Public schools on Maui started the process of reopening and traffic resumed on a major access road in signs of recovery a week after wildfires demolished a historic town and killed at least 110 people.
At least three schools untouched by flames in Lahaina, where entire neighborhoods were reduced to ash, are being assessed after sustaining wind damage, said Hawaii Department of Education superintendent Keith Hayashi. The campuses will open when they’re deemed safe.
“There’s still a lot of work to do, but overall the campuses and classrooms are in good condition structurally, which is encouraging,” Hayashi said in a video update. “We know the recovery effort is still in the early stages, and we continue to grieve the many lives lost.”
Elsewhere on Maui, crews cleaned up ash and debris at schools, and tested air and water quality. Displaced students who enroll at those campuses can access services such as meals and counseling, Hayashi said. The education department is also offering counseling for kids, family members and staff.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency opened its first disaster recovery center on Maui, “an important first step” toward helping residents get information about assistance, FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell said Wednesday. They also can go there for updates on their aid applications.
Criswell said she would accompany President Joe Biden on Monday when he visits Maui to survey the damage and “bring hope.”
Meanwhile, transportation officials said the Lahaina Bypass Road, closed since Aug. 8, was open again, allowing residents access to some areas near the burn zone during specified hours.
Herman Andaya, Maui Emergency Management Agency administrator, defended not sounding the sirens during the fire.
“We were afraid that people would have gone mauka,” he said, using the Hawaiian directional term that can mean toward the mountains or inland. “If that was the case then they would have gone into the fire.”
There are no sirens in the mountains, where the fire was spreading downhill.
Hawaii created what it touts as the largest system of public safety outdoor alert sirens in the world after a 1946 tsunami that killed more than 150 on the Big Island of Hawaii. Andaya said the sirens are primarily meant to warn of tsunamis. The website for the Maui siren system says they may be used to alert for wildfires.
With the death toll rising to 110, a mobile morgue unit with additional coroners arrived in Hawaii on Tuesday to help with the grim task of identifying remains.
Search and recovery crews using cadaver dogs had covered about 38% of the burn area by Tuesday, officials said. The number of canine teams was increasing to more than 40 because of the difficulty and scope of the operation, FEMA said. The dogs need to rest frequently because of the terrain and heat.
Searchers combing through the ashes found some of Lahaina’s most vulnerable residents, including children, among the victims. Gov. Josh Green said this week that teams found a family of four killed in a charred car and the remains of seven family members inside a burned-down house.
“Some of the sights are too much to share, or see, just from a human perspective,” Green told Hawaii News Now on Tuesday.
Just more than a quarter of Lahaina’s 13,000 residents are younger than 18, according to Census Reporter, an organization that analyzes U.S. Census data. About 10% are age 71 or older.
Kimberly Buen was awaiting word Wednesday of her father, Maurice “Shadow” Buen, a retired sport fisherman who lived in an assisted-living facility that was destroyed.
The 79-year-old was blind in one eye, partially blind in the other and used a walker or an electric scooter to get around. In recent weeks, he also had swollen feet.
