‘Heartbreaking’: Family waits for details on 16 relatives buried at Naalehu Cemetery

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Ten days after Hurricane Lala reshaped the landscape in Na’alehu, some residents are still trying to find their loved ones’ graves.

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Beatrice Freitas of Mountain View has been waiting to learn what happened to her 16 relatives buried at the Naalehu Cemetery.

After seeing aerial footage of the damage to the graveyard, Freitas believes her mother and mother-in-law’s burials could have been disturbed.

“The river went right through my mama’s grave, and my mother-in-law’s grave,” Freitas said while describing the video of the aftermath. “You feel grief, you feel grief all over again, like when you buried your mom and you buried your mother in law, you buried your brothers…you’re hoping that it’s not them.”

Darryl Oliveira, interim administrator for the Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency, said, “We do see scouring of the earth that gives indication that which plots may have been completely washed away.

County officials are mapping the cemetery to determine how many of its roughly 1,000 burials were impacted.

“We’re sorry for what the community has gone through, both with the impacts of the storm, and then for those members of the community impacted directly by what’s happened at the cemetery,” Oliveira added.

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Because Naalehu is such a tight-knit community, Oliveira also believes there may be more like Freitas who have multiple loved ones at the cemetery.

Officials plan to hold a private meeting with relatives of the deceased on Wednesday.

It’s going to be a difficult conversation, but we’re trying to make it as comfortable as we can as we try to identify who may have been impacted,” Oliveira added.

Freitas’ niece in Kau has been in contact with officials handling the cemetery and plans to have someone from her family attend the Wednesday meeting.

“We just waiting patiently, because it’s very heartbreaking to have all this tragedy happen,” Freitas shared.

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More information about the county’s efforts at the cemetery is available here.