Speculation still revolves around kids or whole families yet to be found. I kinda doubt that at this point because there haven't been many of such situations found so far - at least not reported. Of course, there were so me casualties in the water and some of those folks may never be found. It's puzzling that the "missing" number is so high. It can take a while for people to find each other after a disaster, but Maui is NOT a big place.
I wonder too if the "missing" count is based on more than one person reporting the same missing person. Folks can be known by different names to different people - depending upon relationships. I knew a guy who most people didn't even know his first name. He was called red due to his hair. His last name was so common that most would have said "Red Johnson" is missing while his family would say Derek Johnson is missing. YMMV
I don't think the "missing count" is from missing person reports. It also went back up to about 1150 today.
I personally think the death toll is going to be much higher than the 115 it stands at now but I'm beginning to suspect that the missing number is too high. I think a lot of people evacuated the island on the day of the fire when they were running all the evacuation flights.
I don't know what happened on those flights but they said they were working with TSA to expedite so it is possible the flights were operated "non-TSA." We already have some interisland flights where you don't go through TSA so it's not an impossible idea. But the aircraft involved would probably need to be searched and "sterilized" before flying to the mainland to ensure no one stashed a gun.
There were somewhere in excess of 30,000 people flown off of Maui in a little over 3 days. It would be easy to lose 1150 in that crowd. I don't know if they were requiring tickets or travel documentation so they may not have accurate names of those who left. Understand that a lot of people's IDs and other documents were destroyed or they were cut off from them.
From what I hear it was pretty chaotic. We were getting updates from a family member there (not Lahaina) who works as a nurse at Maui Memorial Hospital. They were preparing for mass casualties and were hearing rumors of lots of bodies (which turned out to be true) and a few other things.
That fire was burning fast and hot. I have not heard anything about the condition of the bodies they were finding, and I hate to get graphic, but it's very possible there are bodies that were burned beyond even what a cadaver dog can detect.
For those that are interested, there was a benefit concert on Sunday evening, because music is what the people of Hawaii do when facing challenges. It raised over $1 million! You can watch it at
Ola means healing usually so Mauiola means Healing of Maui.
Living in Hawaii is a whole lot different from visiting as a tourist, especially on the Neighbor Islands (not Oahu/Honolulu). It can sometimes feel like a third world country with both incompetence and corruption being rampant, and not just in government. (Koolau mentioned upthread about arcane building permit rules slowing down the rebuilding. Well, they are already ridiculously arcane!)
But times like this make me truly proud of our group of canoes (islands) in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. People are really coming together in remarkable ways! In addition to all the monetary and supplies donations, locals have set up "pods" like little villages where people in need can pick up supplies (almost all free). There is a Starlink access point where people can connect to the internet to check in with loved ones, etc. I'm not going to be critical of the FEMA, state, and county response but I am going to say that what the locals are doing is nothing short of amazing!
And Lahaina is going to need a Coit Tower because 17 of the 18 Maui fire fighters who were trying to fight the fire with dry hydrants and other obstacles lost their own homes while trying to protect everyone else's!
