Oprah Winfrey has visited an emergency shelter on the fire-ravaged island of Maui to highlight the plight of evacuees.
Hawaii News Now reports that Winfrey said on her visit Sunday that it's critical that aid gets to residents fast. The TV icon is also a part-time Maui resident.
A state official in Hawaii says the search-and-rescue operation in Maui is taking painstaking efforts to finds survivors and victims of last week's deadly mass fire. The number of confirmed deaths stood at 96 around 9 p.m. Sunday, Maui County said in a statement. That number is expected to rise.Former President Barack Obama has appeared in a video promoting a live telethon on Monday to raise funds for the American Red Cross of Hawaii in support of its relief effort for wildfire victims.
"If all of us, the Ohana, pull together and do as much as we can to give back to an island and a town and people who have given us so much, I'm absolutely confident that Lahaina and Maui and those families are going to be able to rebuild," Obama said.It’s tough to see some of the images coming out of Hawai’i — a place that’s so special to so many of us. Michelle and I are thinking of everyone who has lost a loved one, or whose life has been turned upside down.
FEMA is overseeing the federal response in Hawaii with 416 personnel including FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell. "I will tell you this, as a physician, it is a harrowing sight in Maui," Green said."When those providers, the police and this division, do come across scenes in houses or businesses it is very difficult for them because they know, ultimately, they will be sharing with our people that there have been more fatalities. I do expect the numbers to rise.
Several parishioners from Maria Lanakila Catholic Church in Lahaina attended the Mass, about 10 miles from the epicentre of the destruction. JP Mayoga, a cook at the Westin Maui in Kaanapali, is still making breakfast, lunch and dinner on a daily basis. But instead of serving hotel guests, he's feeding the roughly 200 hotel employees and their families now living there after Tuesday's deadly fire ravaged Lahaina just south of the resort.
Lahaina residents said they found comfort and hope in community solidarity. But for many, the shock of the loss was only intensifying. Richy Palalay so closely identifies with his Maui hometown that he had a tattoo artist permanently ink"Lahaina Grown" on his forearms when he was 16."Lahaina is my home. Lahaina is my pride. My life. My joy," he said in a text message.
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