HYANNIS – Amid the tragic Hawaiian wildfires, Maui County recently raised the number of confirmed deaths to 80, and Governor Josh Green warned that the toll would likely rise as search and rescue operations continue.
To assist in the efforts, the Red Cross of Massachusetts is working to provide assistance.
As Massachusetts residents return from vacations at the location while others wait to hear about loved ones caught in the situation, Kelly Isenor, Director of Communications for Red Cross of Massachusetts, said the organization is doing what they can to help.
“If you’re on the Cape, if you have a loved one in Hawaii that hasn’t made contact with you yet, you can call 1-800-Red-Cross, choose option 4 and you’ll be led through some voice prompts to get to the Hawaii wildfires. You can speak to one of our volunteers and tell them as much as you can about the loved one you haven’t heard from,” Isenor said.
The fires nearly wiped out Lahaina, the historic town of 13,000 people, and were still not fully contained as of Friday night, August 11, on some parts of the island.
Volunteers from the Red Cross of Massachusetts like Isenor, are helping support those affected by the wildfires by helping oversee shelters that have been set up on the island of Maui.
“Something that I don’t think anyone really ever made clear to me until I saw it in person is that shelters are not just for sleeping. People can go for a couple hours to just charge their phones, have a snack. There’s really a lot of activity that goes into these shelters,” said Isenor.
An updated damage assessment released overnight by Maui County of the Lahaina fire’s destruction shows that more than 80% of the 2,719 structures exposed to the fire were damaged or destroyed, the vast majority of them being residential.
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