lahaina yacht club fire today

Update from the LYC Board of Governors

LAHAINA YACHT CLUB NEWS

Posted by LYC Board of Governors

{{ format_date( '2023-08-25T04:08:06.800Z' ) }}

Dear Lahaina Yacht Club Members, Reciprocals and Club Ohana,

As you know, the tragic events of August 8 have destroyed Lahaina and our LYC Clubhouse along with over 2,200 structures in and around our Historic Front Street. Our immediate focus has been to establish contact with the Board of Governors, Board of Trustees, Staff and all of our LYC Ohana directly affected by the fires on Maui.

We have contacted each Board Member and Employee and all are accounted for and safe. We will continue to reach out to all Maui resident members and keep everyone updated as soon as possible. If you have any contact with members who reside on Maui we would like to hear from you. Communication on the West Side of Maui continues to be difficult.

To all that have been affected by the fire, our hearts are with you. And words are not enough to show appreciation for the efforts of all first responders and volunteers. Mahalo!!!

We have received so many encouraging messages and are so appreciative. The kind words and shared memories continue to help us during this difficult time. Mahalo for your patience as we work to respond to all messages and questions. We continue to focus on our Ohana here on Maui and can now reach out to our extended family of members around the world. The BoG, along with the BoT, has been working diligently to establish a plan to move forward. This includes a communication structure, plan of action and framework to continue the legacy of the Lahaina Yacht Club.

Maui will need your help for a long time to come. There are many ways to donate and any and all are appreciated. We are collecting donations at lyc.us if you would like to donate directly to the Club. The funds collected will be used to support our LYC Staff and to allow continued operation of the infrastructure that is left of the Lahaina Yacht Club. We will continue to maintain the mooring field in support of the community, maintain our communication structure (check our website for updates and upcoming LYC logo merch details) and allow us to consider rebuilding plans.

Part of our rebuilding will be to curate any documents, images and memories. Much of our archival information was lost to the fire. If you would like to share your LYC pictures, please send them to [email protected]. We will be setting up a Dropbox as a repository for this information.

Labor Day has been one of our most important weekends of the year with the annual Lahaina Return race to Oahu. This year, in support of Lahaina, the HYRA has announced 3 days of events dubbed Lahaina’s Return. They have invited the membership of LYC to come to Oahu for 3 days of races, parties and events. The proceeds of all will go towards supporting the Lahaina Fire Recovery. Information can be found https://www.hyra.us/

Our deepest condolences are sent to those who have lost someone to the fire. The Lahaina Yacht Club Board of Governors will continue to keep the legacy of the LYC strong. Your involvement is key to these efforts.

LYC Board of Governors

LAHAINA YACHT CLUB | 808-661-0191

‘It was catastrophic’: Residents left devastated as wildfires wreak havoc on Maui

LAHAINA (HawaiiNewsNow) - As flames from a raging brush fire tore through a historic business district on Maui Tuesday, residents and others on social media described the “devastating” crisis unfolding.

A pilot from Air Maui Helicopters flew over Lahaina Wednesday morning and recalled seeing hundreds of homes burnt down.

Lahaina resident Tiare Lawrence compared the scene to an apocalypse, with people running for their lives.

“It’s just so hard. I’m currently Upcountry and just knowing I can’t get a hold of any of my family members. I still don’t know where my little brother is. I don’t know where my stepdad is,” she said.

“Everyone I know in Lahaina, their homes have been burned down.”

Lawrence’s cousin Dustin Kaleiopu added they had seen smoke near their house around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, and just a few hours later, the fires took everything.

“Our house was gone. Everything that we’d ever known was gone. Our church, our schools, every single memory we had on this household ... everything was gone in the blink of an eye,” Kaleiopu said.

Front Street business owner Alan Dickar captured video Tuesday afternoon, watching business after business going up in flames.

“That was this afternoon, around probably 4:30 in bright sunshine, blue skies, but you couldn’t tell from that video.”

He said there were no fire trucks at the point.

“I think the fire department was overwhelmed with other fires nearby,” he said. “And it’s amazing because this is the most important business street on Maui.”

Meanwhile, crews have been scrambling to rescue a number of people who fled into the ocean to escape the fast-moving flames.

Boat Captain Chrissy Lovitt was one of the people who fled into the ocean in an attempt to save her boat. “Every single boat in Lahaina Harbor burned up, it looks like something out of a movie, a war movie.”

“As the fire worked its way down to the engine room it exploded, the water was on fire from the fuel in the water,” said Lovitt.

About 10:50 p.m., the Coast Guard said it had rescued a dozen people from waters off Lahaina.

The full scope of the damage in Lahaina isn’t known, but videos on social media shows a wall of flames descending on Front Street in Lahaina and destroying a number of businesses. One terrifying video posted by fleeing residents shows uncontrolled flames on both sides of their vehicle.

People have described the scene as “chaotic” and “stressful.”

Resident Holly Zackious said her parents returned to their homes in Kula Wednesday after evacuating overnight, and while their home was still intact, neighboring homes were “burnt to the ground.”

“It’s awful the amount of damage that this fire wreaked havoc,” said Zackious. “We’re praying for Lahaina.”

Meanwhile, some groups are working to gather donations to help those impacted by the wildfires. They say donations can be dropped off to Hoomana Barbell in Wailuku starting at 9 a.m.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) regional administrator authorized the use of federal funds on Wednesday to assist the state in combatting the Lahaina fire.

This story will be updated.

Copyright 2023 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.

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‘A scar on the face of Maui’: Lahaina is gutted; fatalities expected to multiply

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At least 53 people have died, dozens have been injured and hundreds of structures have been destroyed as fires have torn through Maui this week, forcing thousands to flee their homes and reducing much of the historic town of Lahaina to ash.

“What we saw was likely the largest natural disaster in Hawaii state history,” Gov. Josh Green said in a public briefing Thursday.

Green issued a fourth emergency proclamation Thursday night to expedite aid to the western Maui communities devastated by the fires. The Lahaina wildfire raced with such speed that some of those fleeing jumped into the ocean to escape the flames and later were rescued by the Coast Guard.

Maui County officials said Thursday afternoon that at least 53 had died in the Lahaina fire, and the death toll was expected to increase in the coming days. One Lahaina resident, Tiffany Kidder Winn, saw a row of burned-out vehicles in the road, some of which contained charred bodies.

“It looked like they were trying to get out but were stuck in traffic and couldn’t get off Front Street,” she told the Associated Press, referring to the seafront roadway that was the site of multiple retail shops and restaurants.

An estimated 1,700 structures were damaged or destroyed by wildfire, including many small businesses, a church and a school, according to Gov. Green.

“Right now, we have a scar on the face of Maui that will be here for a very long time,” said Maui Police Chief John Pelletier. “Scars heal in time, but they always remain.”

Green said Thursday he expected the cost of the recovery to be in the “billions of dollars.” Accuweather had a preliminary estimate of damage and economic loss at $8 billion to $10 billion.

Three blazes — the Lahaina, Pulehu and Upcountry fires — remained active Thursday, officials said . None of the fires had been fully contained by 3 p.m. Hawaiian time Thursday, according to Maui Fire Chief Bradford Ventura.Officials said they were still battling flare-ups and that two C-47 National Guard helicopters were standing by for deployment.

“This is a deeply somber day,” Maui Mayor Richard Bissen Jr. said. “The gravity of losing any life is tragic. As we grieve with their families, we offer prayers for comfort in this inconsolable time.”

President Biden on Thursday declared “a major disaster” in the island state, opening the door to federal funding and state and local recovery efforts . Residents affected by the fires can apply for “grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses” and other federal programs for business owners and residents, the White House said in a statement. The declaration also makes federal funding available to state and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations.

World & Nation

‘Gone forever’: Fire devastates historic Lahaina, former capital of the Hawaiian kingdom

The wildfire that ripped through Maui devastated Lahaina, a town boasting centuries of history and that was once the capital of the Hawaiian kingdom.

