Oprah Winfrey shared a video to Instagram on Sunday (August 13th), describing her experience at the War Memorial Stadium amid the devastating wildfires in Maui. The famous talk show host announced she will be making a “major donation” to help rebuild the island.
“You know what this week has taught me is that when you don’t know what to do … You do whatever you can,” Winfrey said in the video. “At some point, I will make a major donation after all of the smoke and ash have settled here and we figure out what the rebuilding is going to look like.”
The Color Purple actress also recalled meeting “so many incredible people” at the evacuation shelter, including a man named Julius. “I said, ‘Julius, tell me what you need,' because his legs were covered in bandages where he had to run to escape the fire,” she recalled. “He said to me that he could ‘feel his skin popping’ as he was running. He got out of his car because the tires were melting and he couldn't move forward and just started to run.”
Winfrey added, “And when I said, ‘tell me what you need’ he said, ‘Mam, I need nothing. My life is now my greatest gift. I have my life.'”