KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — An East Tennessee is back home after traveling to Maui, bringing water purification supplies to an area devastated by wildfires.
In early August, wildfires demolished the historic town of Lahaina. They swept through the area and killed at least 115 people, sending several others running into the ocean to escape the flames. The fire left behind block after block of hollowed-out homes, charred cars, singed trees and piles of debris.
As of Tuesday, around 1,100 names were on a tentative, unconfirmed list of people unaccounted for after the wildfires.
Soon after the wildfires wrecked the town, responders descended on Maui to bring aid. Among them was Joe Hurston, an East Tennessee man who at first did not plan to head to the island because his wife had undergone surgery.
"When the warnings came and said, 'Do not drink the tap water.' Well, I understand that. That's a no-brainer. But the second one, and this was a clue that got us there, said 'Do not, do not boil the water,'" said Joe Hurston. "When I heard that, I knew I had to go because our machine knocks benzene right out of the park."
Hurston works with Air Mobile Ministries, an organization that provides water purification machines to areas struck by tragedy. He previously traveled to Turkey with the machines following a devastating earthquake and has routinely traveled to Ukraine during the war there.
He said he brought one other person with him for the trip to Maui - a pilot for the plane. They brought ten water purifiers.
"We worked with a lot of Hawaiians, and the one word that comes to me is, 'Family.' These people love one another, and we had the privilege to work beside them with some extraordinary technology," he said. "It's family, love, care, compassion. Our plan's already to go back."
He said they are planning to bring another ten water purifier units to the island. People can follow his work online, on a blog he writes. More information about Air Mobile Ministries is also available online.