BUTTE COUNTY, Calif. — As the residents of Maui start to pick up the pieces from the wildfire, some local law enforcement agencies have a good idea of what the devastated community might be able to expect.
Sheriff Kory Honea, who led Butte County through the 2018 Camp Fire, said people tend to draw a lot of conclusions between the number of people who are unaccounted for and the potential number of deaths. He said it's not appropriate to do at this time. The fact, and hope, is that many of those people will eventually be accounted for.
Honea still remembers being tasked with having to evacuate almost 30,000 people during the 2018 wildfire.
"For those of you who are familiar with Camp Fire, it was an absolutely devastating event. It moved very rapidly and so trying to evacuate that many people that quickly was a very very challenging task," said Sheriff Honea.
It's a scene that quickly turned deadly, just like the Maui wildfires.
"It is tracking almost exactly the way our experience was. They're dealing with all the same types of things from challenges with warning people of the threat, challenges with getting people evacuated, people having to flee for their lives and of course in the aftermath, the devastation," said Honea.
The efforts have now turned to what he calls a grim task of searching for human remains. Law enforcement will have to look in the areas where people could have been seeking shelter and identifying the remains.
Honea said during this time, he found it helpful to hold nightly briefings to keep his community informed.
"And I think, that was helpful. Also, I attended a lot of community meetings, so that I could really understand what people were dealing with, what their concerns were, what challenges they were facing and where possible, I would try to help them work through those things," said Honea.
He said these types of events will have long-lasting effects on a community and recovery will be a very lengthy process.
"No one impacted by this will ever be the same again. They'll never be made whole again," said Honea.
He also said law enforcement will get a better handle on how many people are actually missing as rescue efforts unfold.
He added that people should pay attention to the stress they're under, along with the trauma, and make sure they're dealing with it in the healthiest possible way.
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