The Maui County Sheriff’s Office: Bringing Back the Slave’s Footprint in the Burn–Zone of Lahaina
“There is positive news in this number, because when this process began, the missing person list contained over 2,000 names,” Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said via Instagram.
Parents, siblings and children of people who are unknown are being asked to provide samples of their saliva to help identify them. If you live on another island or the US, you can email the FBI at hn-command-post@ic.fbi.gov for a sample.
“We are both sad and relieved that there are so many casualties in these fires,” Bissen said, reflecting the mixed emotions facing families waiting to find out if their loved ones survived.
The question of where people might have found refuge, is based on where many survivors opened their homes to them, according to Bissen. In the burn zone of Lahaina the mayor said, “Obviously, there’s no one left in that area that would be alive.” But, he added, people might have found a place to stay who haven’t yet reached out to report themselves as safe.
The numbers will likely change repeatedly as recovery and identification work continues. He will be speaking to the media on Tuesday as well as the Maui community.
“Our lives have changed so much and will never be the same again,” Bissen said. The way that we care for each other as we grieve and go through this will be the same.
The scale of inner damage in a child’s mental health: John Oliver’s visit to the Lahaina community health clinic two days before his death
But the scale of the inner damage can be seen in the 5-year-old girl that Maui’s chief mental health administrator John Oliver saw the other day. The girl came with her mother into the Lahaina community health clinic, next to the main burn zone, clutching a green and purple plushy stuffed animal. She was withdrawn and afraid.
I asked her name and what she was doing, then asked about her stuffed animal. And she just offered up that ‘I’m sad.’ I apologized and asked why he was sad. And she said ‘I’m sad because I saw a lot of dead bodies.'”
The mom told Oliver that if her daughter misses her best friend, she is her best friend. She died in the fire.
Survivors are still dealing with physical challenges like where they’ll be living in the coming weeks and months. The need for mental health support is growing and the size of the emotional and psychological toll here is coming into sharper focus. Oliver said it was the worst mental health disaster in the state’s modern history.
“They’ve lost family, they’ve lost their pets. “They’ve lost everything,” says a clinical social worker. She says for some who had to flee the flames, the initial shock is now giving way to wrenching anxiety, nightmares, anxiety, depression and sometimes anger, as the depth of the trauma settles in.
Scott, a social worker, says that there’s a heaviness in the air as we’re destroyed. We’re not going to have all of the answers at the moment. She stopped her private practice to help the people who were displaced at the community center in South Maui. “We’re dealing with it.”
Evacuees at the south Maui shelter where Scott is working this week were offered the chance to move from shelter cots to much nicer accommodations in hotel rooms or Airbnb apartments. But several people did not want to go, Scott says, including an older man who felt safer in the shelter. Both of his hands were fully bandaged from serious burns. Scott went over to sit with him.
I called him and told him to listen and see how we can make him feel better about getting on the bus.
“It took some work but I did get him on that bus. And he was thankful to have his bags and he sure was thankful to have his flip flops. He needed his slippers, that was his need.”
Source: Massive mental health toll in Maui wildfires: ‘They’ve lost everything’
Mental Health in Maui Wildfires: ‘They’ve Lost Everything’ — American Red Cross Disaster Mental Health Manager Stu Coulson
“If you break it down to one word we are trying to give people hope,” says 17-year veteran American Red Cross disaster mental health manager Stu Coulson. “Right now it’s all about active listening, empathy and trying to connect people with services.”
Coulson has helped survivors navigate mental health needs in multiple, large disasters including the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, Calif., which until recently was the deadliest wildfire in modern history with at least 85 killed. The volunteer went to Maui from Iowa as soon as the scope of the disaster became apparent. “It’s the most devastating trauma I’ve experienced let alone that the clients I’m working with have experienced,” he says.
Maui behavioral health administrator Oliver said a fresh influx of mental health clinicians were being sought by state and federal officials. To make that easier, Hawaii’s governor issued an emergency order temporarily waiving the state-licensing requirement for counseling.
“Whether that is breathing, whether that is progressive muscle relaxation, whether that is mindfulness and meditative practices, just sitting, stretching, or talking story, making jokes,” she says.
Source: Massive mental health toll in Maui wildfires: ‘They’ve lost everything’
Vance and Rio: The Lost Home of a Maui Hotel Employees in Lahaina, South Dakota, After a Wild Fire
“This is my handsome boy and his name is Rio. I say he’s smart, smart and stubborn, he’s my best friend,” she said while introducing her dog. Vance lost her home in Lahaina in the wildfire. They are helping out with the Maui hotel employees affected by the fire.
People love him and he’s been taken to my sessions. We get talking about dogs and how are you, and what’s going on with you, so it gives a nice entrance to the conversations that need to be had.
The counselors had to flee a deadly fire and lose their home. Vance admits both she and Rio are weary. The fire survivors will be looking at their wounds for a very long time, as emphasized by the mental health professionals.
“I ran out of the house with the dress I had on and one other and Rio got back into the car and he gave me this look like ‘mom I just want to go home. Are we going to go home now?’ I looked at him and said that we don’t have a home, but I want to go home too. But we’ll make the best of what we’ve got.'”