Survivors of Maui fires face power cuts and poor cell service as teams work to find and ID the dead

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Survivors of deadly wildfires on Maui contended with intermittent power and unreliable cell service as they sought help rebuilding their lives.

Teams of people, meanwhile, laboured to find the dead and identify them.

With the death toll already at 106, a mobile morgue unit with additional coroners arrived in Hawaii on Tuesday to help with the grim task of sorting through remains. The governor warned that a new storm could complicate the search and recovery.

A week after a wildfire all but incinerated the historic town of Lahaina, communication on the island was still difficult. Some people walked periodically to a seawall, where phone connections were strongest, to make calls. Flying low off the coast, a single-prop aeroplane used a loudspeaker to blare information about where to get water and supplies.

Thousands of people are staying in shelters, in hotel rooms and Airbnb units, or with friends. Around 2,000 homes and businesses still don't have electricity, Maui County wrote Tuesday night, after the power company restored supply to over 10,000 customers. The fire also contaminated water supplies in many areas.

Victoria Martocci, who lost her scuba business and a boat, planned to travel to her storage unit Wednesday to stash documents and keepsakes given to her by a friend whose house burned.

"These are things she grabbed, the only things she could grab, and I want to keep them safe for her," Martocci said.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden plan to visit Maui next week and meet with survivors of the fires, as well as first responders and other government officials, the White House said Wednesday. Biden has pledged that "every asset they need will be there for them."

The blaze that swept into Lahaina last week destroyed nearly every building in the town of 13,000. That fire has been 85 per cent contained, according to the county. Another blaze known as the Upcountry fire was 75 per cent contained as of Tuesday evening.

The Lahaina fire caused about $3.2 billion in insured property losses, according to calculations by Karen Clark & Company, a prominent disaster and risk modelling company.

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