One hundred people or more have been tentatively removed from the list of those unaccounted for in the aftermath of the deadly Lahaina wildfire, authorities said Friday.
As divers continued to scan the nearshore waters for people who may have died while trying to escape the inferno, Maui officials announced a new leader for the Maui Emergency Management Agency: veteran emergency manager Darryl Oliveira from Hawaii island.
Maui Police Chief John Pelletier told a news conference Friday afternoon that authorities received hundreds of phone calls and emails with information about people on the list since it was released to the public Thursday.
The contacts provided enough information to tentatively strike at least 100 people from the list, said Steven Merrill, special agent in charge of the FBI Honolulu Division.
“They were found safely and recorded to be safe and sound,” Merrill said.
The names were not released because officials are still verifying the information and making sure those identified from the list are still alive, Pelletier and Merrill said.
“We still understand that there are hundreds more that we’re still looking for, and we will not stop until we find those people,” Merrill said.
Pelletier said the ongoing massive urban search and rescue effort largely was set to end Friday with 99% of the disaster zone cleared of human remains. All that is left, he said, are rechecks and the search offshore.
The death toll from the deadliest U.S. wildfire in the past century remained at 115 Friday but is likely to rise as coroners go through the remains, some of which may have commingled, the chief said.
Of the confirmed fatalities, 38 have been identified and their families notified, while seven have been identified but their families have not been located or notified, officials said.
The 388 people on Thursday’s unaccounted-for list are people authorities have some information on, Merrill said, but there are hundreds of other names on a larger list where there is less information.
“We care about every single person on that list, and we will not rest until we know how each of those people are doing on that list,” he said. “If you and your family are looking for someone still and haven’t reported it, we want to know that so we can work together as a group to find those people. “
Pelletier said officials want to issue an updated list of those unaccounted for, “but we’re going to do it right, not fast.” He said it will probably end up being a weekly update.
One of those who contacted the county about a missing relative was a person from a foreign country, the chief said.
“They said, ‘This is my father.’ They circled where they lived. They gave photos, they gave numbers. They gave a whole lot more detail than we had. So those things are beyond helpful,” Pelletier said.
Also at the news conference, Maui Mayor Richard Bissen announced the appointment of Oliveira, former head of Hawaii County Civil Defense, as interim administrator of the Maui Emergency Management Agency.
The former chief of the Hawaii County Fire Department succeeds Herman Andaya, who resigned in the days following the Aug. 8 disaster and in the wake of the controversial decision not to activate emergency sirens to warn the people of Lahaina of the ferocious fire.
This is the second time Hilo-born Oliveira has come out of retirement. In 2014 he accepted the job of civil defense chief in Hawaii County, and that year he oversaw emergency operations during Tropical Storm Iselle and a Kilauea lava flow.
Oliveira arrived on Maui on Wednesday and visited Lahaina on Friday. He told reporters he’s already “dialed in” with what’s happening on the ground.
“On behalf of myself, my family, people on the Big Island, across the state, we are so sorry about what Maui has experienced. I’m here to support the mayor and his team, work with all the agencies, the community and to help things move forward and progress so that Maui can recover quickly and effectively as possible,” he said.
Oliveira will officially take over day-to-day operations Monday and be based out of the Maui County Emergency Operations Center.
Maui Fire Chief Bradford Ventura said 50% of the nearshore waters around Lahaina were searched last week, with no bodies found as of Friday afternoon.
The Maui Fire Department and Ocean Safety Bureau are working with personnel of the U.S. Coast Guard, state Department of Land and Natural Resources, Maui Police Department, Honolulu Fire Department, U.S. Navy and FBI in the underwater operation, he said
The search began last week after the waters were deemed safe enough for divers. For the past six days, 40 to 50 personnel have been combing the nearshore water daily for human remains, starting in the Lahaina Harbor area.
Going forward, the search will focus on the harbor area south to the Puamana area.
“Thus far, we have not recovered any bodies. However, we’ve accounted for a lot of personal effects,” Ventura said. A purse, for example, was found with personal items in it that was returned by police to a survivor of the fire.
An area that was well known to have been a place where people jumped into the water to escape the flames was searched to “a very, very, very high degree,” Ventura said. “And they were basically leaving no stone unturned.”
Ventura said the ocean search likely will wrap up today.
Bissen said that after the whole search effort concludes, the Environmental Protection Agency will start a cleanup of hazards and toxic materials, including some dangerous propane tanks that still exist. The mayor said the EPA will move the toxic materials out of state.
After that, building and health inspectors will sweep across Lahaina and examine structures and properties, soil, ash and air quality to determine whether it is safe for people to return.
“Those things have to happen first before people who are not suited up can go back into that location,” Bissen said, adding that a debris cleanup will follow.
Oliveira said many efforts in the recovery operation are moving concurrently.
“As the search and recovery mission is ramping down, we are leaning forward, moving into the next phase,” he said. The process of recruiting enough inspectors for the next phase has already started, he said.
Meanwhile, power was restored Friday to nearly all customers in the West Maui area, and crews were working to bring electricity back to the last Upcountry area still without service since the wildfires, Hawaiian Electric officials said.
Crews completed repairs for a majority of customers in the area from Launiupoko to Olowalu, officials said, and were working to restore power to 50 Upcountry customers.
More than 400 Hawaiian Electric employees and contractors from Hawaii island, Lanai, Molokai and Oahu are on Maui to help with restoration work, officials said.
Maui’s Division of Motor Vehicles and Licensing in Kahului will be open today to assist customers having difficulty visiting offices during normal weekday hours.
Appointments are available from 8 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Saturday at the service center at 110 Alaihi St. and are reserved for people completing a single transaction for themselves at mauicounty.gov/1328/Motor-Vehicle- Licensing.
Walk-ins will be accepted from 8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. for those affected by the Maui wildfires. For more information, contact the DMVL call center at 808-270-7363.
In addition, U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda and U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono are holding a federal resource fair from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. today at the Lahaina Civic Center Gymnasium.
Both will be on-site, along with a collection of federal agencies including the Social Security Administration, Veterans Benefits Administration, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and others, to help constituents who have lost personal documents in the fires.
A shuttle service will transport evacuees staying in Red Cross shelter hotels starting at 10 a.m. The shuttle will service the Honua Kai, Royal Lahaina, KBH, Westin Maui Kaanapali and Hyatt Hotel Kaanapali.
Elsewhere, FEMA opened a disaster recovery center on Friday in Makawao to help Upcountry Maui residents affected by the wildfires learn about local, state and federal assistance programs.
Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said affected residents are not required to visit the disaster recovery center to register for FEMA assistance, but the center is available for those who would like to speak to a FEMA specialist in person.
Specialists from the U.S. Small Business Administration, which provides low- interest disaster loans to homeowners, renters and businesses of all sizes, will also be at the center.
The Upcountry Maui Disaster Recovery Center is at Mayor Hannibal Tavares Community Center (Lower Multi-Purpose Room), 91 Pukalani St., Makawao, and is open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.
