Maui fires death toll rises as families cling to hope for survivors

Crews and cadaver-sniffing dogs will certainly find more of the missing within the destruction, he said.

Satellite photos showed the scale of the destruction with city blocks scorched by the wide bands of fire.

He predicted the tragedy could rank as Hawaii’s deadliest natural disaster ever.

It was an ominous signal of the anguish to come in the months ahead. Mourners will file into houses of worship, then sombrely gather at gravesites to say final goodbyes.

The scenes will be repeated over and over — though how many times no one yet knows.

Maui officials declined to respond to phone calls, text messages and emails requesting information about how and where the county are sheltering the recovered remains.

Nor did they answer questions about whether the county has the facilities and resources to handle the rising number of fatalities.

With just one hospital and three mortuaries, it remains unclear where all those corpses will be temporarily stored and how soon they will be released to family.

Others were still waiting for news.

Lylas Kanemoto is awaiting word about the fate of her cousin, Glen Yoshino.

“I’m afraid he is gone because we have not heard from him, and he would’ve found a way to contact family.

We are hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst,” Kanemoto said Sunday. Family members will submit DNA to help identify any remains.

The family was grieving the death of four other relatives.

The remains of Faaso and Malui Fonua Tone, their daughter, Salote Takafua, and her son, Tony Takafua, were found inside a charred car.

“At least we have closure for them, but the loss and heartbreak is unbearable for many,” Kanemoto said.

J.P. Mayoga, a cook at the Westin Maui in Kaanapali, is still making breakfast, lunch and dinner on a daily basis.

But instead of serving hotel guests, he’s been feeding the roughly 200 hotel employees and their family members who have been living there since Tuesday’s fire devastated the Lahaina community just south of the resort.

His home and that of his father were spared. But his wife, two young daughters, father and another local are all staying in a hotel room together, as it is safer than Lahaina, which is covered in toxic debris.

Maui water officials warned Lahaina and Kula residents not to drink running water, which may be contaminated even after boiling, and to only take short, lukewarm showers in well-ventilated rooms to avoid possible chemical vapor exposure.

“Everybody has their story, and everybody lost something. So everybody can be there for each other, and they understand what’s going on in each other’s lives,” he said of his co-workers at the hotel.

Amid Lahaina’s devastation, the Maria Lanakila Catholic Church suffered smoke damage, but the convent and school were destroyed, said the Most Reverend Clarence “Larry” Silva, the Bishop of Honolulu.

“Funerals are not yet on the horizon,” he told The Associated Press.

“Even in the best of times, Hawaii has the custom on having funerals anywhere from a month to six months after the death.”

Lahaina resident Riley Curran said he doubted that county officials could have done more, given the speed of the flames.

He fled his Front Street home after seeing the oncoming fire from the roof of a neighbouring building.

“It’s not that people didn’t try to do anything,” Curran said. “The fire went from zero to 100.”

AP

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