The confirmed death toll stood at 106 on Tuesday when a field morgue arrived to help with the gruesome task of sorting the remains. The governor warned that a new storm could complicate the search and recovery of the victims.
A week after a fire nearly incinerated the historic town of Lahaina, communication on the island remained difficult. Some people walked to a breakwater where there was more signal to make calls. A low-flying single-engine plane around the coast used its loudspeakers to give information about where to get water and supplies.
Thousands of people were staying in shelters, hotel rooms and Airbnb apartments, or with friends. About 2,000 businesses and homes were still without power, Maui County said late Tuesday, after the power company restored service to about 10,000 customers. The fire also contaminated the water supply in many places.
Victoria Martocci, who lost her diving business and a boat, was scheduled to travel to her warehouse on Wednesday to store documents and memorabilia given to her by a friend whose house had burned down.
“These are things that she grabbed, the only things she was able to grab, and I want to keep them safe for her,” Martocci said.
The county also gave the names of two victims, Lahaina residents Robert Dyckman, 74, and Buddy Jantoc, 79. They were the first of five identified so far.
Agents with trained dogs were working to find the wreckage, said Gov. Josh Green, who warned of possible storms over the weekend.
“I want it to rain (…) but that’s why we are hurrying now to do all the recovery we can, because winds or downpours in that disaster environment (…) will make it even more difficult to conclude who we lost,” he said.
Crews have searched about 32% of the burned area, Maui County said, and Green has warned that dozens more bodies could be found. The fires are already the deadliest in the United States in more than a century.
The governor said that power outages were being considered as a precautionary measure during storms, amid investigations into whether power lines downed by the wind had been a factor in starting the fires, some of which were still burning.
Maui Police Chief John Pelletier reiterated his call for people with missing family members to come forward with DNA samples. They have received 41 samples so far, the county statement said, and 13 DNA profiles have been obtained from the remains.
Federal authorities sent a mobile morgue to Hawaii with forensics, pathologists and technicians to help identify the dead, said Jonathan Greene, deputy assistant secretary for response at the US Department of Health and Human Services. The morgue included more than 22 tons of equipment to identify victims and process remains, such as cadaver examination tables and X-ray units.
“This is going to be a very, very difficult mission,” Greene warned. “And patience will be extremely important because of the number of victims.”
Children were among the victims, the governor told Hawaii News Now. “When the bodies are small, we know it’s a boy.”
Some of the scenes found, he noted, are “too much to share or just to see from a human perspective.”
The fire that swept through Lahaina last week destroyed nearly every building in the town of 13,000. That fire was 85% contained, according to the county. The so-called Upcountry fire was 75% contained Tuesday night.
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Kelleher reported from Honolulu and Weber from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Bobby Caina Calvan in Kihei, Hawaii; Haven Daley in Kalapua, Hawaii; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Missouri; and Darlene Superville and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.
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FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
