Hawaii
911 calls capture chaos over the missing in deadly Hawaii wildfire
By Rebecca Boone, Claudia Lauer and Lindsay Whitehurst
Associated Press
LAHAINA, Hawaii — The day after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century destroyed a seaside community on Maui, the barrage of 911 calls didn’t stop: Reports of missing people, stranded family members and confused tourists trapped without food or water lit up the emergency lines every few minutes, interspersed with reports of new fires starting and older ones flaring back up.
The 911 recordings from the morning and early afternoon of Aug. 9 were the third batch of calls released by the Maui Police Department in response to a public record request. They show how first responders and emergency dispatchers — many of whom had already worked long hours during what was likely the most harrowing experience of their lives — continued to be hindered by limited staffing and widespread communication failures.
Several callers reached out to 911 throughout the morning asking for wellness checks for relatives or friends they couldn’t reach. Cell communications were still down in some areas. Authorities told people to call the non-emergency police number to file missing person reports or so that police could check with the Red Cross and other volunteers who had registered evacuees at the shelters.
But callers who couldn’t get through on the nonemergency line, turned to 911.
“My house is in Lahaina, in the fire area. And I have not been able to contact my husband. Is there any way that I can get someone to drive by the house?” a woman asked just after 1:30 p.m.
Another caller at about 9:45 a.m. called to report that his wife was missing.
“She should be in Lahaina. She went to work yesterday,” the caller told a dispatcher.
In one case, a 911 caller reported that a family missing their 15-year-old son had been “ignored.”
The operator answers were the same each time. Emergency responders weren’t able to help find missing people because they were still trying to get everyone to safety, still working hotspots and responding to fires. There weren’t enough officers to do house checks or wellness checks, but most of the town had been evacuated to the shelters.
They told callers to wait for cellphone communications to return and to keep trying the non-emergency line.
“I’m really sorry, that’s all I can give you right now,” one operator said.
Maui County and police officials did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on Saturday.
One hundred people died because of the Lahaina fire, and thousands of survivors remain displaced because their homes were destroyed or badly damaged.
Callers turned to 911 when information was scarce or when they heard contradicting information.
A handful of residents called to ask if the Lahaina Bypass had reopened, saying they had heard an announcement on the radio that it had opened for traffic. Emergency dispatchers repeatedly batted down the misinformation.
Early in the morning dispatchers rebuked some callers asking how to get to the airport, or what roads would be open, saying the line was for emergencies only.
One caller retold how he and his family while evacuating had grabbed an elderly couple to help them also get out of Lahaina. But he said the husband had gone with him and the wife had gone with his uncle, and they could not contact each other to reunite the couple.
“We don’t know what to do with him,” the caller said.
“You can bring him to one of the emergency shelters so he can rest and get something to drink,” the dispatcher told him, adding that once communications were back up, the volunteers there could help find his wife.
Dispatchers were forced to deal with sometimes impossible situations, trying to reassure people while also knowing resources were scarce.
An exhausted Lahaina survivor, walking along the highway south of town, called asking for help just before 1 p.m.
“Our house is all burned down and everyone is just passing us by. We’re dying out here. There’s like 12 of us, all like walking along the Pali,” he said, using a nickname for a coastal, cliffside portion of the Honoapiilani Highway. He asked for someone to pick the group up, saying he feared dying of heat exhaustion.
The dispatcher said there were no buses to come get them, but they could send ambulances if they needed.
Just before 11 a.m., someone from another island called on behalf of some Lahaina residents who lost their home and vehicles but had fled up the mountain, away from the burning town.
“She’s got her husband and their two children and then some neighbors,” the caller said. The group was safe from the fire, but had no food and water and no way to evacuate.
“I’m going to let the fire department know,” the dispatcher said, “but we are really short on resources. And they’re going to see what they can do.”
At that point, fire crews were still trying to extinguish the flames that had destroyed much of Lahaina, as well as fighting three other fires in and around the towns of Kula and Kihei. People living near those blazes continued to report flames at their properties and fires reigniting like they had in Lahaina.
In one case, a 911 caller reported seeing flames and hotspots on their property and trying to put them out with a garden hose that was rapidly losing pressure. Another reported that her husband and son were fighting a fire that had broken out on their ranch in the Upcountry region of Maui, but they feared they’d need help from a helicopter.