Aug. 10, 2023

At least 11,000 travelers were evacuated from Maui, officials said. The fires overpowered and closed many roads, which became congested and stranded hundreds of people as they raced to the island’s only major airport, Kahului. About 1,400 people stayed overnight at the airport, and many more were expected to arrive Thursday. Airlines have said they are adding more flights, reducing ticket prices and deploying bigger planes to aid evacuation efforts.

As winds diminished Wednesday, some aircraft resumed flights, enabling pilots to view the full scope of the devastation. Flyovers of the coastal town of Lahaina by U.S. Civil Air Patrol and the Maui Fire Department showed the extent of the loss, said Mahina Martin, a spokesperson for Maui County.

Aerial video showed dozens of homes and businesses flattened, including on Front Street, where tourists once gathered to shop and dine. Smoking heaps of rubble lay piled high next to the waterfront, boats in the harbor were scorched, and gray smoke hovered over the leafless skeletons of charred trees.

Rebuilding the local economy could take years, Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke said, adding that the blazes remade the landscape, from destroying homes and businesses to taking down infrastructure and broadband capabilities. “It will be a long road to recovery,” she said.

An estimated 2,000 people have stayed in at least six shelters that have opened for evacuees, according to reports. The Red Cross said that some residents sought shelter overnight while others had visited during the day, seeking resources. State officials said the decision on when to allow residents to return to their homes would be made by Maui County officials and Mayor Bissen.

Although the rest of the state remains open, officials have asked visitors — a huge economic force — to leave Maui and urged others making nonessential trips to stay away from the island.

The airport was overrun with people trying to catch flights Thursday. Many major airlines do not offer short-distance flights between the Hawaiian islands, but carriers with major business on the island said they were doing what they could to respond to evacuation efforts and get passengers to the mainland.

The two largest airlines operating in Hawaii — Hawaiian Airlines and Southwest — have reduced fares to just $19 for flights leaving from Kahului to Honolulu International Airport on Oahu, where the Red Cross had opened shelters for evacuees.

Alaska Airlines said it would continue to operate its eight daily scheduled departures from Maui and also added a “rescue flight” Thursday to ferry more people off the island.

American Airlines said it was also adding flights out of Maui and upgrading planes to provide more seats.

United canceled flights to Kahului on Thursday so that planes could fly empty to Maui to return passengers to the mainland more readily.

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West Maui remained without cell or landline phone service or electricity, the county said. Officials were working to restore power to some 10,000 homes that remained without electricity Thursday.

The exact cause of the blaze couldn’t be determined, but a number of factors including high winds, low humidity and dry vegetation likely contributed, said Maj. Gen. Kenneth Hara, adjutant general for the Hawaii State Department of Defense. The weather service had issued a red flag warning — which indicates warm temperatures, very low humidity and stronger winds are expected to combine to produce an increased risk of fire danger — but Hara said wind strength far exceeded the predictions, which were expected to be around 50 to 55 mph but shot up to 85 mph.

Experts also said climate change is increasing the likelihood of more extreme weather.

An update from the National Drought Monitor early Thursday showed drought levels increased across the state from 6% to 14% in the last week. Maui County in particular saw an increase in severe drought conditions, from about 6% last week to 16% this week.

Clay Trauernicht, a fire scientist at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, said in a tweet that while a nearby hurricane played a role, the problem lies largely with widespread “unmanaged, nonnative grasslands” from “decades of declining agriculture.”

“The transformation to savanna makes the landscape way more sensitive to bad ‘fire weather’ — hot, dry, windy conditions,” Trauernicht said. “It also means we get huge buildups of fuels during rainy periods.”

Hara said he was “personally surprised by the amount of fires.” At least three blazes burned across Maui: in Lahaina, south Maui’s Kihei area and the mountainous and inland communities known as Upcountry.

Firefighters dropped 150,000 gallons of water Wednesday, but high winds obstructed their efforts.

In the upcountry Kula area, at least two homes were destroyed Tuesday in a fire that engulfed about 1.7 square miles, Bissen said.

There have been no reports of injuries or homes lost to three wildfires burning on Hawaii’s Big Island, Mayor Mitch Roth said Wednesday. Firefighters did extinguish a few roof fires.

The National Weather Service said Hurricane Dora, which was passing to the south of the island chain at a safe distance of 500 miles, was partly to blame for gusts above 60 mph that knocked out power, rattled homes and grounded firefighting helicopters.

Luke activated the Hawaii National Guard to assist. Biden said the Coast Guard and Navy were supporting the response and rescue efforts, while the Marines were providing Black Hawk helicopters to fight the fires.

“Local people have lost everything,” said James Tokioka, director of the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. “They’ve lost their house, they’ve lost their animals.”

Former President Obama, who was born in Hawaii, said on social media Wednesday evening that it was tough to see some of the images coming out of a place that is so special to many.

“Michelle and I are thinking of everyone who has lost a loved one, or whose life has been turned upside down,” he said.

Ke’eaumoku Kapu, the owner of the Na Aikane o Maui cultural center in Lahaina, said he and his wife didn’t have time to pack up anything before being forced to flee. “We had years and years of research material, artifacts,” he said.

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Alan Dickar said he wasn’t sure what remained of his Vintage European Posters gallery, which was a fixture on Front Street in Lahaina for 23 years. Before evacuating with three friends and two cats, Dickar recorded video of flames engulfing the main strip of shops and restaurants frequented by tourists.

“Every significant thing I owned burned down today,” he said.

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Lahaina is often thought of as just a Maui tourist town, said Tiare Lawrence, who lives nearby and had relatives evacuate to her home, but “we have a very strong Hawaiian community.”

“I’m just heartbroken,” she said. “Everyone’s lives have tragically changed in the last 12 hours.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Alexandra E. Petri is a former Los Angeles Times staff writer who covered trends and breaking news. She previously covered live news at the New York Times. A two-time reporting fellow with the International Women’s Media Foundation, she graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism and international studies.

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'Burned down to ashes': Why devastated Lahaina Town is such a cherished place on Maui

After Maui's Lahaina Town was razed by fire Tuesday night , residents and visitors are mourning the loss of cultural and religious sites that trace their roots back centuries.

More than 250 structures were damaged or destroyed , according to Maui County, as entire blocks of Lahaina − once the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii − went up in smoke.

Lahaina Town has also long claimed home to the largest banyan tree in the U.S., which was scorched in the fires .

The fire spread and grew faster than anyone could have imagined. In a few hours, the wind-driven blaze tore through popular Front Street and decimated the town center, which traces its roots to the 1700s and was on the National Register of Historic Places.

“Lahaina Town is now burned down to ashes, the whole entire town − hotels, buildings, the historic sites,'' said Leomana Turalde. He told USA TODAY his mother, Jon Ho’okano, 56, worked for years as a dancer at Old Lahaina Luau, considered a "well-preserved epicenter of Hawaiian culture and storytelling," the venue says on its website .

Lahaina has a population of around 13,000, according to the 2020 U.S. Census .

How old is Lahaina Town?

More than 1,000 years ago, long before the U.S. was founded, people were living on the Hawaiian islands and leaving their mark . From the years 1,000-1,200, people from Polynesia traveled about 2,500 miles north and settled on the islands of Hawaii, the National Park Service says on its website .

Throughout history, different Hawaiian rulers vied for power over the islands, and Lahaina was consistently a site of royal and religious importance with its cemeteries and historic churches.

Waiola Church, which burned in the fire , was the site of the start of Christianity in Hawaii in the early 1800s, according to the church's website .

The church crumbled , but the loss will be temporary, Anela Rosa , the church's lay minister of 13 years told USA TODAY. She said the church will bring people together for the next service, even if they have to use pop-up tents.

"This church, this congregation, has a resiliency unlike any other," Rosa said. "That's why I know we will rebuild and be better than ever."

Before Hawaii became a U.S. territory in 1898, King Kamehameha I made Lahaina the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Also in the 1800s, Hawaii's royal leaders built a brick palace in Lahaina, along with other royal residences, according to one of the town's tourism websites .

Lahaina Banyan Court Park is home to the famous banyan fig tree planted in 1873 after being imported from India. It was threatened by the fires and suffered damage to trunks and limbs but  remains standing , the Honolulu Civil Beat reported.

