Lynette “Pinky” Iverson drove 'at least a dozen' people to safety in the back of her pickup truck.
Lynette "Pinky" Iverson has been a fixture in the Hawaiian town of Lahaina for years. Locals know her for her extravagantly self-decorated pickup truck and her chihuahua named Tiny.
"I got to my truck and it was already engulfed in flames around the tires," she told BBC News from the War Memorial Stadium emergency shelter, recalling how her ordeal began.On Friday, state officials confirmed the death toll had reached 67, making it officially the deadliest natural disaster in Hawaii's history.
As we spoke, I noticed something crawling around in the bedding only inches away from her dog. Without knowing what it was, I use my notebook to fling it into the ground, where she squashed it with her purple cowboy boot.It was a centipede, which is venomous, she and other evacuees in the shelter told me. Tiny could have died if stung, she added.
Without her phone, she says she's hopeful that her brother in Nevada will see that she spoke to the BBC and finally learn that she is safe.
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