Siphons claimed lives of Maui girls
The two teens were sucked through irrigation apparatus
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Maui police said yesterday the two girls who drowned while rafting Sunday in an irrigation ditch in Haiku were sucked through siphons, or tubes.
The ditch was engineered to create an uphill flow at one section. This is near where the girls were found, police said.
Siphons are used to transport water across wide gulches by the East Maui Irrigation Co., which owns and controls the ditch system.
The girls -- Lucy Marie Smith, 13, of Wailuku and Cherie Hurd, 14, of Haiku, both King Kekaulike High School students -- were strong swimmers, according to a close friend.
Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. General Manager Stephen Holaday said that to anyone's recollection this was the first time someone has drowned in the ditch in this manner.
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The two Maui girls who drowned Sunday in an irrigation ditch in Haiku were sucked through siphons, or tubes, police said yesterday.
One of the girls was pulled through three tubes, while the other went through one tube, police said.
Siphons are used to transport water across wide gulches by the East Maui Irrigation Co., which owns and controls the ditch system. (A "siphon" is defined as a tube fashioned or used in an inverted U shape and filled until enough atmospheric pressure forces liquid from a reservoir in one end of the tube over a higher barrier and out the other end.)
The ditch was engineered to create an uphill flow at one section. This is near where the girls were found, police said.
The girls -- Lucy Marie Smith, 13, of Wailuku, and Cherie Hurd, 14, of Haiku -- were both good swimmers, according to close friend Molly Roman. Their bodies were found a half-mile to 3/4 of a mile apart.
Residents of the area said the waterway is fairly calm, but is marked by a series of tubes that suck and shoot water out with some force downstream.
The two King Kekaulike High School students had gone rafting at a place known as "Tubes" on Sunday and failed to return home, their parents told police.
Police said yesterday a surfboard was recovered, but it was unknown whether the victims had been using it. Police believe the girls entered the ditch off Peahi Road. A spokesman for the Police Department said the teens had been trespassing on private property.
Police found one body in Lowrie Ditch, east of West Kuiaha and Haiku roads, at 1:25 p.m. Sunday by a passerby. The other body was found about 5:30 p.m.
A lead detective on the case said foul play does not appear to be a factor in the girls' deaths.
A preliminary autopsy report showed the girls drowned and had no significant injuries. Maui police are continuing their investigation into the deaths and are awaiting results of microscopic and toxicology studies.
Portions of the ditch flow through an underground tunnel in an area above the site where police conducted their investigation Monday.
The East Maui Irrigation Co. system is a complex and extensive irrigation ditch system of 74 miles of ditches, tunnels, inverted siphons and flumes that provides water to Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. Both are subsidiaries of Alexander & Baldwin Inc. The system provides water to HC&S, Upcountry Maui residents and farmers and the Kula Agricultural Park. Fifty of those 74 miles are tunnels.
In a statement, Stephen Holaday, general manager of HC&S, expressed "heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of these teenagers, and to their school ohana."
"To anyone's recollection in the company, this is the first time anything of this nature has ever happened," the statement said.
Star-Bulletin stringer Wendy Osher contributed to this report.
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Funeral services set for Wailuku girl
Services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at Ballard Family Mortuary for Lucy Marie Smith, 13, of Wailuku, one of two Maui girls who drowned Sunday while rafting in an irrigation ditch.
The bodies of Smith and her friend Cherie Hurd -- both students at King Kekaulike High School -- were recovered Sunday in the Lowrie Ditch near Haiku and West Kuiaha roads.
Smith's 14th birthday would have been Oct. 11.
Smith was born in Wailuku. She is survived by father Ron Smith Jr., mother Renee, brother Ron III, sister Clara, grandmothers Donna Smith and Kathy Abatie, and grandfather Mario Pulling.
Visitation will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday at the mortuary. Friends may also call after 9 a.m. Saturday. Burial will be in Valley Isle Memorial Park.