Some areas were still dotted with potentially dangerous downed power lines. One person who called several times in the morning reported that lines were sparking and smoking at her home in the Kula area and she and her husband were unable to turn the power off. They eventually did so with the help of a friend that worked at the power company.
Callers had trouble controlling their frustration at times. A woman called in tears saying her family had left their resort when the power went out the previous day.
“We slept in our car. We can’t get ahold of the hotel. My medication, my car keys, everything is there. My kid has autism. His medication is there. I just don’t know what to do,” she said.
The dispatcher offered to have a medic sent out for the woman’s son and also suggested she try to have her doctor call in a prescription. But she said no one was being let back into Lahaina.
KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii (KHON) — A strange glow in the night sky over Hawaiʻi Island is raising eyebrows – and questions – after a Kona resident captured unusual green lights on camera over the weekend.
Jake Asuncion says he was filming sunset near Keahole Point when he unknowingly recorded the phenomenon. It wasn’t until he got home and reviewed the footage that he noticed a faint green glow appear in the sky.
“I got home, I was going to post it, and then towards the end of the video I saw the green come out—I said, what was that?” Asuncion said. He said he enhanced the color to show the movement.
Curious, he returned the following night—and saw it again.
“I wanted to go back the next night and see if I could capture the same thing—and it came out even more the second night,” he said.
He said the glow appeared roughly 15 to 20 minutes after sunset, looking northwest toward Maui. While faint to the naked eye, the green hue was more visible through his phone camera.
The sightings have caught the attention of local astronomers, including Nick Bradley with Stargazers of Hawaiʻi, who says the color resembles aurora, but likely isn’t.
“It looked very interesting. The green color looks like aurora, but honestly, we don’t really get that in Hawaiʻi,” Bradley explained.
Data from the weekend shows no significant geomagnetic storm activity that would produce aurora visible in the islands. The KP index—a measure used to track aurora strength—was only between 3 and 4. By comparison, a rare aurora visible in Hawaiʻi in 2024 required a KP index of 8.
Bradley says other common explanations don’t seem to match what was captured either.
“Satellites look like small pinpoint lights moving across the sky, we see them every night. This doesn’t look like that,” he said.
He also ruled out meteor showers, lasers, and the well-known “green flash” that sometimes occurs at sunset, noting the lights appeared well after the sun had already set and higher in the sky.
The Army said there were no lasers being used or any training in that area.
The Hawaii Department of Transportation said Kona airport used to have a laser bird hazing gun, but it was red and would not come close in scale to what is shown in the photos. Standard airport rotating beacons also would not have the scale as shown in the photos.
Keck Observatories suggest it could be STEVE or ‘strong thermal emissions velocity enhancement,’ which is similar to aurora but seen further south than aurora. But not as much is known about STEVE and it’s typically seen with aurora present.
Astronomers note that smartphone cameras can enhance colors in low-light conditions, meaning the green glow may appear brighter on video than in real life.
Still, the exact cause remains unknown — and experts are asking the public to keep an eye out and capture the moment if they can.
“I would love more eyes on it — more data, the better,” Bradley said.
As for Asuncion, he plans to keep watching the skies.
“I just appreciate the beauty of nature and whatever comes,” he said.
