Lahaina Maui MSP Uli Kirkegaard Shares His Story of Loss and Recovery

Harry Brelsford  08:30

So folks, again, I feel I know most of you. A couple days out from the the major holiday weekend, a lot of people have one foot out the door can Harry Brelsford SMB Nation, Carl, introduce yourself for the audience that doesn't know you and then over to Julian newly I'm going to hand off to Yes.

Karl Palachuk  08:54

So I am the author of several books. I've built and sold a couple of managed service businesses in Sacramento, California. And Harry Brelsford helped me publish my first book. And it's been it's been downhill since then. So

Harry Brelsford  09:13

well, you know, here's the good news. Because I know you and I talk to authors. You and I caught the tail of the tail of the end of the book era. You know, the old book era man where you could actually make money. People would literally go to borders and Barnes and Noble at lunch. I mean it well,

Karl Palachuk  09:34

at least at the back of the room. Thank goodness, I don't have to lug hundreds of pounds of books around anymore.

Harry Brelsford  09:41

Yeah. And really, the man of the moment. Where were you at? You're across the island. You're not in Lahaina where you had your residents in business. Is that correct?

Ulrich Kirkegaard  09:54

It's correct. Yeah. So obviously a cover. It's three weeks ago now. Up to this day. Wow. We had a chimney it was a small fire but we had hurricane Dora pass by very south of the islands in like usual we had in hurricane season, bought extra food, have extra water jugs and hunker down Monday, the power went out there was then Monday the same at the end. We ended up evacuating in the late afternoon on Tuesday, and we never saw our house or businesses again, nobody had anticipated that it would get that bad. But the whole town was basically in a will. So I'm currently we were staying at some friends house or a few days. We now currently in a loaner condominium in my Elia which is sort of around the mountains still but close enough to get to both to Lahaina and both get to the downtown Colorado area of the island. So we cannot really get into LA Hi, Nate is completely boarded off by a SEMA in for good reasons. A lot of debate about whether or not to allow the US locals back into sift through our rubble. I guess the search and rescue has finally completed. And government at night trying to figure out what is the best plan forward to let residents into look at things but there's so much toxic material, so we don't anticipate being able to do so. Any day soon.

Harry Brelsford  11:41

Yeah, yeah, I see that, you know, and I watched the TV. And by the way, there's an open forum. So folks, raise your hand if you'd like to ask a question or something. But that was one of my thoughts, man is he look at the TV, and they're wearing the, the facemask, right? It's like 911 all over again. I mean, this. This is some nasty, nasty stuff. Tell the audience a little bit about your background. You come from Denmark, you're an MSP, up until most recently living the dream, but we're going to recreate the dream.

Ulrich Kirkegaard  12:19

Oh, so yes. So originally from Copenhagen, Denmark, and I were say in my early years very fond of electronics. Throughout this you know, the analog days and the cassette tapes and vinyl records and stuff. So I became a DJ and loved that and then I became a low voltage engineer and a Tronic firm but ended up switching to the computer industry as soon as I met the interim for the sake processor and Dutch and worked for one of the big distributors in Denmark for Intel platforms and sold the first pinch of 60 megahertz processors and such so those were the days so here in lawmen turned in Maui, I always say I've been cleaning windows for over 30 years. And like I said, windows of course came over here in 1999 Satori first and then ended up creating a little entity to sell telecom hardware equipment from Intel and dialogic and brook trout in but ended up becoming a IT person here locally to serve an underserved Group of Companies and became the outsource it admin and did a lot of break fix and such but that became an you know, turn into becoming an MSP mostly, but we still do the break fix and I see that unfortunately has to return because there's a lot that is broken and a lot that needs to be fixed before the main services so I

Harry Brelsford  14:01

didn't I didn't think of that. I didn't think of that. You've done interesting conferences forever Carl, go ahead. I was

