Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

3 days ago

Trump Says He’s Willing to Let Migrant Farm Laborers Stay in US

3 days ago

US Electric Vehicle Tax Breaks Will Expire on Sept. 30

4 days ago

Eyeing Arctic Dominance, Trump Bill Earmarks $8.6 Billion for US Coast Guard Icebreakers

4 days ago

Trump’s Sweeping Tax-Cut and Spending Bill Wins Congressional Approval

4 days ago

Americans Celebrate Their Independence With Record-Breaking Travel Numbers

4 days ago

US Supreme Court to Decide Legality of Transgender School Sports Bans

4 days ago

Nvidia Set to Become the World’s Most Valuable Company in History

4 days ago

Poll: 41% in US ‘Extremely Proud’ to Be American, Near Historic Low

4 days ago
Maui Seeking More Than 800 Missing People After Deadly Wildfires
By admin
Published 2 years ago on
August 22, 2023

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

LAHAINA, Hawaii — Two weeks after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century swept through the Maui community of Lahaina, authorities say more than 800 people remain unaccounted for — a staggering number that presents huge challenges for officials who are trying to determine how many of those perished and how many may have made it to safety but haven’t checked in.

Something similar happened after a wildfire in 2018 that killed 85 people and destroyed the town of Paradise, California. Authorities in Butte County, home to Paradise, ultimately published a list of the missing in the local newspaper, a decision that helped identify scores of people who had made it out alive but were listed as missing. Within a month, the list dropped from 1,300 names to only a dozen.

“I probably had, at any given time, 10 to 15 detectives who were assigned to nothing but trying to account for people who were unaccounted for,” Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said in a phone interview. “At one point the local editor of our newspaper … said, ‘Hey, if you give me the names, I will print them.’ And at that point it was like, ‘Absolutely. Anything that we can do to help out.’”

But Maui authorities have opted not to publicize their list because it’s unclear whether privacy rules would prevent them from doing so, said Adam Weintraub, spokesman for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency. There are also concerns about further traumatizing families of those who are now listed as missing but may turn out to be dead, he added.

As of Monday, there were 115 people confirmed dead, according to Maui police. All single-story, residential properties in the disaster area had been searched and teams were transitioning to searching multi-story residential and commercial properties, Maui County officials said in an update late Monday.

“The names of, and any information related to the missing individuals, will not be published or be made publicly available at this time,” a Maui County spokesperson said via text message.

There are also widely varying accounts of the tally of the missing. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Sunday on the CBS News show “Face the Nation” that more than 1,000 remained unaccounted for. Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said in a pre-recorded video on Instagram that the number was 850. And during President Joe Biden’s tour of the devastation on Monday, White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall put it between 500 and 800.

The American Red Cross said it generates its own list — separate from law enforcement — of people who are unaccounted for through requests made to its call center and information gathered by its field teams, spokesperson Daniel Parra said. The organization has also entered into a data-sharing agreement with federal, state and local government agencies to help with reunifications.

So far the American Red Cross has successfully completed roughly 2,400 requests seeking reunification or welfare updates, out of the more than 3,000 it has received, Parra said. A completed request means the organization was able to locate a missing person or verify someone’s status in a medical facility, for example, among other things.

Cross-Checking Names

To find people, the organization cross-checks names with emergency shelter registration lists, calls hospitals to see if the person was admitted as a patient and combs through social media, among other steps, Parra said. When an individual is located, the organization provides their status to the person seeking information about them — with the individual’s consent — and closes the case in its system.

Social outreach like this will be crucial as identifying human remains after wildfires — and confirming whether those who are unaccounted for are deceased — can be an arduous, lengthy process. Fire experts say it’s possible some bodies were cremated in the Lahaina fire, meaning there may be no bones left to identify through DNA tests.

“Those are easy when destruction is modest,” said Vyto Babrauskas, president of fire safety research consulting firm Fire Science and Technology Inc. “If you go to the extreme of things — if turned to ash — you’re not going to be able to identify anything.”

Babrauskas added that damage from debris removal and excavation can also make recovery efforts difficult.

“This is such an extreme disaster,” he said. “It is so rare to need this kind of tallying and identification.”

Honea, the Butte County sheriff, said it took weeks to complete the search for remains in Paradise and his detectives worked 16-hour days to narrow the list of the missing. Today there is only one person who still remains unaccounted for, and Honea said he has reason to believe that person was not in town the day of the fire.

“We had this Excel spreadsheet with the people’s names and any of the different information we had,” he said. “We’d then start working the cases similar to the way you work any other case to try to locate somebody.”

That included visiting people’s last known residences, contacting telecommunications companies to see whether they had used their cell phones, and reaching out by email and social media.

“We were able to identify them through basically good old fashioned detective work,” Honea said.

Scuba instructor Tim Ferguson, whose home north of Lahaina was spared, was elated to hear about a friend who managed to flee the flames with their family, including a 2-week-old baby, a 3-year-old toddler and their two dogs. They lost their home but are safe.

He thought it would be good if authorities published a list of the missing the way Paradise did but said that might be of limited use now because cell service is still spotty in Lahaina. Everyone uses their cellphone to communicate, he said.

“There are so many of those who won’t have that ending. I don’t know how we come back from that,” Ferguson said.

The situation on Maui is still evolving rapidly, but those who have lived through similar tragedies and never learned of their loved ones’ fate are also following the news and hurting for the victims and their families.

Nearly 22 years later, almost 1,100 victims of the 9/11 terror attacks, which killed nearly 3,000, have no identified remains.