Fires destroy 'cultural heritage' in Lahaina

Locals say losing so much of Lahaina is painful because the culture the place represents connects to a time with revered roots.

For Francine Hollinger, a 66-year-old Native Hawaiian, losing Lahaina was "like losing a family member."

“Because they’ll never be able to rebuild it, like we wouldn’t be able to bring back our mother or father,” she said.

While it’s still difficult to assess the damage, state Sen. Gilbert Keith-Agaran told USA TODAY various landmarks have reportedly been lost – historic businesses and cemeteries where royal figures were buried. 

“It’s a real loss. Hawaii and Maui have tried really hard to preserve and protect those places for many, many years … not for the sake of tourism but because it’s part of our cultural heritage,” said Keith-Agaran, whose district includes Kahului in central Maui.

“We just lost a large part of our heritage,” he said.

In addition to being a historic area, Lahaina Town is a residential and tourist area with a commercial district. For decades, it has been considered the west side of Maui's main downtown area.

The area is also known for two longtime beach resorts, Kaanapali and Kapalua. Lahaina Harbor attracts tourists with water sports, fishing and boat rides.

Contributing: Terry Collins, Alia Wong, N'dea Yancey-Bragg, Jorge L. Ortiz, Kathleen Wong, Ashley Lewis, Itzel Luna, USA TODAY ; Associated Press

A year after Lahaina burned, residents still struggle with housing and job insecurity

A year after wildfires tore through Lahaina, Hawaii, restauranteur Qiana Di Bari is still packing up trash bags, each filled with smoke-damaged belongings, and carrying them out of her home one at a time in a painstaking effort to rebuild.

It's a ritual that continues to play out across west Maui after the Aug. 8 fires killed at least 102 people and destroyed the former capital of the kingdom of Hawaii.

The home Di Bari shares with her husband, Italian-born Michele, and their daughter, 13, was one of only four on their street to survive the inferno, she said.

Di Bari is one of thousands of residents attempting to rebuild her home and business amid a flurry of instability. 

NBC News spoke with a dozen people affected by the fire and each described experiencing an unrelenting cycle of housing and job insecurity that has compounded their trauma . 

Two families said they have bounced from hotel to hotel, their stays extended through FEMA until next year. Others have moved in with relatives to save money. One person left Maui after being priced out of rental units.

The impact of the fire, one of three that erupted on that windy day last summer, has reached beyond the shores of Maui, devastating Hawaii's tourism economy and costing the state more than $1 billion in lost revenue.

The road to recovery from a massive fire like the one that leveled Lahaina is never quick. Rubble has to be cleared, remains identified and soil and water tested long before any construction can start. Then there are insurance and legal questions.

After a 2018 fire killed 85 people and destroyed the town of Paradise, California, it took more than four years for some survivors to receive their insurance payouts . Homes and businesses continue to be rebuilt and new foundations laid. 

Today, many Lahaina residents who lost their homes are still displaced as they scramble from one temporary shelter to another. “Even a year later, people are still in the unknown,” said Jamie Nahoo’ikaika, a host at Di Bari’s popular restaurant near Front Street, Sale Pepe, which burned to the ground. “Everybody is still waiting, and you wonder why it’s taking so long.”

She is counting the days until Sale Pepe reopens so she can go back to work. In the meantime, she and her husband, Jaret-Levi, a Lahaina native and head custodian at King Kamehameha III Elementary, transformed her mother's garage into a studio for themselves, their 3-year-old son and 9-month-old daughter.

Sale Pepe will reopen in a new location sometime in the fall, Di Bari said, and she intends to rehire a handful of employees, including Nahoo’ikaika.

The Di Baris have stitched together financing for the restaurant through insurance claims, small business loans and a GoFundMe campaign started by their New York-based creative director.

"We wanted to send a message that Lahaina is worth staying for," said Di Bari, who once managed the hip hop group Tribe Called Quest. The 12 residents interviewed by NBC News all said they intend to return to Lahaina as soon as they can afford to rebuild their businesses and homes. 

“The true thing about Lahaina people is you cannot take Lahaina people out of Lahaina,” Nahoo’ikaika said.

Tourism remains down

The fire not only displaced thousands of people, it threatened to erase the cultural and historic center of Hawaii’s former kingdom and those who inherited its legacy.

The sidewalks and corners where generations of families "talked stories," as locals say, were wiped out in mere hours.  

It also devastated Maui’s tourism-dependent economy and caused more than $6 billion in damage, according to a state report . 

Many tourists postponed or canceled trips to Maui even as local businesses encouraged people to visit areas not impacted by the fire. The cancellations cost Maui $9 million in revenue each day since the fire, according to Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.

“Lahaina was one of busiest tracts in all of Hawaii,” said James Tokioka, director of the state’s tourism and economic development department. “It went from that to nothing.” 

In all, nearly $10.2 million in grants has been awarded to more than 1,000 businesses in Lahaina, his office said.

Across the island, tourism is still down. The first half of 2024 saw a nearly 24% drop in visitors to Maui from 1.5 million people in 2023 to 1.1 million this year. Spending slipped from $3.47 billion in the first half of 2023 to $2.64 billion in the same period this year. 

Maui’s unemployment rate is higher than neighboring islands at 4.5% compared to 3% statewide.

Residents remain displaced

A recent survey of Maui residents by the Hawaiʻi State Rural Health Association found that 72% of residents said they were either directly or indirectly impacted by the fire. 

Of those who were directly affected, 71% said they cut back on groceries to save money, and 59% said they have moved at least three times since the fire. 

“It really punctuates the trauma and the sense of uncertainty,” said Lisa Grove, the study's lead researcher. “It’s lots of folks who have been there for generations — it’s people with the deepest roots.”

Filipinos comprised the largest share of people living in Lahaina. They settled in the area generations earlier while working at the sugar cane plantations and quickly became the second-largest racial group in the state, according to the 2020 census. 

The state, FEMA and other agencies are working to build some 1,044 transitional housing units for the more than 3,000 households displaced by the fire, Gov. Josh Green said last week.

A $4 billion settlement of more than 600 lawsuits against the state, county and utilities reached last week will help pay for rebuilding.

Despite the progress, Kalama McEwen, whose neighborhood was ground zero for the deadly inferno, said he's still trying to piece together his life.

His family of seven moved in with his in-laws after their home was destroyed. His businesses, a mechanic shop and a tow truck company, were underinsured and he was unable to recoup losses, he said.

The combined households can add up to more than 20 people on any given day. Sometimes relatives wait in line to use the bathroom and take turns sleeping on the floor. McEwen built a shack in the backyard and ran an extension cord for electricity to create a small, private space, but he said the accommodations are untenable.

One of his sons works at a local resort, and he and his wife escape there with their youngest children every few weeks to get a break. “We were one of the lucky ones," he said, speaking poolside from the hotel where his son works. "At least we had somewhere to go. We lost everything but we’re still here.”

Maui resident Cindy Canham worked at Whaler’s Locker on Front Street in Lahaina since 2018, selling rare and collectible items, like hand-carved pocket knives and locally made jewelry. Before that, she worked at a shop across the street for 35 years.

“Lahaina was a loss for everybody on the island,” she said. “Even if you’ve lived here just six months, you’ve got a Lahaina memory.”

She moved to Maui in 1978 from Texas in what was meant to be a summer vacation before starting college. She never left. Canham met her late husband a year later near the historic banyan tree that was nearly destroyed in the fire.

Whaler’s Locker, which opened in 1971, was destroyed in the fire. Although the owner sells items online and at local markets a few times a week, there isn't enough work to keep Canham on the payroll.

Canham, who lives about 25 miles away in the town of Kihei, wasn't eligible for federal assistance beyond unemployment benefits because she doesn't live in Lahaina. Now, for the first time since Jimmy Carter was president, she wonders if she'll be forced to leave Maui.

"It was my town," she said of Lahaina. "Yet I wasn’t considered a fire survivor because I didn’t lose my home. It’s hard for some people to understand what I feel."

Alicia Victoria Lozano is a California-based reporter for NBC News focusing on climate change, wildfires and the changing politics of drug laws.

