PERSONAL: 'It's been so hard': Maui families search for missing loved ones

Record ID: 1737556

  • Title: PERSONAL: 'It's been so hard': Maui families search for missing loved ones
  • Date: 13th August 2023
  • Summary: MAUI, HAWAII, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 12, 2023) (REUTERS) JUNE LACUESTA (SOUNDBITE) (English) JUNE LACUESTA, MAUI RESIDENT, SAYING: “Hopefully I get all the resources that can help them right now. But I will continue until everything's sure. I will get behind all the, I will help everything that put the family needs in there, because I work in Lahaina.”
  • Embargoed: 27th August 2023 03:04
  • Keywords: HAWAII FIRES LAHAINA MAUI WILDFIRES MISSING FAMILY
  • Location: MAUI, HAWAII, UNITED STATES
  • City: MAUI, HAWAII, UNITED STATES
  • Country: US
  • Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Fires,North America
  • Reuters ID: LVA005416313082023RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: After three days of searching, June Lacuesta made his way into the Family Resource Center looking for his nine close relatives that disappeared following the Maui wildfires.
    Lacuesta says these past few days have been some of the hardest for him and the pain has been indescribable.
    “I would like to find the Quijano family, Coloma family and Villegas families, which is three days now that everybody's looking for them.”
    Lacuesta has posted photos of the 9 missing relatives through social media and has gone to multiple shelters to try and locate his loved ones. The resource center opened its doors on Saturday (August 12) and will be a one stop shop for relatives to get information across all shelters and customized counseling services.
    “Hopefully I get all the resources that can help them right now. But I will continue until everything's sure. I will help [with] everything that the family needs,” he said.
    As Lacuesta waits for news on his missing family members, others like Ed Gazmen received good news after leaving the resource center about his brother and sister in law.
    “Thank God through this family assistance, we are able to get the word that they are safe. But with the lack of communication and everything is so hard, so hard for a lot of families,” he told Reuters.
    As a longtime Lahaina resident, an emotional Gazmen is still in shock at the devastation, as his beloved town was set ablaze by the wildfires.
    "It's been so hard, very hard. Never, I think in my life, would I have imagined that we would have something like this. A catastrophe,” he said.
    The Family Resource Center is located at the Kahului Community Center and will be open to the public indefinitely, says Andrew Martin, Prosecuting Attorney for Maui County.
    The scale of the Maui wildfires' destruction came into sharper focus on Saturday, as officials warned the death toll of 80 would likely rise and search teams with cadaver dogs sifted through the charred ruins of Lahaina looking for more victims. According to Martin the number of missing residents is still unknown.
    (Production: Sandra Stojanovic Jorge Garcia)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2023. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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