Karl Palachuk  14:10

just gonna say this you will be central to helping everybody else get rebuilt from scratch and that's that's like a daunting task ahead of you like aside from your personal stuff, you know, helping your entire neighborhood your entire community go literally from the ground up that's going to take years

Ulrich Kirkegaard  14:35

it will take years I mean, I already bought you know crimpers and RJ 45 logs and tools and all sorts of things and things of shipping in but it's gonna be a lot of before we can go in and run new wires and install new routers and such you know, that's going to be the first clearing infrastructure buildings, but like I've been saying to everybody, all You'll need to get into construction one way or the other. Yeah. And then so yeah, managed services is still a focus point. And we still have customers in other places on the island, and in California as well. And those are hopefully still gonna be attached to us. And we're just doing the rounds right now calling everybody in the last couple of weeks been, of course, notifying everybody that we are still around. And that's the beautiful part about cloudy days is that just everything is gone. Let's go down rabbit lap cup login, bang, you're back in operation. Technically. It's different, but it is still operational. Right. So by

Harry Brelsford  15:45

I can't resist getting chippy. You both know me too well, and it's actually a downfall of my personality. But that's, that's funny that you said, you know, let's all get together and repair what I was expecting you to say. Because back when I grew up in Alaska, what we would say is, well, you know, we had an earthquake, let's all get together and get drunk and then start fixing things. That typical, typical Alaskans, but rarely Can you show your screen I put the I put the URL in chat. So let's let's talk about your GoFundMe page. And folks. We're here, we appreciate you just being here, right? Your being here, I think helps earlies headspace. If, if it's the kind of thing you can get us over $60,000. So $50,000 was raised in the first seven days. And, you know, we're, we're close. Right? And that's probably the toughest pitch I'm going to make today. Because I want to be respectful that a lot of people have contributed, look at that. 236 donations, we've had a lot of communities kind of step up, raise their hand, and, and so on. So really, why don't you tell us about this photo.

Ulrich Kirkegaard  17:09

Yeah, so this is what is left of my house. I'm not sure if there's any mail in my mailbox. But there was a delivery that day, and I haven't been able to go see it actually be walked by the next morning. We were not allowed to drive in. But we were able to park two miles away and walk the beach route through and go in and see what was left. So we can see a mailbox, we can see what is the rest of our roof laying on top of a pile of rubble. And there's a filing cabinet standing there in the middle of the whole thing. Although some paperwork insights that was my home office I don't see my desk anymore obviously. But that's pretty much what's the mass and surrounding is the neighbor's building there also level you can see in the background, there's a condominium building which is still standing but it's pretty devastated as well. And that's sort of the last areas that the search and rescues would actually go into to go lower prices first and then they've been in the bigger buildings now so we just bought this house in 2022 and we were remodeling it because it was an old plantation house we changed anything everything in the same style all refreshed and all new appliances central AC all the benefits of the modern world can't really see that on the picture now so we hope to be able to redo it at some point

Karl Palachuk  18:50

well and you used all of your not all but you used a lot of your savings to fix up the house and insurance company doesn't care right

Ulrich Kirkegaard  18:59

well it's the thing is that we Berlin again because we just Yeah, we did exactly use all our savings to to put everything you need and for us sure being living in Lahaina for 20 years and renting left and right this finally got in the market but this all little house was kind of expensive we've always chased that you know when the house was 300 we had 200 and it was 500 we had 400 and it was 700 grand you know we couldn't get to it so finally we stressed us ourselves as much as we could and then we learned the whole hedge funds to remodel as well some a lot of the work we did ourselves so sweat equity rise about 11 months worth of time which also kind of took away from my Miss Peter which is my guys had to come over and help me work on wiring and different things and your take a takeout he's gonna be helping painting and stuff since he just wanted to get it done so we could move in and we only live there for four months and oh wow. Yeah, Ah, so the paint was dry, but barely. So what we have is that insurance, we're never had another appraisal. So our insurance that was like a standard, right is, I would say, pretty under insured at this point, take her personal belongings, and that they're probably okay in what they're going to offer us. But you know how it goes, we got to see what we need, then we're going to get receipts and it's going to be yours. But for the structure itself, and for in taking into account the there's over 2000 buildings that needs to be built. A, it's probably tough to imagine that this house is going to come back fully the way it was with the insurance that we have. So hence the fundraising, it's simply to ache, it gives us very solid hope. And, you know, obviously, we're probably not alone. It's 20. And 36 people have participated so far. And we feel very blessed and fortunate that we're able to do it and start this early on. And that so many people have donated, it's, it's we're very grateful. But we also know that that, you know, yeah, well, you know, what do we go next? What happens the next three years, we are still in a lot of limbo. But having this fundraiser and getting these funds and putting them aside and said, Well, it certainly makes that nervous point of not knowing what's next, feel a little more comfortable, because now we know we have a part of insurance, we have somebody who hears about us, we have extra funds, we were very grateful, that's for sure.