Lahaina boat captain navigates loss and recovery after fire depletes family business

Lahaina residents are taking stock of what’s been lost, as firefighters continue to assess the damage caused by the wildfires in West Maui.

Lahaina boat captain Keao Shaw lives just two minutes south of Lahaina Harbor. He didn’t think much about leaving his home Tuesday to help neighbors clear fallen trees.

"By the time I came back, I couldnʻt even get back to the house. My family and kids were with me and we had just the shirts on our back. And the houses are gone. Everything is leveled. Some of the boats that we had are at the bottom of the harbor now," Shaw said.

Shaw and his wife, ‘Iwa, run a small charter boat business out of Lahaina called Makai Adventures and a tour company Kainani Sails.

They lost one of their two boats in the fire, but it’s their 10 employees and their well-being that is top of mind for the Shaws.

"They’re also my really good friends. And some of them are with child. It’s really hard to see what they’re going through," Shaw said.

"A lot of people lost their homes, a lot of people lost their jobs. And it’s like how do you even stay? I would love to keep them here," he added.

The Shaws have raised more than $21,000 so far online for their employees .

Meanwhile, the couple’s children, 5-year-old Nāhiku and 3-year-old ʻOlina, were forced to relocate to ʻIwa’s hometown on Oʻahu’s North Shore because both of their schools were lost in the fire.

"One of my biggest questions is four years ago we had a similar hurricane scare and it was the same scenario. The fire started up in the mountains and they were raging toward Lahaina and all of Lahaina had to be evacuated. I’m curious as to what started the fire and how we could have prevented it," Shaw said.

It is still unclear exactly what triggered the wildfires in Lahaina. For now, Shaw will remain in nearby Honokohau Valley, while his wife and children start school on Oʻahu.

For additional coverage on the Maui wildfires, see below:

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What We Lost in the Lahaina Fire

The fire razed Maui’s densest dining town, destroying the fifth-generation-owned Nagasako Okazuya Deli, Maui’s oldest dive bar, the pickle mango stand on Front Street, and so much more

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Throughout its centuries-long history, Lahaina has been many things to many people: a royal residence, a missionary post, a hard-partying harbor town, a tourist trap. For some, it was simply home.

The fire that reduced the historic town to ash on August 8, 2023 was unsparing. It took the lives and livelihoods of so many of our community members. Around 50 restaurants went up in smoke that day. As the former dining editor for Maui Nō Ka ‘Oi magazine, I can name 30 without even trying. It’s an unfathomable loss for the industry — one that feels particularly cruel after everyone worked so hard to survive the pandemic.

For many, it’s still too early to talk about rebuilding. Even apart from the grief and mourning that still hangs in the air, on a very practical and tangible level, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates it will take months just to clear away the literal toxic debris. Before the fire, Lahaina’s world-famous Front Street was little more than a patchwork of wooden shacks held together by layers of paint, cooking grease, crusty sea salt, banana sap, and gossip. Some restaurants will certainly reopen in new locations, but that unique patina that made the place so compelling is gone.

And some restaurants will never reopen, including Nagasako Okazuya Deli , the oldest and arguably most beloved eatery in Lahaina. For 120-plus years, the Nagasako family served the West Maui community, and it started with Mitsuzo Nagasako, who opened a candy store on the corner of Front Street and Lahainaluna Road in the early 1900s. With each successive generation the business evolved — into a supermarket, then a grocery, and finally an okazuya, or deli. Lahainaluna boarding students crowded the okazuya counter before school each day to stock up on the deli’s special Spam musubi: meat in the middle, fried in teriyaki sauce. Families stopped by before and after the beach for shoyu chicken and breaded teriyaki steak. A week after the fire, the Nagasakos announced through a heartfelt post featuring photos of all six generations of the family that they would not reopen. This is one of the many threads to Lahaina’s past that has now been lost.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Nagasako Okazuya Deli (@nagasako.okazuya)

The Pioneer Inn was Lahaina’s first hotel, built in 1901. Over the years it housed a saloon, stage, and movie theater. Most recently it was home to Papa‘aina , chef Lee Anne Wong’s wharf-side restaurant. Originally from New York, Wong came to Maui by way of Honolulu. She learned to cook Hawai‘i-style cuisine at Koko Head Café, her brunch spot in Honolulu’s Kaimukī, and perfected it at Papa‘aina, where she served breakfast ramen and mapo tofu loco mocos. A few years ago, Wong hosted a dumpling workshop in the Inn’s courtyard, drawing lessons from her cookbook, Dumplings All Day Wong . With her son on her hip, she taught us to roll and pinch our dough into crescents and dip them into boiling broth, much as local cooks had for the past 100-plus years. Whether or not Papa‘aina will ever reopen is unknown — right now, Wong is focusing on relief efforts for the thousands of displaced people.

Not long ago, at Kimo’s Maui , I had lunch with Paris-born artist Guy Buffet, who had immortalized the Front Street restaurant in a painting that captures the euphoria of dining there on the waterfront. When Rob Thibaut and Sandy Saxten opened Kimo’s in 1977, it was the beginning of their T S Restaurants empire, which now includes Dukes Waikīkī, Hula Grill, and Leilani’s on the Beach, among others. A trip to Maui was hardly complete without tackling a mammoth slice of Hula Pie at sunset while surfers caught the last ankle biters of the day at Breakwall. The owners have already pledged to rebuild their landmark restaurant.

Two doors down from Kimo’s, passersby could peek through a porthole into the Lahaina Yacht Club . Lahaina’s second-oldest restaurant was invite-only — but more in the piratical than prissy sense. Before transpacific sailor Floyd Christenson opened the beloved Mama’s Fish House in Kū‘au, he and a few other old salts founded the mariner’s club in 1965. They transformed a Front Street laundry into a clubhouse and contracted Hawaiian artist Sam Ka‘ai to design the club’s pennant, or burgee: a white whale on red backing. Colorful burgees from yacht clubs worldwide hung over the open-air dining room, where commodores traded navigational tips and tossed back shots of Old Lahaina Rum. If you rang the ship’s bell, you were buying the whole restaurant a round.

Across Honoapi‘ilani Highway, the Sly Mongoose boasted no view whatsoever — instead, Maui’s oldest dive bar advertised air-conditioning. Since 1977, “the Goose” had lured patrons indoors with its jukebox, goldfish crackers, and happy hour featuring $2 Jager Spice and “free beer tomorrow.”

These are only a fraction of the restaurants lost; entire chapters could be written about Lahaina Grill, Pacific’o, Feast at Lele, and Fleetwood’s on Front Street, where the Mad Bagpiper serenaded the setting sun on the rooftop every night. Restaurants weren’t the only places to find sustenance in Lahaina, either. There were food trucks, farmer’s markets, and even temples that served specialty snacks. During Chinese New Year, the Wo Hing museum offered crispy gau gee samples and moon cakes imported from Hong Kong. During the summer Obon festival, Lahaina Hongwanji and Jodo Mission hosted nighttime dances with chow fun booths. The outdoor kitchen at Jodo Mission overlooked the ‘Au‘au Channel and the steam from the boiling noodles wafted out to sea along with lanterns to remember the dead.

Lahaina old-timers will remember the little mango stand across from 505 Front Street. For years a local woman sold pickled mango there in little plastic sacks. Kids biked over after baseball games for bags of mango and sodas. In the summer, Lahaina’s mango trees were laden with the orbs of fruit. And before there were mangos, there were ‘ulu, or breadfruit, groves. Lahaina’s ancient name, Malu ‘Ulu O Lele, refers to the ‘ulu trees that once grew so thick you could walk for miles beneath their shade. Perhaps those trees will grow again.

As enormous as this disaster was, the community’s response was even greater. The day after the fire, Maui’s chefs sprang into action. The team of the grassroots project Chef Hui mobilized at the UHMC Culinary Arts campus to do what they do best: feed and nourish their community. In the first six days, they served over 50,000 hot meals to survivors of the fire. Despite losing her Maui restaurant, Wong has been at the campus every day plating up bentos, along with Isaac Bancaco, who lost both his home and his workplace at Pacific’o. Jojo Vasquez lost his home, too, and was forced to temporarily close Fond , his restaurant in Nāpili. That didn’t stop him from messaging his Chef Hui colleagues: “Tag me in coach, I stay ready.” Joey Macadangdang turned his restaurant, Joey’s Kitchen in Nāpili, into an emergency shelter the night of the fire and has been cooking for his displaced neighbors every day since.

