortly after 9 a.m. local time in Hawaii, Civil Beat issued an update via text message. It included the death toll from the wildfires in Maui. It had risen to 111.

More on the Maui wildfires

• Why news anchors go to disasters like the wildfires in Hawaii
• Why one firefighter is calling out Maui wildfire conspiracy theories
• Why climate experts are criticizing a Hawaii headline from ABC News
• Fact-checking a bizarre claim that government ‘direct energy weapons’ caused the Maui fires
• A shortened video distorts Hawaii governor’s comments about the state buying land in Lahaina