RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Heidi Gehring, right, and Alli Kennedy embraced yesterday outside the Church of the Pacific in Princeville, Kauai, before the start of a memorial celebration for the victims of the Kauai dam collapse and flood. At left is Anna Castle.

Friends and family of victims express grief in unique ways

About 100 people informally gather to celebrate the lives of those lost last week

PRINCEVILLE, Kauai » There was laughter, tears, dancing and a potluck -- even a rowdy ukulele singer in the parking lot.

It was certainly not a typical memorial service. But then, the seven victims of last Tuesday's dam breach were not your typical people, friends and relatives said yesterday at the Church of Pacific.

About 100 people, including a number of musicians, came to celebrate the lives of the seven lost last week and express their emotions.

"I am just facilitating the community to get together at a very special time," organizer Millicent Cummings said. "It's an open forum. ... None of us know how we will spend our day today."

After starting with a poem, Cummings read a letter from Timothy Noonan's uncle Rich.

"My heart is heavy," Rich Noonan wrote. "I only wish I had known him better so I can miss him more."

"I'm glad he has good friends," he continued. "May you carry his story on, along with the others."

Robert Sequoia played a love song for Daniel Arroyo, 33, and Christina Macnees, 22, nicknamed "Sunny" for her unending positive attitude.

"They were always sweet to me and kind," he said. "Sunny's smile could light up the day."

RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Kainoa Wong measured the depth of the remaining water in the Morita Reservoir yesterday at Kilauea, Kauai, where water levels have decreased dramatically since last week's heavy rains. Wong said the deepest part, as of 10:45 a.m. yesterday, was about 6 1/2 feet deep.

"The way we can really help them now is to feel the grief," he said. "We're sending them love, saying, 'I'm here for you, I love you.'"

Shoshanna Belle was supposed to play with her band at Arroyo and Macnees' wedding. Instead, she played at their memorial.

All the victims "would want us to celebrate life," she said.

Kim Ione Taubensee said that Noonan, Arroyo and Macnees were close, with Noonan only moving into the home two days before it was swept away.

"Tim was a diamond-in-the-rough kind," Taubensee, a former roommate of the three, said. He was "a really kind, sweet, grounded, honorable, loving person."

She added that Noonan, whom she had known for years, was never known to say a bad thing about anyone, even when it was justified. All three of her former roommates followed Krishna principles.

RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM About 100 people assembled yesterday at the Church of the Pacific in Princeville, Kauai, to celebrate the lives of the victims of the dam collapse and flood at Kilauea, Kauai.

"My sweetheart said Daniel and Sunny were supposed to get married on Saturday," Taubensee said. They just "eloped and took their best man with them."

Police also identified the third body found Saturday: Aurora Fehring, 24. Her husband, Alan Dingwall, 30, was found last week. Their son, Rowan, has not been found.

The Fehring family has not made any public appearances, but they did release a statement earlier in the week thanking searchers, Kauai Hospice and well-wishers. Their statement also extended their condolences to the "families and friends of those who were staying at our home."

Noonan, Arroyo and Wayne Rotstein, caretaker of the property the seven lived on, have not been found.

The state Urban Search and Rescue Team spent yesterday looking for the victims, and acting county Public Information Officer Rosa Flores said the search will continue today.