Hawai‘i’s restaurant owners and workers are a tight-knit crew, battle-tested and resilient. Long before this fire stretched them thin, Maui’s restaurateurs, chefs, and servers were always at the island’s innumerable charity events with knives and generators ready. I had often wondered how they kept their doors open while donating food and staff to all these causes. Now is our chance to repay them for their decades of nourishment and for helping to knit together Lahaina’s fabric — layers of history laid down by Native Hawaiians, whalers, missionaries, plantation laborers, locals, transplants, and tourists to create the Lahaina in which we lived, loved, and dined.

Shannon Wianecki is a Hawai‘i-based writer and editor who specializes in natural history, culture, and travel.

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A Number Of Investigations Have Been Launched Into The Maui Fires. Here’s Where They’re At

A long-awaited official cause for the Lahaina fire is being left to Maui County to determine, with help from the federal ATF.

Investigations into the causes of the Maui wildfires are entering a new phase, as government officials prepare to release reports in April and lawyers for fire victims accelerate their own inquiries previously stalled in the face of procedural maneuvers by defendants.

Lawmakers, meanwhile, are calling on state utility regulators to launch a separate independent inquiry, which is required by state law. A hearing on the Senate concurrent resolution is scheduled for Friday.

The Hawaii Attorney General’s Office this week said it will release a much-anticipated first phase of a three-part investigation on April 17. That report, which was due months ago under the state’s contract with fire investigators, will not speak to the cause of the fire but instead is expected to include a detailed timeline of the fire’s spread through Lahaina on Aug. 8.

Meanwhile, officials with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting Maui County with its investigation of the origin and cause of the fire, said Jason Chudy, an ATF spokesman in Seattle. The report by the Maui County Department of Fire and Public Safety could be released as early as late April, said Chris Stankis, the department’s public information officer.

But the reports from the state and county — which are also defendants in lawsuits brought by fire victims — aren’t the only investigations into what happened the day of the nation’s deadliest wildfire in more than a century. The fires killed at least 101 people and destroyed nearly 2,000 structures, displacing thousands of people.

Fire victims have filed more than 70 lawsuits against defendants including the State of Hawaii, Maui County, Spectrum, Hawaiian Telcom, Kamehameha Schools and Hawaiian Electric Industries and its subsidiaries. The investigations related to these lawsuits are accelerating.

“Things are really ratcheting up right now,” said Jan Apo, a Maui lawyer who is also serving as one of several liaison attorneys for wildfire plaintiffs’ attorneys. Apo said his firm has more than 1,000 clients lined up.

The investigations by plaintiffs’ lawyers had been stalled after defendants including Hawaiian Electric Industries, Spectrum and Kamehameha Schools moved dozens of cases from Maui state court to federal court. But, earlier this month, U.S. District Court Judge Jill Otake said the federal court didn’t have jurisdiction and remanded the cases to state court.

Now, Apo said, the plaintiffs can resume discovery of documents from defendants as well as third parties with relevant information. Already plaintiffs’ lawyers have gathered hundreds if not thousands of pages of documents, Apo said.

Ultimately “there’s going to be thousands and thousands of pages of documents” produced, Apo said.

Lawyers on all sides are working with Maui Circuit Court Judge Peter Cahill to establish a centralized document management system so the parties can have convenient access to what is expected to be a massive library of potential evidence, Apo said.

The lawyers soon will begin deposing company executives and key witnesses, possibly in late April or early May, Apo said. The depositions will produce a mountain of testimonial material on top of documents, plus evidence from the accident scene, Apo said.

Apo predicted the plaintiffs’ investigations will be more detailed than what the state and county release.

“Quite frankly, our discovery will be much deeper, much more detailed,” he said. “We will dive way deeper than anybody else.”

Apo said Cahill is setting aside time to begin trials later this year.

State Report Will Not Discuss Fire’s Cause

In the meantime, the impending reports from officialdom will add to the collection of narratives on what happened on Aug. 8.

Plaintiffs allege the electric and telecom utilities contributed to the Lahaina fires by failing to design, construct, inspect and maintain their infrastructure as necessary to mitigate fire risks they knew about.

The plaintiffs also blame landowners like Kamehameha Schools for allegedly failing to properly manage vegetation on their lands, which plaintiffs say allowed the fire to spread more rapidly. The suits assert the state and Maui County failed to mitigate known wildfire risks on Maui and didn’t implement evacuation procedures, which resulted in chaos, property damage and death.

Hawaiian Electric Co., HEI’s utility subsidiary, is one of the few defendants to talk about the fire’s cause. The power company issued a statement less than three weeks after the fires acknowledging that fallen power lines had ignited a blaze the morning of Aug. 8 — an event that had been widely reported and documented on social media. But the company said the morning fire was extinguished, so the fire that burned much of Lahaina was caused by something else.

The first phase of the Hawaii attorney general’s report is expected to come out first. That investigation is being conducted by the private Fire Safety Research Institute under a $1.5 million contract with the state.

The contract, which was signed on Oct. 5, called for the first of three reports from the institute — including a detailed timeline of events — to be completed in three months.

A second report will evaluate things like incident response, pre-incident planning, firefighting capability and the county warning and water systems.

But on Monday, Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez announced the release of the first report would be pushed back to April 17. A news release from her office said the attorney general has had to issue dozens of subpoenas to get information from Maui County.

Specifically, the release said that in November the attorney general “served three subpoenas upon the Maui Emergency Management Agency, the County of Maui Department of Public Works and the County of Maui Department of Water Supply seeking documents relevant to the investigation.”

Afterward, according to the attorney general, Maui said “subpoenas would be required for all further information, including documents and interviews with county personnel.

“As a result, the Department has needed to serve upon County of Maui agencies and officials, eight additional subpoenas for documents and 53 additional subpoenas for interviews, to date,” the attorney general’s statement said.

Maui County Report Will Determine Origin Of Fire

Meanwhile, the Maui Fire Department’s investigation into the cause and origin of the fires could be coming as soon as late April.

Chudy, the federal ATF bureau’s spokesman, said the bureau has sent a team of investigators, which he described as “the best of the best,” to conduct the investigation. The investigators are conducting follow-up interviews with eyewitnesses and gathering additional documents, Chudy said.

“The most important thing to ATF is that we provide Maui Fire Department with the most complete and factual investigative details for their origin and cause report,” he said. 

Stankis, the Maui department spokesman, said it expects to receive the ATF report as early as late March, after which it could take two to three weeks for the fire department to incorporate its own findings and complete the report.

“We’re really at this point mostly waiting for ATF,” Stankis said.

Meanwhile, lawmakers are pushing for an independent wildfire investigation by an agency not involved in wildfire lawsuits.

A Senate resolution introduced in early March notes that Hawaii’s public utilities law requires the Public Utilities Commission to “investigate the causes of any accident which results in loss of life.”

“Despite this,” the resolution says, “the Public Utilities Commission has failed to investigate the causes of the August 2023 Maui wildfires.”

The resolution goes on to urge the PUC to “comply with its statutory duty to investigate the causes of the August 2023 Maui wildfire” and submit a report at least 20 days before the start of the 2025 session.

The measure is scheduled for a hearing on Friday before the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee and the Public Safety and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs Committee.

The PUC has drafted testimony arguing it is “fulfilling its statutory mandate.”

The testimony, by Commissioner Colin Yost, outlines more than a dozen actions the PUC has taken in response to the fire. Those include issuing information requests to HECO related to grid engineering and operations, as well as the utility’s response to the fire. In addition, Yost wrote, the PUC has assigned two senior staff to support the ATF’s inquiry and has produced timely responses to inquiries from the attorney general.

Whether this will persuade the committees is unclear. The Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee’s chairman, Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, has taken a tough stance when it comes to perceived conflicts of interest by government investigators.

