LAHAINA — While the physical search for victims is 99 percent complete, the FEMA official heading the Maui fire response says the quest to find loved ones is far from over.
“It’s really an investigation now for the Maui Police Department,” said Bob Fenton, the FEMA Region 9 administrator who is the federal government’s chief response coordinator for Maui.
“There is not much more our dogs or search and rescue teams can do but for the anthropologist, mortuary teams, the teams looking at the remains we recovered, it’s really for them to take it to the next step,” Fenton said in an interview with The Maui News at the Family Assistance Center at the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa.
As of Monday, the death toll remained at 115 people. So far 45 individuals have been identified with families notified. Another six individuals have been identified but their families have not been located or notified, according to Maui police.
“We’ve done everything that we could to our technical capability and found everything that the dogs hit on and now giving it to Maui Police Department,” Fenton said. “They have the maps. They have all the information.”
Divers from the U.S. Navy’s Mobile Diving Salvage Unit walk along Lahaina Harbor Monday after completing their search of all the boats in the harbor for human remains.
Fenton said some of the areas police could do additional checks on include locations “where we had a double dog hit yet nothing was recovered.”
https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2023/08/on-the-ground-search-for-fire-victims-nearly-over/
This article about the senior living facility that burned.
The non-profit that ran it is NOT providing information to the families of the former residents.
One guy, a man from Scotland, could not get his electric wheelchair through the doorway of his unit, in any case.
looks like no one survived. The place had 34 units.
more from the article:
Keshia Alakai was home in Pearl City with her family on Saturday afternoon when Honolulu police officers knocked on the door to deliver terrible news: her 79-year-old grandfather had died in the fire in Lahaina.
Alakai had been anxiously making calls and searching online for days, trying to find any clue about what had happened to Buddy J. Jantoc, a beloved local musician whose warmth and generosity had earned him the nickname “Mr. Aloha.”
Until his death was confirmed Saturday, Jantoc was one of several residents missing from Hale Mahaolu Eono, a 34-unit senior housing complex that was completely destroyed in the fire.
The ruins were still hot Thursday, but no emergency personnel could be seen. A folded up wheelchair, some ovens, and a stationary exercise bike stood in the rubble littered with porcelain cups and kitchen wares.
h/t beeches