Karl Palachuk  21:40

Well, you know, where I live, the town of Paradise is about 50 miles north, or at least, it used to be until the entire thing burned down a couple of years ago. You know, those folks, literally nobody lives there. Now, even if you read gold, you can't get insurance for fire. Do you think a high number will be like that? Or will they somehow figure it out? You know,

Ulrich Kirkegaard  22:05

off the face of it somehow figured out because we see the same thing in Florida as well. If people don't really get the house and since you're. And so the problematic for us is well, we have to have insurance in order for us to keep our mortgage. So I'm not sure what that will what that ends up is because we do need to keep our mortgage and because we have no other way. And we obviously would like to have it insured. Now this is huge devastation. But I can also see the insurance company's point of view is like you guys, this is a lessor something dramatically changing in the new setup, because it would be so much safer, like wires in the ground, a better alert system and a bit of water supply for the fire departments and such. Yeah, there's a lot of open factors.

Harry Brelsford  22:59

Yeah, folks, be sure to raise your hand if you'd like to chat. Early. What I was gonna say is like, Carl, you know, I met you early on in the SPS era. And, yes, I've known you to go to a fair number of industry conferences. What conferences have you gone to? Have you gone to like WPC at Microsoft or it nation or

Ulrich Kirkegaard  23:28

data? Recently? Not so much. We've been busy with obviously remodeling and building out and trying to follow it locally here. So quite a few years ago, I've attended quite a few conferences and flew around in a nation once I've been in what's it called? 2006. And seven, I think I went to what was the early models of the Microsoft Dynamics conventions in Dallas, Texas. And in I've also gone to several telecom conferences with Sandler partners through and although Sandler

Harry Brelsford  24:18

partners No kidding. So, yes,

Ulrich Kirkegaard  24:23

so for me being you know, very so we also have a side that is an agency. And so we've been the center part of the three years and obviously, right now, we've been busy the last week penciling, accounts and subscriptions that they're all leveled to the ground and nobody needs any of these connections or anything less than that were granted. Some of them will will need to keep their hosting cloud phone systems and phone numbers to a certain extent, but most of the lines are going to get dropped. So it's going to be bare minimums. And so I would say it is having also to, you know, raise kids and all that at the same time in delayed a few years. We didn't attend that many conferences. Yeah. Yeah, cool.

Harry Brelsford  25:18

Let me put in chat and I just got an update from Aaron. The infamous Aaron Bjork dump. dumphy is what we knew her her maiden name is Eric Chapelle. And so she started as an intern on the Small Business Server team in the late 90s. Coming out of Canada, Waterloo, I think it was. And let me put that in chat her LinkedIn profile, because herself and another name, you guys may know, Carl, I can't remember if you met Aaron, but you would have remembered Dean Perone. So I dropped them a note late last week, and they're, you know, just getting back to me and I get that Microsoft is a big company. But in working with Uli and Wayne small out of Australia, primarily, we've been on the phone a couple times, and we're trying to get Azure credits to, to help early spin up some disaster recovery scenarios. excetera. And so they're up there, they're trying to like, they're trying, I just literally got an email from her. And then Dean's gonna call me tonight on his way home. And so we're, we're trying, but we saw it as a good opportunity for Microsoft to, you know, kind of get reinvigorated in our community. So that's, that's one update. I have. Folks, we have a little over five minutes, we have about seven minutes left, and I want to honor everybody's time. So if you'd like to come online and turn on your mic, or if you'd like to ask any questions. Cool. And we were talking to

Karl Palachuk  27:13

I was just saying, Are there Danish chocolates in that mailbox?