After it became apparent that Lopez would be overseeing the state’s official investigation of the fires while simultaneously defending the state against lawsuits accusing the state of wrongdoing, Keohokalole sponsored a bill that would have allowed the attorney general to appoint a special counsel in circumstances where conflicts of interest were present.

The bill made it through the Senate but stalled in the House after Lopez testified that the department is independent and already has a range of options when conflicts of interest arise implicating the attorney general personally or the office.

In an interview, Keohokalole said the problem under the current law is that only the attorney general has the power to issue subpoenas pursuant to such investigations.

“So what happens when the state is implicated in the investigation?” he said. “It’s a clear cut conflict of interest.”

Concerning the PUC, Keohokalole said he is looking forward to Friday’s hearing.

“We’ve been asking for months for some clarity from them on what appears a mandate,” he said.

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Lawyers blame 3 entities for Lahaina fire

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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / 2023

Maui County officials have yet to release the findings of a federal and county investigation into the cause of the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfire in Lahaina. Pictured is the mauka view of Aholo Road from Front Street a few days after the deadly fire.

Attorneys representing over 160 property insurance companies claim their investigation has found that the Maui wildfire responsible for the deaths of 102 people was caused by an aging, wooden utility pole overloaded with telecommunications equipment that snapped in high winds in Lahaina, causing it to land on neglected, overgrown brush across from Lahaina Intermediate School.

The insurance companies allege that “the negligent, reckless, or unlawful conduct” by land owner Kamehameha Schools, Hawaiian Electric Co., and telecommunications companies Spectrum Oceanic, Charter Communications and Oceanic Time Warner triggered the fire on Aug. 8, 2023. They claim the fire that started in overgrown brush later reignited and shot embers into the sky and triggered a path of flames all the way to Lahaina’s historic Front Street and the water’s edge, where panicked evacuees leapt into the ocean to escape the inferno.

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Over a year since the fires, Maui County officials have yet to release the findings of a federal and county investigation into the cause of wildfires in Lahaina and Upcountry Maui, where nearly two dozen properties burned that same day.

But a filing by the insurance companies’ lawyers in Honolulu Circuit Court that seeks a jury trial places the blame on Hawaiian Electric and the telecom companies for ignoring warnings and industry standards, and for following a policy the lawyers called “a ‘wait until it breaks’ plan of maintaining their wooden power poles and overhead power lines as a cost-saving policy instead of performing necessary preemptive maintenance and repairs to prevent its wooden power poles and overhead power lines from failing, breaking, and/or severing during high-wind events.”

Before the fires, Kameha­meha Schools — which the lawyers refer to as “The Bishop Estate” — had failed a 2020 “Fire Brush Inspection” conducted by unidentified “local authorities,” according to the court document.

“As a result, The Bishop Estate was ordered to construct a firebreak on its property,” it said. “The same parcel of land was reinspected in September of 2023, shortly after the Lahaina Fire, and local officials found that The Bishop Estate had failed to properly maintain the firebreaks it had ordered three years earlier, specifically citing its ‘[f]ailure to maintain firebreak off homes along the south of Lahainaluna Rd.’ Furthermore, upon information and belief, local authorities found multiple other fire code violations on the property, including a ‘brush height’ in excess of 18 inches, failure to construct a 100 ft. fire break, and a finding that the ‘extent of growth’ on the Defendant’s land was ‘considered a fire hazard.’

“Had the Landowner Defendants taken reasonable steps to construct and/or maintain legally required firebreaks on their property, the Lahaina Fire would have been contained. … This mismanagement of property increased the severity of the Lahaina Fire and contributed to the death and destruction that followed.”

Only Kamehameha Schools responded to a request for comment, but did not address the allegations that it played a role in triggering the fire.

In their court document, the lawyers for the insurance companies laid out a chronology of the events leading up to the Aug. 8, 2023, fire in Lahaina beginning with the night before when the “Olinda Fire” broke out in Upcountry Maui, which should have prompted Hawaiian Electric to act “immediately” to ensure that its electrical systems had not been compromised.

The next morning, Aug. 8, according to the document and attorney interviews with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Hawaiian Electric transmission lines “tripped offline” when one of its utility poles near Hooahua Street behind Lahaina Intermediate School “split in two, causing the collapse of the upper section of the pole and resulting in a chain reaction of stress and strain along the Utility Defendants’ electrical conductors connected between Pole No. 7A and Pole No. 25 — located across Lahainaluna Road, and further downhill between Pole No. 25, and Pole No. 24. At Pole No. 25 one of the affixed distribution powerlines severed and fell to the ground” directly across from a neighborhood on the other side of Lahainaluna Road.

Then, at 6 a.m., Hawaiian Electric “manually re-energized the transmission line providing power to a circuit that included the downed distribution lines at Poles No. 7A, 24 and 25.”

Around 6:30 a.m., a brush fire was reported in overgrown, non-native buffelgrass on Kamehameha Schools’ land triggered by the fallen and reenergized Hawaiian Electric pole.

“Subsequently, at 6:39 a.m., the same transmission line which the Utility Defendants had manually re-energized, tripped offline again.”

By 9:30 a.m., Maui firefighters had the fire contained.

But hot spots around the uneven terrain continued to smolder after firefighters standing watch were inexplicably called away, attorney Mark Grotefeld told the Star-Advertiser.

Hours later, in the late afternoon, high winds and plenty of “fuel loads” caused the fire to “rekindle … and pop into the open pasture,” Grotefeld said.

By 3:50 p.m., the fire had jumped the Lahaina Bypass Road and was threatening surrounding neighborhoods, where residents were hosing down their roofs.

“Embers were flying into houses,” Grotefeld said. “After that, it was ‘Katie, bar the door.’”

The fire raced makai toward Lahaina town, where downed utility poles blocked residents trying to flee in their vehicles. Instead they found themselves in a gridlock of panic that forced people to jump into the ocean for hours as embers rained down on their heads and boats exploded around them, several survivors have told the Star-Advertiser.

According to the court document, “By early evening that same day, desperate local residents cut off from escape, were witnessed jumping into the ocean to evade its fury. In its wake, the Lahaina Fire tragically claimed the lives of 100 people and injured dozens more.”

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Published on August 10th, 2023 | by Assoc Editor

Maui wildfires continue to decimate

Published on August 10th, 2023 by Assoc Editor -->

(August 10, 2023) – The rescue efforts are continuing after the death toll from the fast-moving wildfires wreaking havoc through Hawaii increased to 53, Maui County officials said. Blazes have been raging across Maui and have also been reported on the island of Hawaii, trapping locals and visitors as strong winds linked to Hurricane Dora continue to hamper efforts by authorities to contain the flames.

The fires tore through the historic, popular vacation town of Lahaina, in Maui County, which Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke said was decimated and forever changed. On it’s Instagram page , Lahaina Yacht Club posted the message, “Thank you to everyone who has reached out with thoughts and prayers. The LYC clubhouse may be gone, but it is the community that matters.”

Tourists have been warned to avoid traveling to the hard-hit island. More than 271 structures in Lahaina have been damaged so far, according to Maui officials. U.S. Civil Air Patrol and the Maui Fire Department conducted flyovers of the area, revealing widespread destruction to the West Maui town, the harbor and surrounding areas.

As of this morning, the Lahaina fire was 80 percent contained, county officials said. President Biden declared a major disaster in Hawaii and ordered federal aid to areas affected by wildfires, according to the White House. A second fire on Maui was 70 percent contained, officials added, and a third fire is pending further assessment.

The gusty winds that have been fueling fires on Maui and the Big Island are gradually relaxing. In its morning forecast discussion today, the National Weather Service office in Honolulu, which serves all of Hawaii, wrote that this morning’s winds were moderate to locally breezy, but noticeably much weaker than the last two days and the down trend in wind speeds should continue.

