A resident of California died during the fires in Hawaii: she saved up for this vacation for many years

A California woman has become the first tourist to be identified as one of 115 confirmed wildfire victims on the island of Maui. She died just a day before she was due to fly home. The edition told in more detail New York Post.

Photo: IStock

Teresa Cook, 72, from Pollock Pines in Eldorado County, was among eight victims identified by island authorities on August 22.

She was staying at the Best Western Pioneer Inn and was last seen near the island's famous banyan tree at 17:30 p.m. on Aug. 8 — around the time a massive fire engulfed historic downtown Lahaina.

Just a day later, Cook was supposed to fly home to Sacramento, California.

Neighbors recalled that she recently shared how she finally saved up money for a big trip to "rest and be alone."

“She wrote to us and said that she was having a great time and the island is very healing,” shared Cook’s daughter Melissa Kornweibel.

“It was incredibly beautiful there,” said the son of the deceased woman, Adam Cook. “She definitely liked it.”

On the subject: How to help victims of the fires in Hawaii: reliable funds

Her children hoped for weeks that their mother might have miraculously survived the fire while they tried to get any information about her whereabouts.

Kornweibel contacted the hotel manager and another guest to see if people had been evacuated.

She learned that the guests had been evacuated, but her mother was missing.

For nine days, they searched the Red Cross and the Coast Guard for answers, and reached out to people on Facebook.

"They received no guidance as to where their mother had gone, but held out hope," says a GoFundMe page set up for the family.

On Sunday, the children finally received news of their mother.

“There’s a lot to think about,” Adam stressed. “It’s still hard to even admit.”

Kornweibel remarked, “I don’t blame anyone. Anything happens. Even natural disasters happen. We are human, we make mistakes. Now we are doing our best with the information we are given.”

Local residents said the fire started early on August 8 when a transformer exploded and ignited dry grass on the ground, about a mile (1,6 km) from Lahaina.

By 09:00 a.m., county officials reported that the morning's fire was "100% contained", although the area still had hurricane-force gusts.

They then left the scene, with county officials later stating that first responders were needed elsewhere. But an hour later, the bush fire resumed and, destroying almost everything in its path, roared along the hillside to the ocean.

The heads of emergency management agencies from Maui and Hawaii attended an annual conference on the island of Oahu on Aug. 8, the day fires began ravaging Lahaina.

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Key federal officials were also in attendance at FEMA's annual disaster management meeting when one of the worst disasters in recent US history began to strike on another island.

Officials gathered in Waikiki around 11:00 a.m. became part of a "coordination meeting," a state emergency management official said almost five hours after the fire started.

The death toll as a result of the fire element has reached 115 people, and the number of missing people has risen to 1100.

“We know we are not alone,” Kornweibel said. “Many people went missing and many people died. We would welcome any advice, encouraging words or support.”

As ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• 8 of August wildfire engulfs Maui and historic city of Lahaina. People jumped into the water to escape the flames and smoke from a forest fire caused by the wind of the distant Hurricane Dora.
• Former capital of the island the historic city of Lahaina, completely burned out. Searches under the rubble after wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui on August 10 revealed a desert of burnt houses and destroyed communities.
• What was known about the causes, victims and consequences as of August 11, read in our material.
• Sergey Bystrov and his family flew to Hawaii from California just a couple of days before the devastating fire. He witnessed these terrible events and told how it was.
• How to help those affected by the fires in Hawaii, see here.

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