RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Virginia relief groups are forming plans to help people who lost everything in the raging wildfires on the island of Maui.
At least 55 people are dead and hundreds of buildings have been destroyed, and those numbers could continue to climb.
The fires hit particularly close to home for D’Anne Graham-Remocaldo, who moved to the town of Lahaina after high school and lived there for several years before moving back to Richmond.
“Lahaina is just magic. There’s no other place in the islands like it,” she said.
But now, that magical place has been destroyed. She said her family’s home and her loved ones’ houses and businesses were burned in the fire.
“It’s all gone and I just can’t wrap my head around it,” she said.
Though her immediate family is out of harm’s way, Graham-Remocaldo is still trying to get in touch with relatives who are living on the island.
“There are other friends that we haven’t accounted for and now that the fires are down and they’re starting to go through, I just feel like our luck isn’t going to hold out,” she said. “That everybody we know, and love isn’t going to have made it out.”
While Graham-Remocaldo and others wait with bated breath, local help from Central Virginia is on the way. Two Red Cross volunteers flew out to Hawaii from Richmond International Airport on Friday morning.
Jonathan McNamara, with the American Red Cross Virginia Region, said a total of six volunteers flew out from Norfolk, Richmond and other coastal areas across the state to get aid on the ground in Hawaii.
“Some volunteers will be assisting with emergency shelters,” he said. “Other volunteers that will be engaged in the delivering relief supplies, mental health services as well as medical services that, based on what we’re hearing from on the ground, are going to be so critical.”
The death count now sits at 55, and that number could go higher as the search continues to find people who are still missing. In addition to the loss of life, the wildfires caused widespread damage in Lahaina.
Gary LeBlanc, the founder of Portsmouth-based Mercy-Chefs, said he deployed teams to west Maui this week to provide homecooked meals to victims of the fires.
“We’ve worked a lot of wildfires and we’ve worked a lot overseas,” LeBlanc said. “We’ve not seen a situation quite like this in our 18-year history.”
Graham-Remocaldo hopes that the efforts of the volunteers will be able to bring some much-needed help to those dealing with the aftermath in Maui.
“It’s going to require the best of everyone to bring it back, and bring it back for the local people,” she said.