Editor’s note : This video from yesterday says so much: https://twitter.com/WxNB_/status/1689384898958917633

Source: Washington Post

Tags: Lahaina fire , Lahaina Yacht Club , tragedy

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The body of a man recovered near the Bayesian yacht is believed to be that of Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian-Antiguan chef who was working on the boat

Six people are still missing after British luxury yacht sank off Sicily on Monday

They include Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer , his wife Judy, British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, and jewellery designer Neda Morvillo

Divers are struggling to reach the cabins of the yacht, with a "world of objects" blocking access to the rooms

Of the 22 people on board, 15 survived, six are missing, and one body, believed to be Recaldo Thomas, has been found

Live Reporting

Edited by Sean Seddon, with Mark Lowen reporting from Sicily

Rescue workers continue the search for six missing people published at 20:28 British Summer Time 20 August 20:28 BST 20 August

Search crews say their efforts to recover the six people still not accounted for after a yacht sank off the coast of Sicily on Monday will "continue without stopping".

As the second day of that operation comes to close, here's what we have learned:

• Friends of Recaldo Thomas , the chef believed to have died in the sinking, have begun to pay tribute to his "smile that lit up a room"
• Three more survivors have been named as Leo Eppel and South African nationals Leah Randall and Katja Chicken - all members of crew that were on board the ship when it sank
• Six people still remain unaccounted for: Mike Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah , Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy, and Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda
• Divers have been able to reach the lounge of the yacht but their path to the cabins has been blocked by "a world of objects"
• The Italian coastguard says that specialist divers are "evaluating the feasibility of safely entering the wreck", but warn the search is being complicated by its " depth and the position of the hull" around 50m (164ft) below the surface
• Jonathan Bloomer's twin brother has told the BBC his family are "coping the best we can" as they wait for updates from the rescue team's ongoing efforts

We're going to pause our coverage now but you can read more about the second day of the Bayesian search operation here .

This page was edited by Emily Atkinson, Owen Amos and Sean Seddon and was written by Sophie Abdulla, Adam Durbin, Gabriela Pomeroy, Matt Spivey, Barbara Tasch, Jacqueline Howard, Rachel Flynn and Johanna Chisholm.

Who are the six people still missing? published at 20:19 British Summer Time 20 August 20:19 BST 20 August

Technology tycoon Mike Lynch is still missing alongside his 18-year-old daughter

Six people remain unaccounted for after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily, including a father and daughter, as well as two married couples.

UK businessman Mike Lynch, who helped establish Cambridge Neurodynamics and co-founded the firm Autonomy, is still missing alongside his daughter Hannah Lynch , an 18-year-old student.

Jonathan Bloomer , the chairman of Morgan Stanley Bank International, and his wife Judy Bloomer were also on the yacht when it sank and have not yet been found.

Chris Morvillo , a partner at the law firm Clifford Chance, and his wife Neda Morvillo, a jewellery designer, have also been confirmed as missing.

Earlier we reported that the body of a man recovered near the sunken Sicilian yacht is believed to be that of Recaldo Thomas , a Canadian-Antiguan chef who was working on the boat.

His friends have described him as having "a smile that lit up the room".

Couple missing from yacht are 'incredibly generous people', says reverend published at 20:07 British Summer Time 20 August 20:07 BST 20 August

Jonathan and Judy Bloomer - who are still missing following the sinking of the Bayesian yacht - are “incredibly generous people”, the reverend of their local church says.

Speaking to BBC South East, Rev Tim Edwards, from Knockholt in Kent, says “at the moment there’s an awful lot that we don’t know”.

He describes the couple as being “very much” part of the village community and active with local charities.

What are waterspouts? published at 19:52 British Summer Time 20 August 19:52 BST 20 August

According to vessel tracking app Vesselfinder, the Bayesian left the Sicilian port of Milazzo on 14 August and was last tracked east of Palermo on Sunday evening, with a navigation status of "at anchor".

Witnesses later described seeing a waterspout form during a storm that hit in the area overnight, and - as mentioned in our last post - it is believed to have struck the yacht before it sank.

Most are familiar with what tornadoes look like - they are rotating columns of destructive winds, protruding from the base of clouds down to the ground. According to BBC Weather, waterspouts are just that too, but they form over water rather than land.

Instead of dust and debris swirling around the core of strong winds, it is water mist whipped up from the surface.

Like tornadoes, most are only short-lived, narrow columns and are not easily picked out on weather radars, so many will go unreported.

How could the yacht have sunk? published at 19:39 British Summer Time 20 August 19:39 BST 20 August

It is believed the Bayesian was struck by a tornado over the water - otherwise known as a waterspout - causing the luxury yacht to capsize and sink to the seabed.

There are separate reports the boat's mast snapped during the freak storm, while other factors in the boat's tipping over could include water entering through hatches and doors which might have been left open because of warm weather off the Italian coast.

'Easy to talk to with a sense of humour' - friend describes Mike Lynch published at 19:27 British Summer Time 20 August 19:27 BST 20 August

Another one of Mike Lynch's friends has been telling the BBC a bit more about their neighbour's personality.

"He is so approachable and a very easy person to talk to," Richard Smith, who lives in the Suffolk village of Pettistree, says. "A nice sense of humour."

"You might think with all that money that he would be a difficult person to talk to, but in fact he was a very easy person to talk to."

Mike Lynch's neighbour 'horrified' to learn he's missing published at 19:08 British Summer Time 20 August 19:08 BST 20 August

One of Mike Lynch's neighbours says she was "horrified" to find out he was missing and describes it as the "worst news".

"I just couldn't believe it, I thought this can't be right," Ruth Leigh, of Pettistree in Suffolk, says.

Leigh says they have lived near each other for around 15 years and describes Lynch as a "fantastic neighbour" and a "very charitable man".

"Even though he was incredibly wealthy and a very important person he never ever gave that impression.

"Whenever he met you he always remembers your name, he would chat to you - incredibly friendly and down to earth, which we thought was a great quality," she adds.

Did the yacht’s keel play a role in it sinking? published at 18:46 British Summer Time 20 August 18:46 BST 20 August

By Tom Edgington

There has been speculation about the type of keel on the Bayesian and whether it may have been a factor in it sinking.

The website for Perini Navi – the yacht’s builder – is currently not available. However, by searching internet archives BBC Verify has obtained the boat’s 2018 brochure.

In the “features and performance” section, the document gives dimensions for the keel in an "up" position - 4.05m (13ft) - and in a "down" position - 9.83m (32ft) - suggesting it is retractable.

The BBC has contacted Perini Navi but has not had a reply.

A keel is a support structure underneath the boat which projects downwards and helps keep it balanced on the surface.

Certain boats might require a retractable keel in order to enter shallow water without getting stuck.

We don’t know if the Bayesian’s keel was up or down at the time it was struck by a storm.

However, Andrew Fairbrass who runs a large yacht engineering business says “when you're sailing, you have to keep the keel down and it does make a big difference to stability”.

Name of surviving crew member confirmed by coastguard published at 18:24 British Summer Time 20 August 18:24 BST 20 August Breaking

The Italian coastguard has confirmed the name of another crew member who survived the sinking of the Bayesian.

Leo Eppel was on board the yacht when it capsized, spokesman Vincenzo Zagarola says.

Two other surviving crew members were named by authorities a short while ago .

The BBC understands that Recaldo Thomas, who worked as a chef on the boat, was killed and his body has been recovered.

You can read tributes to the Canadian-Antiguan national here .

British investigators arrive but hopes for miracle vanish published at 18:08 British Summer Time 20 August 18:08 BST 20 August

In cloudy skies and on choppy waters, the search has gone on all day, a helicopter scouring the site where the Bayesian capsized as divers plunged deep below.

They’re trying to access the wreckage of the yacht that was hit by a tornado-like waterspout, and is now 50m (164ft) underwater.

Given the depth, each dive can only be 10 minutes, and with the boat still largely intact it’s hard to get access inside.

British investigators are now here to assess what happened during the extreme weather that hit the Bayesian.

Severe heat and violent storms had prompted a weather alert before the yacht went down.

Tonight the search goes on - but any hope of a Mediterranean miracle survival has all but vanished.

'It's still wait and see,' says twin brother of missing man published at 17:50 British Summer Time 20 August 17:50 BST 20 August

Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer

Jonathan Bloomer's twin brother has told the BBC his family are "coping the best we can" as rescue workers continue to search for him off the coast of Sicily.