Forecast for Big Island Windward and Southeast
| Shores | Tonight | Tuesday | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surf | Surf | |||
| PM | AM | AM | PM | |
| North Facing | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1-3 |
| East Facing | 3-5 | 3-5 | 2-4 | 2-4 |
| South Facing | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1-3 |
| Weather | Mostly cloudy. Occasional showers. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low Temperature | In the upper 60s. | |||||
| Winds | Northeast winds 5 to 10 mph, becoming north after midnight. |
|||||
|
||||||
| Weather | Mostly cloudy. Numerous showers. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Temperature | Around 80. | |||||
| Winds | Northeast winds 5 to 10 mph. | |||||
|
||||||
| Sunrise | 5:53 AM HST. | |||||
| Sunset | 6:42 PM HST. | |||||
Forecast for Big Island Leeward
| Shores | Tonight | Tuesday | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surf | Surf | |||
| PM | AM | AM | PM | |
| West Facing | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1-3 |
| South Facing | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1-3 |
| Weather | Mostly cloudy until 12 AM, then partly cloudy. Scattered showers. |
||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low Temperature | Around 70. | ||||||||
| Winds | Northwest winds around 5 mph, becoming east in the evening, then becoming southeast after midnight. |
||||||||
|
|||||||||
| Weather | Mostly sunny. Scattered showers. | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Temperature | In the lower 80s. | ||||||||
| Winds | Southwest winds around 5 mph. | ||||||||
|
|||||||||
| Sunrise | 5:57 AM HST. | ||||||||
| Sunset | 6:46 PM HST. | ||||||||
Surf along north and west facing shores will remain small through midweek. A small bump in surf is expected with the arrival of a northwest swell on Tuesday. An upward trend is expected during the second half of the week as another northwest swell arrives. This is likely to be followed by a larger northwest swell over the weekend, with surf heights nearing advisory level.
Surf along south-facing shores will remain small through much of the week, with mainly background south to southwest swell expected. Another south-southwest pulse may arrive by this weekend from recent activity within our swell window east of New Zealand, providing a small increase in surf. Surf along east-facing shores will remain relatively small and choppy through midweek, with a slight rise possible later in the week as trades strengthen.
NORTH EAST
am pm
Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.
Conditions: Semi choppy with ESE winds 5-10mph in the morning increasing to 10-15mph in the afternoon.
NORTH WEST
am pm
Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.
Conditions: Clean in the morning with ESE winds less than 5mph. Bumpy/semi bumpy conditions for the afternoon with the winds shifting W 5-10mph.
WEST
am pm
Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.
Conditions: Light sideshore texture in the morning with NNW winds 5-10mph. Bumpy/semi bumpy conditions for the afternoon with the winds shifting to the WNW.
SOUTH EAST
am pm
Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.
Conditions: Sideshore texture/chop with NE winds 10-15mph.
Data Courtesy of NOAA.gov and SwellInfo.com
HENDERSON. Nev. – A fundraiser was held at Liberty High School on Saturday to support victims in Hawaii still struggling to get back on their feet after Kona Low storms in March battered parts of O’ahu.
Shai Walter, owner of 2 Scoops of Aloha and one of the fundraiser’s organizers, said several businesses across the valley donated food, drinks, plates, and more for the fundraiser.
“We know the situation that they’re in. We’re far away, but we want to make sure we help from the Ninth Island,” Walter said. “All these businesses came together to actually do a fundraiser for our people.”
2 Scoops of Aloha, Grindz 2 Da Max, Shaka on Point, Al Pono Café, Ono Manju, Fresh Off the Boat, Mongos Hood, Leilani’s Attic, Ninth Island, Le Umu, Da Hawaiian Snack Man, Hapahoales, Noms, Maui Goddess, Sweet Kings, and Str8 Twisted are some of the businesses, organizations, and friends of the fundraiser’s organizers that made some form of donation to the fundraiser.
Cathi Minami, founder of Ninth Island Aunties, helped organize Saturday’s fundraiser. She said she moved to Las Vegas in 2001, but like many Hawaiians, never lost touch with the community on the Islands.
“We’re just trying to show that you know they’re thought of. They’re not forgotten. Our hearts are still with them, and Hawaii will always be our home,” Minami said. “So we wanted to see what we can do.”
Minami said that although her family was not severely impacted by the March storms and flooding, the tight-knit inner circles she is a part of tie her to a lot of families who are struggling to get back on their feet from the storms.
“Over 70 families, two of which have lost their homes. So we’re just trying to show that they’re thought of. They’re not forgotten. Our hearts are still with them and Hawaii will always be our home,” Minami said.
Minami said funds raised from Saturday’s event will go towards Vibrant Hawaii, a non-profit that is currently working to help impacted families directly in Hawaii.
The 9th Island Cultural Club of Las Vegas is hosting a breakfast fundraiser for the victims on Sunday, April 26, at the North Rainbow Boulevard Applebee’s Location between 8 am and 10 am.
Another breakfast fundraiser is planned on May 2.
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