'It's gone': stunned residents find nothing but ashes in Hawaii wildfire town
Hawaiian paradise. "The only thing I can say is that it hurts. It takes a toll on you emotionally," the 44-year old said.
"It sucks not being able to find the things you grew up with, or the things you remember." La Puente was one of dozens of people who were allowed back into what used to be Lahaina on Friday. The 12,000-strong town, which has stood on the island of Maui for hundreds of years, was once the proud home of the Hawaiian royal family. Thousands of tourists visit every year to soak up the atmosphere, to wander along the scenic harbor front, and to idle under a majestic banyan tree reputed to be the oldest in the United States.
An AFP team that walked through the town on Friday found the blackened corpses of cats, birds and other animals caught in flames that also killed at least 67 people. Electricity cables dangled uselessly from stricken poles, and small pockets of fire continued to burn. Spray-painted Xs marked the skeletal vehicles that lay in the street -- a sign to firefighters they have been checked for victims.
All through the town, there were piles of still-warm ashes where family homes once stood. Using the metal frame of a chair as a makeshift shovel, La Puente sifted through what was once his kitchen, uncovering a Starbucks tumbler. But the boxes of photographs and the mementoes from his 16 years in the house were gone -- including the treasured items of his late father.
"I had packed up my dad's belongings" hoping to sort through them at some point, he said. But that will never happen. Elsewhere there was shocked elation as neighbors hugged.
Read more on livemint.com