The banker is one of six people still missing since the Bayesian yacht capsized.

Jeremy Bloomer tells the BBC he has not received any new updates on the search efforts to find Jonathan, beyond that divers are struggling to access the wreck of the boat.

He says: "It's a slow process and it will take time. So there might be air pockets, but we don't know."

Jeremy continues: "He was my older [brother] by half an hour. So it means a lot when you lose a twin brother. It's still wait and see, so fingers crossed."

Asked how he was coping, he says the situation is "terrible" and something that's "beyond your wildest imagination".

Quote Message I'm just numb, just numb. That's it, you don't know what to think and you can't believe it's happened."

Two members of crew named as survivors of yacht sinking published at 17:39 British Summer Time 20 August 17:39 BST 20 August

We've just heard from the Italian coastguard, which has named two more survivors of the yacht sinking.

South African nationals Leah Randall and Katja Chicken, who worked as crew members on the Bayesian, managed to get to safety after the vessel sank in the early hours of Monday morning.

In total , 15 of the 22 people on board have been rescued . Among them are:

• Mike Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares
• Charlotte Golunski, her husband James and their one-year-old daughter
• Ayla Ronald, who worked as a lawyer for Mike Lynch, and her partner

How Mike Lynch's courtroom joy led to yacht tragedy published at 17:24 British Summer Time 20 August 17:24 BST 20 August

Twelve people were vacationing on Mike Lynch 's yacht, alongside 10 crew members, when it sank in a storm off the coast of Sicily. The gathering was reportedly a celebration.

Earlier this year, Lynch was cleared of fraud and conspiracy charges arising from the sale of his firm Autonomy to US tech giant Hewlett Packard. The decade-long legal battle had led to Lynch's extradition from the UK.

Upon being cleared of the charges in June, the British entrepreneur said he was "elated" and thanked his legal team for their "tireless work". Some of them were on the yacht alongside him when it sank.

Chris Morvillo , a lawyer for Clifford Chance - the law firm that represented Lynch - is among the six people still missing. So is his wife Neda Morvillo , an American jewellery designer.

Ayla Ronald, a senior associate at the same law firm, also worked on Lynch's case. Both she and her partner were invited to the yacht and were rescued when it sank.

Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer - who appeared as a defence witness for Lynch during his trial - and his wife Judy Bloomer were on the boat when disaster struck. Both are unaccounted for.

Charlotte Golunski, the board director of Luminance - an artificial intelligence platform founded by Lynch - was on board, along with her husband and one-year-old daughter. All three survived.

Lynch's wife Angela Bacares and daughter Hannah were also there. Bacares has been rescued but 18-year-old Hannah is still missing.

In pictures: Search operation at wreck site continues published at 17:03 British Summer Time 20 August 17:03 BST 20 August

A search and rescue operation, which includes boats scouring the surface of the sea and divers examining the wreck of the Bayesian yacht on the seabed, is still ongoing.

As we've been reporting, the specialist diving team have been struggling to access the cabins on the wreck - which is around 50m below the surface - because of debris blocking access.

'A smile that lit up the room': Tributes to chef killed in yacht sinking published at 16:52 British Summer Time 20 August 16:52 BST 20 August

The body of a man recovered near the Bayesian yacht is believed to be that of Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian-Antiguan chef who was working on the boat.

His friends have been paying tribute to him. Gareth Williams, who lives in Antigua, knew Thomas for 30 years.

"I can talk for everyone that knew him when I say he was a well-loved, kind human being with a calm spirit," he told me.

The two grew up together in Antigua, where Recaldo spent his time during off-season.

"He would come over to mine over the weekend and he would sing. He had the deepest, most sultry voice in the world, and a smile that lit up the room.

"He told me just the other day that he needed to work two more seasons to fix up his late parents' house. He loved yachting, but he was tired."

Eli Fuller met Recaldo some 25 years ago while out socialising in Antigua.

"He knew everybody and was friends with everybody. He'd always ask how you were doing, how your family was - he was always positive.

"Personality was very important in his job. The world's richest people want to hang out with someone social. He was sought after."

He added that Thomas became an inspiration to young black children who wanted to get into yachting.

"The kids would see all these white people working on yachts. For them to see an Antiguan man travelling all over the world - it was important for our community."

Search efforts complicated by wreck's position underwater, coastguard says published at 16:42 British Summer Time 20 August 16:42 BST 20 August Breaking

The search for the missing six passengers "continues without stopping" but divers have not found anything, the Italian coastguard says.

The coastguard says that specialist divers are "evaluating the feasibility of safely entering the wreck", but that the search is being "complicated by the depth and the position of the hull lying on the seabed" - at 50m below the surface.

It adds there is no trace of "hydrocarbon pollution" - meaning oil or other similar fuel is not leaking from the wreck.

Why is the search and recovery operation for the Bayesian so complex? published at 16:28 British Summer Time 20 August 16:28 BST 20 August

We're well into the second day of search and rescue operations for the six people still missing after the sinking of a luxury yacht off the coast of Sicily.

Here are some of the factors which make this a highly complex process:

• The wreckage is currently 50m (165ft) below the surface of the water
• Furniture and a "world of objects" are blocking access to the cabins of the yacht, hampering the divers' access
• Divers can only spend 12 minutes below the surface of the water, meaning by the time they reach the Bayesian, they only have 10 minutes to search the wreck
• The bridge of the yacht - the room where the captain controls the vessel - is full of electrical cables
• Divers are unable to see inside the yacht , though a possible entry point could be through a 3cm (1.2in)-thick glass window
• Specialist divers who are trained to work in small spaces have had to be flown in from Rome and Sardinia

Ex-MP John Gummer on his 'wonderfully kind' friend Lynch published at 16:10 British Summer Time 20 August 16:10 BST 20 August

Helen Burchell Live reporter

Lord Deben says his friend Mike Lynch is "wonderfully kind and companionable"

Lord Deben, former Conservative MP John Gummer, describes his missing friend Mike Lynch as "a wonderfully kind and companionable" man.

"He is the kind of person who carries this enormously clever mind, but carries it so lightly, and is always interested in what others have to say and might contribute," he says in a statement.

"It is a very serious moment... for if we have lost him, we’ve lost a very wonderful man."

He adds: "It is one of the cruellest blows that could possibly be made if it turns out that he hasn’t survived because he had so much to give, and he was giving it.

"This is a man of outstanding ability, but also the sort of person whom we were all very, very fortunate to know."

Water conditions could have led to waterspout, says oceanographer published at 15:54 British Summer Time 20 August 15:54 BST 20 August

Dr Simon Boxall is a senior lecturer at Southampton University

Dr Simon Boxall, an oceanographer from the University of Southampton, says "there's a lot still to be discovered" about what led to the sinking of the Bayesian.

Asked about reports the boat may have been hit by a waterspout , he tells the BBC they are "not normally dangerous" but that would depend on the intensity of the weather system.

Boxall says: "What's interesting is that we saw very light winds up until the time at which the yacht was hit.

"And then suddenly, the wind went from about three or four miles an hour to 30 or 40 miles an hour, and then dropped again. And that was on land.

"So it's a sort of precursor to there being a major sort of squall or even a waterspout that would have hit the ship."

The ocean to the north of Sicily is more than three degrees warmer than it should be at this time of year, he adds, creating a "perfect storm" for waterspouts to occur.

'Yacht sank in two minutes,' captain of nearby ship says published at 15:41 British Summer Time 20 August 15:41 BST 20 August

The captain of the Dutch-flagged ship that rescued Bayesian passengers from the water before emergency services arrived has spoken again to Reuters.

Captain Karsten Borner has previously explained how he worked to keep his ship upright during the storm, before noticing the luxury yacht that had been behind his vessel had disappeared.

"I don't absolutely know what they did. I only know that they went flat with a mast on the water and that they sank in two minutes," Borner says.

He says the sea temperature, which meteorologists have told us was at an extreme high of 30C, is "way too hot for the Mediterranean, and this causes, for sure, heavy storms".

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