Ulrich Kirkegaard  27:23

Yeah, I was gonna say that there's a possibility that was maybe not in the mailbox at this point. But there was some Danish chocolate and some Danish licorice lost, as well. We do get care packages. And in such it is incredible is difficult sometimes to just and when you trust that point, it's one of those points that makes my a little bit here because it is material stuff. It is what it is. But there's some of that heritage stuff that we finally built this house in, we finally sifted through everything and said, What are we keeping and the kids get through all that childhood stuff and says, This is what I want to keep. And we build this epic space for the things that we want to keep, but we didn't have room for in the house. So there's, you know, lost treasures there for sure. And it has to do with with our region and our family in Hawaii. And you know, I told my daughter yesterday, I said, Bill, sorry, honey, you were born three years old, because that's the first picture that you have less. Because that's when the digital camera came in play right in the talk statement, but sees the Navy sailors to see if you can handle that part

Karl Palachuk  28:45

on on the very practical side. Did you have any client data or backups or any of that kind of stuff at your house? Or was it all where it

Ulrich Kirkegaard  28:57

is where it should be? I mean, the thing is, we had a have an Intel, which is owned by Cincinnati Bell, they put a fiber in in our little towns, a lot of the business communities could get a fiber. So we went from having been 55 megabit upload to having 5300 500 Right, so often we talk serious cloud backup every night images, all every week, incremental every day, so we came from maybe having 10 20%. But our backups a few years ago to being like 90% of our customers have subscribed and did cloud backups and full imaging. In the other day we were able to one of the old historic hotels in Lahaina is called pioneer in and it's one of the first buildings in the little village and we had all our cloud backup going in the eaves of one of those examples. They just basically need to spin up their operating database which is in this case, the best image hotel but they have a little local database with their propel management. So we're actually able to pull it down running on a local virtual machine and another client site here in Maui, and let them get access to it. So their only task now is simply just to cancel, refund, cancel, refund, you know, post payroll, that kind of stuff is even though they don't have a business anymore, right? So Right. Yep.

Harry Brelsford  30:25

Okay. Hey, Tracy, and Carl, maybe you can double check me, I just made Tracy a presenter. So I think that gives us a mic. And a. The chance for Tracy 3dr. Thank you for attending.

30:42

Thank you. So first of all, I want you to know, bless your heart, you guys have been in our prayers. I'm super proud to hear how you handled that. I think that that's an example of exactly what we strive to do for our clients is give them the peace of mind that even in a bad time, they have something they can depend on. So I really applaud that. And what I'd like to know is how can we help you because as you're talking, and I'm hearing, construction, I'm thinking, I know some IT network guys, I know it feet on the street that are great. I know cobblers, because I work in a world similar to you with Sandler partners, I do it with three of the other master agencies, as well as I have boutique capabilities. And I'm sure a lot of others on here do so what can we do to help give you the construction crew that you would need to be able to build the entire infrastructure? from a technology standpoint? How can we be of service?

