Maui resident Dustin Kaleiopu, who evacuated due to the wildfires, said Thursday that he has lost his home.
“I can say everything in Lahaina is gone,” he told CNN, adding that the aerial footage of how his hometown had transformed overnight was “devastating to see.”
“Everyone that I know and love, everyone that I’m related to, that I communicate with, my colleagues, friends, family — we’re all homeless,” he said.
Kaleiopu said he and his grandfather met up with his brother and mother after evacuating to the other side of the island.
“That is when we learned that our house was gone. My mom’s house was gone. My brother’s house was gone. Everything was set ablaze,” he said.
Kaleiopu said he has not been able to establish contact with a lot of his family members.
“I have extended family, my grandmother, my uncle, my friends, family members that we’re looking for,” he said. “So many people have gone missing. I will say that that is an unspoken fact that the death toll is way higher than 36. And we just hope that it is not confirmed to be, like I said, too much higher than that number. But there was a mass casualty event that happened this week,” he said.
