Media mogul Oprah Winfrey has faced backlash by Hawaii residents, who blame her over her response to the Maui wildfires.
Winfrey spent half her time in Maui and half in her Montecito, California home. Earlier this year, she bought an additional 897 acres of agricultural land on Maui for 6.6 million dollars.
The media mogul was spotted supporting survivors at an emergency shelter at Wailuku’s War Memorial Complex, where CBC News crew filmed her handing out supplies.
However, social media users slammed the former TV talk show host for attempting to bring cameras inside the evacuation center.
When the CBS news crew was denied entry by staff members, she later returned alone to help out.
The star’s home was untouched by the deadly four-day fire that burned down homes, businesses, and land, which sparked more conspiracy theories.
She and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos are being blamed for the aftermath residents have had to endure.
A viral video clip from a Maui County Council meeting on Tuesday, August 22, showed a woman known as “Auntie” who complained about the lack of urgency to put the fires out.
“Nobody called us! Our phones didn’t work from 5 in the morning. The fire was not until 10 o’clock when I went to work.”
She noted that there was no water for hours and no warning from the government.
The woman also doesn’t believe it’s a coincidence that the city has been destroyed.
“Everybody talking about the satellite city before the fire. Lahaina gonna be the first satellite city!” “Well, hey, Jeff Bezos, you got what you wanted, Oprah, you got what you wanted … f—k us over!”
“That’s what happened. We need help in Lahaina. Whose gonna come now and ask us can I pray for you?” she said.
The woman added that residents received nothing but a $700 check, but they have “no clue who to call or anything. It’s culturally insensitive in that zone.”
The 69-year-old has gained more than 110,000 followers on social media in the past 30 days, including 92,000 on Instagram and 20,000 on TikTok. But she appears to have lost subscribers on X, formerly known as Twitter, with more than 60,000 unfollows.
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