Wildfires have wreaked havoc in Hawaii, leaving 53 people dead in Lahaina City.
Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said: “We’ve recovered 53 people. If the mayor or myself do not give you that number, it’s not accurate.”
“We’re going to take our time we’re going to do it right.
“I do not know what the final number is going to be. It’s going to be horrible and tragic.”
The deaths Lahaina, the island’s main tourist destination, came as strong winds from a distant hurricane fanned the flames.
The fire is one of several ongoing blazes that have burnt entire neighbourhoods to the ground.
Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate their homes and a state of emergency has been declared.
A huge search and rescue operation is underway, with some people still unaccounted for.
“We barely made it out in time,” Kamuela Kawaakoa told the Associated Press. Kaakoa fled to an evacuation shelter on Tuesday with his partner and six-year-old son.
“It was so hard to sit there and just watch my town burn to ashes and not be able to do anything,” he said. “I was helpless.”
A survivor, Mr. Baraoidan, said they left nearly all of their possessions behind. They thought their house would be still standing when they returned, but it did not survive.
“When we found out… my mother burst into tears,” he told the BBC. “Not just the whole street, but the whole neighbourhood is gone.”
‘If I say jump, jump. If I tell you to run, run.’
Another survivor Tee Dang recalls the harrowing experience she went through to get to safety.
Dang was in a rental car with her three children and husband on Lahaina’s Front Street when she saw the flames inching closer and closer toward them.
But when the vehicles around them began catching fire they decided to grab their food, water, and phones and run for the waves.
“We have to get to the ocean,” the Kansas mother told BBC News on Thursday. “There was nothing else because we were cornered in.”
With their children – ages five, 13, and 20 – they at first stayed close to shore. But as evening approached, and the tide rose, the water started smashing her into the rock wall of the harbour, severely cutting her leg.
When the line of cars on Front Street – “at least 50” of them – started exploding, they were forced to move into deeper water to seek shelter from the “shooting debris”.
They were in the water for nearly four hours, she said.
It was a Tuesday afternoon, but the sky behind them was pitch black from the wildfire smoke.
It was a harrowing ordeal for the family, who wondered if they were going to make it out alive. At one point, one of Mrs. Dang’s children fainted in the water.
They were eventually rescued by a firefighter who directed them through the burning streets.
Leading a group of about 15 survivors, she recalls the firefighter telling them: “I don’t even know if we’re gonna make it at this point. Just do everything I say. If I say jump, jump. If I tell you to run, run.”
Evacuation centers ‘overrun’ with survivors
Five evacuation shelters have been opened on Maui and officials earlier said they were “overrun” with people. The island is a popular tourist destination and visitors have been urged to stay away.
“This is not a safe place to be,” Hawaii Lt Governor Sylvia Luke told reporters. “We have resources that are being taxed.”
Firefighters are still battling active fires, with helicopters dropping water on the blazes from above.
The western side of the island, which is the second largest of the Hawaiian archipelago, was almost cut off entirely with only one main road open.
“As the firefighting efforts continue, 53 total fatalities have been discovered to date amid the active Lahaina fire,” the Maui county government said in a statement late on Wednesday.