Ulrich Kirkegaard  31:41

Yeah, I mean, that's the big question, a great question to be answered. The structure was which we need to rebuild, I mean, II, first, we obviously need the infrastructure itself as per plumbing and electric lines and such. So those are larger than then the US in the IT community revolvy can roll out, it was gonna be obviously need to get designs and building. So I think my Chris now is to align myself with the construction crews and the the architects and so it's better to say we are here, but in a capacity, we are only in my team, we are only a couple guys. So we are very small outfit compared to some of the other companies here. So I think for us, I mean, to hear as to who we are, as we say, create a pool of companies that offer this service, the services and then the question is, when do we need it? How do we get it here in time. In so right now, we are still a little bit far away from from some having to install infrastructure here. Now there are other parties, there may be other temporary structures that get put up where we could say, well, if businesses is going to try to convey the need to have a temporary office somewhere, that means we need to have what's called a, a, you know, like some kind of whether it's a trailer or some temporary office space. So that will be in the interim in the next two or three years, it would be, that's what we need, we need businesses to find another location. So they can assemble a crew and focus on their rebuild what happened, they need the computers, then they need the internet and, you know, some temporary wire those locations,

33:30

right, you're gonna need people to be able to do that you're gonna need those feet on the street to be able to help them with all of that. So I can see that my background actually has been construction and my husband owns a construction business, and then I'm in it. So I really understand where they're where that comes in at. Because we got to be in there when they're pulling the wires through the wall and making sure it's a cat six or whatever else we're trying to do. So however we can be of help however, I can be of help, even if you think of something a month later, you know? Because bless your heart buddy. Bless your heart.

Harry Brelsford  34:04

Yeah. And Tracy, just before I forget to really hold your thought but the this is what we did in 2005 with our Small Business Server community when the hurricane in New Orleans hit and Jeff Middleton was there one of our leading SPS and VPs and we rallied Carl, my recollection is I unfortunately wasn't able to make it I just wasn't in a position in life to to go there for a couple of weeks and help. But you know, we were supportive. But Carl, I remember a handful of MVPs went to New Orleans.

Karl Palachuk  34:41

Yeah, well and some other folks like my brother Manuel, he had this really nice artistic picture of pirates alley in New Orleans. And he sold those on eBay and donated the money to the, you know, recovery in New Orleans. So It was a community thing. And I remember Jeff, you know, standing up, and pretty much everybody was crying. I was watching it on TV. And I think blindness, the same kind of thing where people just see it in that. And as Tracy said, your heart goes out like, what? What can I possibly do? So unfortunately, I don't own a ship to send construction materials over. And, you know, I do what I can, you know, so, yeah. Lars wants to say something.

Harry Brelsford  35:31

Yeah, he did. He texted me he had to drop and get on at 330. Eastern call, he did want to say something. So folks, we can take one or two more comments. And again, I just, I want to honor your time, I could certainly go over. But if you want to raise your hand, I can make you a presenter. And we can hear what what's what's on your mind. While you're thinking about that. What I hope to do really, we'll see if I can pull it off. If not, I'll I'll do it another day. But my MSP rescue event in Southern California is November 29. And my hope and desire would be to come out to Maui after that, right. And just like say, I'll put on a face mask, I'll put on rubber boots and gloves and just pick up debris with a shovel. I'll do what I you know, I'll do what I can. That's my hope and desire. And, of course, that's always enjoyed December in Hawaii don't have to sell Carl on that one.

Karl Palachuk  36:38

So And what about other IT consultants on the island? You know, especially outside of the fire range? Are you in touch with them? And is that group getting together to talk about what they can do in construction?

Ulrich Kirkegaard  36:53

Hey, yeah, on a small scale, he is so far, and we're trying to organize it a little better. And there's a couple that I've been speaking with as well. So we are I think he's still in the early stages. Right now we had the most immediate crisis is that we have the schools in Lahaina have been redirected at all the kids cannot go to school, they're gonna go to other schools. We had to in COVID, go school from home work from home, a group of us that started collecting, recycling, that tubs refurbishing them, giving them to kids and with our local Rotary clubs as well. And so we were doing that again, and a couple of groups have have collected a bunch of laptops, and we've been recycling them for so for nearly NRC now we need that for those kids again, it but there was no internet on the whole west side of Maui until after like, yesterday, and the day before the spectrum, people came back, these guys are working, like night and day, right after the electric cruise they go in. And right now they're erecting the old electric poles again. And once the electricity is in, they can put the coax cable in and the fiber in and get that community back online that is still there north of the high end. And now we can talk about later putting the wires in the ground. But of course, right now, there's a community really thinned out and people have been offline for three weeks. In a previous yesterday, they're pretty much all online again. So now the kids could basically utilize that he's placed could utilize some used computer hardware, or new computer hardware. So we are trying to do that sort of community, get them some machinery, get them online, get them learning. That's the immediate next step.

