'Burnt down to ashes': Families search for missing people in Maui as death count climbs

Two days after rapidly spreading wildfires began rcing through areas of the island of Maui in Hawaii, families and friends are still hoping to hear from missing loved ones. 

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Thursday 53 people had died and the death toll will likely continue to rise. Search and rescue operations were continuing, Green said.

More than 1,000 structures were destroyed by fires that are still burning in Lahaina and surrounding areas. “Lahaina, with a few rare exceptions, has been burned down,” the governor told The Associated Press.

Families search for missing people online

Some turned Thursday to a crowdsourced online effort as a combination of power outages and cell phone signal loss has left them out of contact. The spreadsheet created by Maui resident Ellie Erickson and shared widely on social media showed people from around the globe trying to reach people they know on the island. 

Many of the names on the list had been accounted for, scattered at emergency shelters, the airport or turning up with family members. But hundreds of people were still marked “not located” and more names were being added. 

Erickson created the spreadsheet Wednesday morning after seeing Facebook posts get flooded with comments by people looking for their loved ones. 

“I noticed a need for people because the Facebook comments were just getting overwhelming with people posting the same people or someone being found and nobody being able to find that information,” Erickson told USA Today. 

Many areas in Maui still don’t have power or cell service and many phones are dead, Erickson said, making it “nearly impossible for people to get in contact even if they are safe.”

“It’s been super hard seeing the names of people that I know and care about that haven’t been found yet,” Erickson said. “However, being normally the person who gets notified when people are found is so special– that feeling when somebody is safe– it makes it really all worth it.” 

Erickson said he hopes the spreadsheet will help streamline the process of people finding out their loved ones are safe and accounted for, rather than having to go through thousands of posts and comments on Facebook. 

“I really hope that it can be kind of a place where if people are wondering about their friends, their loved ones, if they know somebody is safe they can come onto here and hopefully just give people peace of mind,” Erickson said.

‘A real big relief’: families reconnect with loved ones

Alexis Plume, a resident of Haiku– about 34 miles from Lahaina– was finally able to call her brother’s best friend, whose family lives in Lahaina, Thursday morning after not hearing from them since the fires first started because cell service had been down in the area.

"It’s a real big relief,” Plume said. “Everything is really hard to watch and we’re all just sort of trying to figure out what we can do.”

There is “no central location for disaster relief that everyone [can] go to,” Plume said, which makes it even more difficult to keep track of missing people. She said most residents are turning to Facebook, which has “the most up-to-date, firsthand account information.”

“It’s just devastating on so many levels. Aside from all the historic losses, we still don’t know how many people didn’t make it out of Lahaina," Plume said.

Netblocks, a cybersecurity company, has been monitoring the network connectivity and found Lahaina still remains largely disconnected as of Thursday.

“It's crucial to remain patient if you're trying to reach loved ones in the region,” said Alp Toker, founder and director of the company, on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Connectivity challenges may make communication sporadic but rescue efforts are ongoing so don't lose hope.”

Tianne Yamashita, a resident of Wailuku, Maui, said a short- and long-term plan for housing is “crucial for locals in Hawaii who already were struggling to find affordable rentals and places to live.”

“I can’t even begin to imagine how any of these families are going to be able to rebuild, literally from the ground up,” Yamashita said. “The goal after search and rescue and making sure everyone is safe is to actually keep Hawaii families on island and able to live here still.”

Searching for family in Maui

Leomana Turalde's mother called him on the phone crying Wednesday morning, saying she never went to sleep on Tuesday night in Maui amid the massive fires.

Turalde said he has several “aunties” who live on Maui, two blocks away from Lahaina’s popular Front Street. Wednesday morning, one of the women went missing, he told USA TODAY. It is impossible to get in touch with some people because cellphone infrastructure on Maui burned down, he said.

“Lahaina Town is now burnt down to ashes,'' said Turalde, 36, who runs a sunscreen company. "Most of the families on Maui, if you never made contact with your family before sunset last night, you’re still trying to figure out where they are.”

On Thursday, Leomana Turalde was at Maui's Maalaea Harbor, about 16 miles east of the worst damage at Lahaina, where he was headed to help find missing people. “In every parking lot on the island” it seemed there were families sleeping in their rental cars Thursday morning, with nowhere else to go, he said.

There were still some small fires burning throughout Maui Thursday, Turalde, 36, told USA TODAY. There was also heavy traffic around National Guard checkpoints and chain stores are shut down, he said.

Turalde said he's most worried about friends and one cousin who are part of Maui’s homeless community.

“They’re all devastated,” he said.

“If I can help out those people, that’s kind of my main concern because nobody really cares about the homeless person with no ID,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.