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‘You ever seen hell in the movies? That is what it looked like’
Survivors of Maui fires face power cuts and poor mobile phone service as teams work to find and ID the dead, report Claire Rush, Jennifer Sinco Kelleher and Christopher Weber
Homes consumed in recent wildfires are seen in Lahaina, Hawaii, Wednesday, August 16, 2023

US FEDERAL officials sent a mobile morgue with coroners, pathologists and technicians to Hawaii to help identify the dead, as Maui County released the first names of people killed in the wildfire that all but incinerated the historic town of Lahaina a week ago and killed at least 106 people.

A week after the fires started, some residents still had intermittent power, unreliable mobile phone service and uncertainty over where to get assistance.

Some people walked periodically to a seawall, where phone connections were strongest, to make calls. Flying low off the coast, a single-prop airplane used a loudspeaker to blare information about where to get water and supplies.

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