Karl Palachuk  38:42

So I have a friend who is a realtor on Maui, and she posted on Facebook, if people are offering you 10 cents on the dollar for your house do not make a decision at this time. You know, these are investors, these are leeches. Again, you know, they're trying to they're literally going to be trying to buy up property and make a killing on it. And some of them think they're gonna build high rises. And I think your attorney general came out and said we're not rezoning for high rises in line. You know,

39:16

there's, I just like to jump in for a second and say to that point, I was part of the rodeo Tedeschi fire that we had in Arizona, which was the largest fire in history at that particular point in time. And we were evacuated. And a lot of people lost their homes. And at that time, my husband on construction and I ran Wells Fargo home mortgage for the state of Arizona. Wow. So when it comes to that, what I saw is a lot of times, the insurance company would write the check to the lender, and then the lender would take another 30 to 45 days until you would be able to cash that check. So from an insurance perspective, but we also saw people coming in but what I saw as a lender who had to sign the checks because at that particular point in time Being a member of that small community, I sign the back of the checks and forget if I lose my job, I don't care, these people need the money. And I was signing, every check that came through that door. And at the end of the day, I got vilified in my company and cheered by my community and I got a raise and all this other kind of crap because it's about doing what's right, when it matters, regardless what anybody else says. So to the point of the investors coming in, that's true. But what you need to let people know is as they band together, the insurance companies realize they can't, I hate to use the word pick it off. But that's kind of what it seems like. So hold fast to what you believe to be fair and true. And stand together united, and it might add a little bit of time, but you should be okay. And proactively address the insurance check when it comes with your mortgage company so that you can have it signed at the branch or local, or however without the waiting period. That's a piece of advice that share. Cool.

Harry Brelsford  40:59

Hey, Tracy, I'm gonna put my email in chat. I recognize your name. I'm not sure we've done a whole lot together. And I love Sandler partners. So let me yeah, let me read my email. Oh, you have my email Harry be at SMB nation.com. I want to put you on a yes. Thank you. Yeah. Could you send me a note, I've got a little OneNote page for the A team. And I appreciate your contribution. We have Mark Lubbock data. Let's see, I'm on another webinar with the Whitehouse FEMA, he I know he's pretty active. So couple ideas offline went through Katrina, but 16, flood 95% of parish County was flooded. Business and ISP, folks, and you can see this in chat. were impacted as were residences. How can I connect after this still stuck? Yeah, Mark, shoot me mail. You're on the team too. And Carl, and Wayne annuli. But you know, guys, you know, none of us are making any money. Here we're doing the right thing. That's what I'm talking about. We have a couple of vendors that are formulating how they can help. So sky kick out of Seattle, Washington, known for their migration tools. Billy, we had a great meeting with him the other day. And I see Stuart just emailed you while we're on the air. Stuart just emailed you with an update. So I'll follow up with you offline. But you know, Microsoft skykick. And they're doing it for the right reasons, at least been kind enough to say if if there is a PR opportunity. He's not i I'd say not opposed to that. But that's, that hasn't emerged as our primary motivation for getting help for Uli and Carl, you and I traded notes on that, right, that we wanted to be sensitive to the nature of the sensitive, right.

Karl Palachuk  43:06

So really, well, the other thing is to be honest. You know, if you're involved in the community, you can expect support. And so, you know, everybody on this call is here, because they're engaged in the community, you know, and we are more than just people who go out and make $1 and then go spend it, you know, and the community is literally worldwide. So, you know, whatever we can do to help. I mean, money is money's the easy thing, but if there's other things as we're offered, you know, this community is here to help. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Harry Brelsford  43:46

Any final comments? I see we have a little bit of a drop off in the attendance that's not a surprise on an afternoon. Again, I'm just thankful people stopped by estafa link tracing you out for words a comfort so I feel we reached our goal right it's just it wasn't you know, it's not a cherry Lewis telethon on Labor Day of yesteryear. A lot of you're too young to remember Terry Lewis just

Karl Palachuk  44:18

gonna say you're talking about aging yourself.

Ulrich Kirkegaard  44:24

Yeah, I mean, I just want to say thank you as well to everybody who participated here today and everybody who has been helping with the fundraiser and he's thinking and praying for Lahaina and Maui, it the biggest next stage for Maui is to come back on the map as a tourist destination. Don't be shut down the whole island and we shut down not only Lahaina but the whole island as we recover. We desperately need people to fly in and live in other areas and enjoy their vacation and other areas in his can come and help with something too, of course, but everybody is on unemployment right now and that during COVID, there was the same thing. Now, this is a little different because we have a localized little area that is in a recovery phase. But right now, as we come to September and October, I encourage people to come over and maybe stay in a different location and keep sort of keep our economy flowing. So that's my, my shadow. A little bit here.

Harry Brelsford  45:29

Yeah, I'm actually that's, that's a really valid point, folks with it again, you know, just to just to stick to the facts, but with the Ukraine invasion, I'm aware of people in my circle of friends that rented Airbnb units in Ukraine, and never went. And so that turned into a payment system. Right, that turned in that was, I call that off the rails in terms of financial transactions, which is great. So you're not you know, you're not everybody within international transactions, not taking $1 Out of the cash flow. Yeah, that was an off the rails thing but early, you could do that question I have an earlier Aska answer Carl Capps question if you could over in chat if you can see that house Kaanapali

Ulrich Kirkegaard  46:26

No, yeah, I see that. Yep. Your Counterparty is. It's okay. That was a little fire as well. Couple days ago, they knocked it down. Right away. Kind of Polly has been completely disabled in terms of electricity and internet. So weeds, so there was no none of the restaurant. So anything now kind of Polly has been emptied, completely empty for tourism. And it's only used for FEMA and other rescue workers and displaced members of the community from behind. So all the hotels are full of locals, female workers, none of the restaurants are operational. Kondapalli has a golf course it's closed down at this point as well. So they're not really defined not allowed to open up in the capacity they were previously. But as we find all like permanent kind of quote, unquote, places for the displays to live, people will move out of the hotels and move into other places and cannot live kind of Polly I call it Kannapolis but kind of Polly will become a tourist destination once again. Now once we head up north of kind of Polly ohana. Kawaii ohana, Nicky, Lee bluer, both places are still open. But there's really limited resources in terms of supermarkets and shopping. So if anybody comes over top or Costco or something on the way, that's, that's all of the but they are online, they have electricity. And people are mostly safe there. The fire has been put out.

Harry Brelsford  48:07

Yeah. Yeah. That may be the final question I have. And folks, again, we're going over time, but I'm cool if you're cool. The but the final question I have is, what's the hubbub on the street? Do you think you will have rock stars doing a rescue Maui Saturday or Sunday concert? Like, you know, Farm Aid, you know, you've seen these things. Right? They all come together and they do Farm Aid. Are you hearing anything? Maybe it's premature?

