Pair swept away by huge 'wall of water' on Maui
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
WAILUKU, Maui — Holly Brown said yesterday a "massive wall of water" swept away her husband and daughter without warning as they hiked above the pools of 'Ohe'o in Haleakala National Park last week.
Timothy Hurley • The Honolulu Advertiser
It was all over in an instant, the Louisville, Ky., woman said in her first public statement since the tragedy.
Holly Brown said she and her son "rest in the knowledge that Kevin and Elizabeth are with our Lord in paradise."
Brown said she and her 11-year-old son, Clayton, have come to accept the deaths of Kevin Brown, 39, and Elizabeth, 8, though their bodies have not been found.
With her voice quavering slightly, Brown said they "rest in the knowledge that Kevin and Elizabeth are with our Lord in paradise. Their very precious memories will live through us until we are called to join them."
Earlier in the day, the National Park Service called off the search for the two bodies after a final check of the shoreline around 'Ohe'o Gulch proved unsuccessful.
'Ohe'o, a popular tourist destination, features freshwater pools and falls descending from mountain to sea. Thousands of tourists travel each year to the remote East Maui district of Haleakala National Park, but few are aware of the dangers of the 'Ohe'o stream and its pools, often called the Seven Sacred Pools.
Brown's husband and daughter were swept away by the stream's powerful floodwaters Thursday, plunging over 184-foot Makahiku Falls as she and her son looked on. No one has survived the plunge over that waterfall, officials said.
The mother and son were able to climb to higher ground and get help from a park service volunteer.
Brown, showing occasional flashes of anguish, read a statement at the Maui Police Department Wailuku headquarters in response to media requests for an interview. She agreed to read prepared remarks in front of a single television cameraman and newspaper reporter on the condition that no questions be asked.
Brown said she and her husband had brought her children to Maui to show them "the beauty in God's world that we had first seen together years ago. The Seven Sacred Pools has been a place for us without match in our travels.
"As our family was hiking just above the Makahiku Falls without any possible chance of warning, Kevin and my daughter, Elizabeth, were washed instantly away by a massive wall of water coming down the mountain."
Since then, surviving family members, including Kevin's parents, who accompanied them on the spring break vacation, have been under the "incredibly compassionate care" of the Maui Police Department and its chaplains, she said.
"The level of support from family, friends and indeed complete strangers has been a true gift from the heart."
Brown described the search by National Park Service rangers and Maui Department of Fire Control dive teams as not only professional and complete "but with a level of kindness that has touched our family."
Brown, 39, is an obstetrician-gynecologist in Louisville. Her son attends Louisville Collegiate School, where Elizabeth also was enrolled. Kevin Brown was a chemistry teacher at Eastern High School in Middletown, Ky.
Park rangers were ready to end their search Monday when they found the girl's swimsuit bottom in the surf a half-mile from the gulch.
Ranger Sharon Ringsven said yesterday that a search of the gulch would be conducted by a ranger on foot daily over the next week from Makahiku Falls to the ocean.
Reach Timothy Hurley at (808) 244-4880, or e-mail at thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com.