Joseph Giaccone’s family initially was desperate for any physical trace of the 43-year-old finance executive, who worked in the World Trade Center’s North Tower, brother James Giaccone recalled. But over time, he started to focus instead on memories of the flourishing man his brother was.

If his remains were identified and given to the family now, “it would just reinforce the horror that his person endured that day, and it would open wounds that I don’t think I want to open,” Giaccone said Monday as he visited the 9/11 memorial plaza in New York.

“So I am OK with the way it is right now.”

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

TikTok Building New Version of App Ahead of Expected US Sale, the Information Reports

DON'T MISS

Hamas Government Office Rejects US Accusation of Involvement in Gaza Aid Site Attack

DON'T MISS

Death Toll From Texas Floods Reaches 78, Trump Plans Visit

DON'T MISS

Trump Calls Musk’s Formation of New Party “Ridiculous” and Confusing

DON'T MISS

Fresno DUI Driver Slams Into CHP Motorcycle, Tow Truck on Highway 99

DON'T MISS

Russia Downs 120 Ukrainian Drones Overnight, Defense Ministry Says

DON'T MISS

Israel Sends Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Talks Ahead of Netanyahu Trip to US

DON'T MISS

San Luis Obispo’s Madre Fire Grows to Nearly 80,000 Acres, 30% Contained

DON'T MISS

Musk Announces Forming of ‘America Party’ in Further Break From Trump

DON'T MISS

Death Toll From Texas Floods Reaches 59, Including 21 Children

UP NEXT

Hamas Government Office Rejects US Accusation of Involvement in Gaza Aid Site Attack

UP NEXT

Death Toll From Texas Floods Reaches 78, Trump Plans Visit

UP NEXT

Trump Calls Musk’s Formation of New Party “Ridiculous” and Confusing

UP NEXT

Fresno DUI Driver Slams Into CHP Motorcycle, Tow Truck on Highway 99

UP NEXT

Russia Downs 120 Ukrainian Drones Overnight, Defense Ministry Says

UP NEXT

Israel Sends Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Talks Ahead of Netanyahu Trip to US

UP NEXT

San Luis Obispo’s Madre Fire Grows to Nearly 80,000 Acres, 30% Contained

UP NEXT

Musk Announces Forming of ‘America Party’ in Further Break From Trump

UP NEXT

Death Toll From Texas Floods Reaches 59, Including 21 Children

UP NEXT

California’s Politics Drifts Right While New York’s Leans Left

Wanted Fugitive Found Hiding in Attic Arrested in Chowchilla

2 hours ago

Trump Says US Will Impose 25% Tariffs on Japan, South Korea

3 hours ago

Wall Street Knocked Lower by Tariff Jitters, Musk’s Political Plan Hurts Tesla

3 hours ago

Trial Over Free Speech on Campus, and Trump’s Student Crackdown, Begins

3 hours ago

Planned Parenthood Sues Trump Administration Over Planned Defunding

3 hours ago

San Luis Obispo’s Madre Fire Injures 1 Firefighter, Burns Over 80,000 Acres

3 hours ago

Two Border Patrol Officers Injured After Gunman Opens Fire in Texas

3 hours ago

Fresno Police Arrest 9 at Independence Day DUI Checkpoint

4 hours ago

Schumer Wants Probe of National Weather Service Response in Texas

4 hours ago

Israeli Guilt Over Gaza Lurks Beneath Silence and Denial

4 hours ago

Man Dead After Firing at US Border Patrol Station in Texas

WASHINGTON – A 27-year-old Michigan man was shot dead by police after opening fire with an assault rifle on a U.S. Border Patrol stati...

1 hour ago

Photo of caution tape
1 hour ago

Man Dead After Firing at US Border Patrol Station in Texas

The Flume Fire in Sequoia National Forest has burned 65 acres near Highway 190 with no containment as of Monday, July 7, 2025, prompting evacuations in Tulare County. (CalFire)
2 hours ago

Tulare County Flume Fire Burns 65 Acres in Sequoia National Forest, Evacuation Order Issued

Firefighters stopped the forward progress of the Fish Fire near Avocado Lake after it burned 15 acres Monday, July 7, 2025, reaching 50% containment. (CalFire)
2 hours ago

Fresno County Fish Fire Burns 15 Acres Near Avocado Lake, 50% Contained

Gary White, 42, a wanted fugitive, was arrested in Chowchilla after deputies found him hiding in an attic and he surrendered without incident on Thursday, July 3, 2025. (Madera County SO)
2 hours ago

Wanted Fugitive Found Hiding in Attic Arrested in Chowchilla

Containers on a cargo ship are pictured at an industrial port in Tokyo, Japan, July 2, 2025. (Reuters File)
3 hours ago

Trump Says US Will Impose 25% Tariffs on Japan, South Korea

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., June 30, 2025. (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)
3 hours ago

Wall Street Knocked Lower by Tariff Jitters, Musk’s Political Plan Hurts Tesla

Protesters march near the campus of Columbia University in upper Manhattan to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and former Columbia student, on March 14, 2025. A federal judge in Boston on Monday, July 7, 2025, will hear opening statements in a trial expected to present the foremost challenge to the Trump administration’s aggressive posture toward foreign students who espoused pro-Palestinian views. (Dave Sanders/The New York Times)
3 hours ago

Trial Over Free Speech on Campus, and Trump’s Student Crackdown, Begins

Activists for Planned Parenthood demonstrate as the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments in South Carolina's bid to cut off public funding to Planned Parenthood, in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 2, 2025. (Reuters File)
3 hours ago

Planned Parenthood Sues Trump Administration Over Planned Defunding

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend