California family of seven thanks local Lahaian hero who led them into the sea and floated for three hours together on plywood as firestorm killed at least 110 people
A Hawaiian man who helped a California family of seven survive last week’s wildfires, led them to the sea and cheered them on as they floated together for two hours has said he was relieved to hear the family was okay and survived the ordeal without significant injury.
Jubee Bedoya, from Lahaina, said he ran to the ocean when he saw the parents and their five children from Fresno.
“As the fire got closer, there was a family — a couple from California,” Bedoya told NBC 4 News.
“They had five children.
“The father gave me the two-year-old and from the moment he gave him to me, I had that son in my arms, clutched to my neck for about two hours. Two to three hours in the water. And it was crazy.’
Jubee Bedoya, from Lahaina, has described in poignant detail how he helped save a family of seven from the wildfires in Hawaii
Bedoya is seen floating in the sea with the little boy clinging to his neck
The parents and their five children survived their ordeal and are now home in Fresno
Amazing footage shows the eight people floating in the ocean, clinging to a piece of plywood that was blown into the water, as the flames ravaged the shore.
“So the mother wouldn’t come in,” Bedoya said. “The man grabbed her.”
All eight were eventually rescued from the ocean by the Coast Guard.
The family is back in California and not yet ready to speak publicly about the horrors of their experience, but Dao Phonxaylinkham, the husband’s sister, thanked Bedoya for saving them.
The man told his sister it was terrifying and they felt “powerless.”
But, he added, “You can’t watch them die like that.”
Bedoya, a lifelong resident of Lahaina who has now lost his home, told Phonxaylinkham that he was incredibly relieved to learn they had survived.
“I’m so glad to hear they made it,” Bedoya told her.
“Your little nephew—he hung so tight on my neck. He was so scared. I’m so glad they made it out alive.’
Phonxaylinkham said the little boy told her Bedoya saved him.
“He remembered that, you know,” she said. “I asked who helped you. I said did you feel safe? And he answered: yes, strong as my father.’
Bedoya told her, “Give them my love, tell them I am so glad they are safe and have come home.”
The death toll had risen to 110 by Wednesday, but Maui residents were trying to salvage a semblance of normalcy.
Dozens of people clung to the shoreline in Lahaina as wildfires swept through the city last week
An aerial view of Lahaina shows the magnitude of the devastation caused by the wildfires in Hawaii
Smoke is still rising from Lahaina on Friday
Members of the Hawaiian National Guard comb the devastated city on Friday
Public schools began reopening and traffic resumed on a major road showing signs of recovery.
At least three schools in Lahaina, where entire neighborhoods were reduced to ashes, were still being assessed after wind damage, said Superintendent Keith Hayashi of the Hawaiian Department of Education.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done, but overall the campuses and classrooms are structurally sound, which is encouraging,” Hayashi said in a video update.
“We know that the recovery effort is still in its infancy and we continue to mourn the many lives lost.”
Elsewhere, crews cleared ash and debris from schools and tested air and water quality.
Displaced students enrolling in those campuses will have access to services such as meals and counseling, Hayashi said.
The education department also provides guidance to students, family members and employees.
The cause of the fire remains unknown, but a lawsuit has been filed against Hawaiian Electric for failing to cut power amid tinder-dry conditions and hurricane-force winds at their backs.
The island’s chief of emergency services, meanwhile, said he was “not sorry” that sirens were not sounded to warn people of the oncoming flames.
Maui Emergency Management Agency administrator Herman Andaya defended the failure to sound the sirens during the blaze.
“We were concerned that people would have turned mauka,” he said, using the Hawaiian directional term that can mean towards the mountains or inland.
“If that was the case, they would have started the fire.”
There are no sirens in the mountains, where the fire spread downhill.
Smoke rises near Lahaina as wildfires triggered by high winds destroy much of the historic city of Lahaina
The hall of the historic Waiola Church in Lahaina and the nearby Lahaina Hongwanji Mission go up in flames along Wainee Street on Tuesday, August 8, 2023
Burnt-out cars can be seen after the fires devastated parts of Maui
Hawaii created what it touts as the largest system of outdoor warning sirens in the world after a 1946 tsunami in which more than 150 people died.
Andaya said they are primarily for tsunami warning and have never been used for wildfires.
The website for the Maui Siren System says they can be used to warn of fires.
Aside from the decision not to use sirens, state and local officials have faced public criticism over a shortage of water available to fight the fire and a chaotic evacuation that left many trapped in their vehicles on a gridlocked road as the flames spread. beat over them.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency opened its first emergency recovery center on Maui, “an important first step” in helping residents get information about relief, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said.
They can also go there for updates on requests for help.
Criswell said she would accompany President Joe Biden on Monday when he visits to assess the damage and “bring hope.”