Ulrich Kirkegaard  48:42

Yeah, I mean, there has been a few already, and has been some, you know, more locally localized in Oahu Blaisdell Center in Honolulu that have benefited Maui, and they create awareness. They raise funds. And I think right now, there's a lot of places where we are overwhelmed with how many places there are to donate. And the question is, how is that money then well spent? Where who does the money go to? And how does that actually fall down to the people who needs it and when people need it, but today, primarily needed for which there's a lot of questions in terms of fundraising, and the outpour of funds is phenomenal. And it's really tough to say what is the you know, what is your fundraiser everybody has to find in their hearts place with their fundraising going to a concert and have a little bit of fun, maybe have some brew or something at the same time is another great way to support a good course and I hope to see something manifest shortly. I mean it. It will be super nice. I know Fleetwood had The restaurant on Front Street has completely gotten and he I was just gonna mention that he would rebuild. Yeah, he would, you know, want to rebuild again. One thing is to have the commitment and do it. It's just a wait state at this point.

Harry Brelsford  50:13

Oh, sure. Three weeks. Sure. Yeah, it's. Yeah.

Karl Palachuk  50:20

Very cool. Well, the ASCII group is going to do an event in Oahu in December. So with luck, you'll wander over for that. And people can shake your hand and buy you a beer

Harry Brelsford  50:32

there. Yeah, I actually emailed to Lisa, there had a marketing. In full disclosure, I don't know where super well, I get her press releases, and we tend to slap them up. Okay. I think she might join me in a chuckle. But I emailed her. Are you a member of ASCII group, really, because I emailed her about, you

Ulrich Kirkegaard  50:57

know, yesterday, I'm on on, you know, I remember close at one time is there at any one place you should join? It will be ASCII group. And so I joined and it's only been like, four or five months or something since I joined. And I'm signed up for that conference in December 7 in Honolulu. And as many folks can come, please come and join in. It seems to be a single day event, but there's a lot of other things surrounding it. You know, come the day before leave today to after spend a few days in Hawaii. That'd be fantastic. So I'm looking forward to seeing seeing folks there. And you're coming here.

Harry Brelsford  51:40

Well, I'll try. I'll try. I mean, you know, and again, I've always been honest with the community. I am doing my darndest I, I'm writing a large check for my son's wedding. It's it's in mid October in Vermont. So I'm doing my darndest. Okay, so I gotta I gotta spin the hamster wheel a little faster. But, you know, hey, I'm motivated. I mean, you know, I'm motivated. And it only takes one thing at SMB Nation and, you know, boom, airline tickets and hotel to Hawaii, right? Because I mean, I'm a small company. Now. It just doesn't. It's not that hard. And Karla and I have talked a lot about this. I like it. I don't want to be a big company again. It's just not me, you guys.

Karl Palachuk  52:31

I put my foot my Google ads on my Hawaiian Airlines card. So I have the mileage. So my plan is to be at the ASCII event there.

Harry Brelsford  52:40

Okay. All right. Well, hey, folks, just for a good I recognize many, many names on the screen. But let me just put it in chat one more time. If you want to join the A Team element out of San Francisco. Thanks, Alan, for joining us. That's a reasonably short flight for you to jump on. Come on down. I think the guy that recently passed away the game show host the prices right? So shoot me a note. And I early you get the final word. You get the final word. And Carl, I'll let you take us out. You could hit the leaf button.

Ulrich Kirkegaard  53:31

Wow. Well, thanks again, I wanted to say thank you, both to you, Harry and call us for getting me all rallied up and helped me with this, which is a huge up shake. I should basically be upside down in the camera, because that's how my life is right now. But having you folks and having the attention and getting all this help, and it really goes in here. And it helps me build a better future brighter future and helps me create hope for not only myself and my family, but take that energy and move that forward in the community. So, you know, as we say, Here, we will rise from the ashes. Maui strong. And thank you, everybody.

Karl Palachuk  54:19

Thank you. Very good. All right. Thank you. And Harry, thanks for putting this together.

Harry Brelsford  54:24

Yeah, yeah, no, thank you. All right, everybody have a great holiday weekend in the US.

Karl Palachuk  54:30

Here. There we go. All right, you know, putting up the wrong signals here

Harry Brelsford  54:36

from Austin, Texas. Okay, this is took him horns. Hey, as they say, Can't we all just get along? Right. All right, Carl, you have the honor of hitting the shutdown button. Have a great day. Aloha.