HONOLULU -- Hawaii families with relatives in the cyclone-ravaged country of Myanmar await word of their fate.

The latest death toll has climbed to about 22,000 with 500,000 or more left homeless by the Category 4 storm.

The Burmese community in Hawaii is only a couple of hundred people. However, the small and close-knit group has already started marshalling forces to help those in need.

"Right now, we are gathering funds and when we get the donations and then we will go to Thailand," said Tin Myaing Thein of the Myanmar Association of Hawaii.

Thein is doing what she can to help the storm victims. The eye of the massive storm hit her home city of Yangoon.

She visited there two years ago. After seeing images of destruction on television and on the Web she said she is not sure what to think.

"I have New York calling me, even the U.S. Embassy calling … because they have not been able to get through," Thein said.

The president of the Myanmar Association of Hawaii last talked to her sister's family just before the storm hit Saturday. She does not know if they are dead or alive.

"I hope they are OK I have a nephew here and he says no news is good news, but I don't think that's the case this time," Thein said.

Any Hawaii donations will go to buy supplies in neighboring Thailand, which is about an hour away from Yangoon.

The priority is water, food and plastic tarps for shelter. The question is how soon people can mobilize and get travel visas.

Besides Thein's efforts, the Aloha Medical Mission, a team of doctors who have traveled to the country, is bringing with them needed medical supplies. The AMM is now planning to return there to help with the situation.

"Our goal is humanitarian right now. We are looking at human beings who are suffering, and right now, politics has no place in this right now," Thein said.

Thein hopes to get gather volunteers to travel to Myanmar in the next week and a half.