PORT NEWARK, N.J. (PIX11) – On the beds of five trucks at Port Newark is some hope for Hawaii.
As people on the island of Maui continue to rise from the devastation of recent wildfires, many still can’t find shelter. Out of Port Newark, nearly a hundred pop-up housing units are on their way to give hundreds in Maui a roof over their head. The effort is being spearheaded by Maui-based nonprofit Family Life Center.
“The atmosphere in Maui right now, if I were to describe it, is probably chaos and uncertainty,” said Dr. Ashley Kelly of Family Life Center. “There’s a bit of a sense of urgency to start projects like ours which are providing temporary mid-term housing solutions.”
The units, made by Continest, are fully-wired, fireproof houses that can be assembled in five minutes. About 200 of them will fill a space of land in Maui to shelter those looking for more permanent housing.
Now that the units made it across the Atlantic from Hungary, Virigina-based nonprofit Operation Blessing will be trucking them across the country to their next destination.
“It truly is a blessing to be able to provide the logistic support to transport these badly needed housing units to the people in Hawaii,” said Jeff Westling, with Operation Blessing.
It will be a grueling four to five days for the truck drivers, who will ride in tandem as they make their journey out to the port in Long Beach, California.
“From Hungary, transported to Germany, from Germany to New Jersey, from New Jersey to Long Beach, from Long Beach to Oahu and from Oahu to Maui,” said Continest CEO Yan Pronin. “That’s one of the furthest deliveries of mobile homes ever undertaken.”
It’s a multi-continental, international effort to help those who need it most.
“Knowing that we could help hundreds of people, if not thousands, who were displaced is just something that makes me sleep at night,” said Pronin.
