The death toll in the Maui wildfires has risen to 101, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green told CNN Tuesday, a week after the flames started sweeping through parts of the island.
The governor’s update on the death toll – up from 99 a day before – came on a day authorities said only four of the dead had been identified. Officials will release names after their relatives are notified, Maui County officials said Tuesday.
Authorities had gone through about a third of the search area as of Tuesday; the county put the figure at 32% while the governor said it was 27%.
With so much still to search, the death toll still could rise significantly, Green has said.
“Over the course of the next several weeks, we’ll be able to confirm who passed away. But it’s gonna be very difficult going,” the governor told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday.
Hawaii's Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke called the wildfires burning on Maui "unprecedented."
Many deaths happened on a highway down by the ocean in western Maui, he said.
“I think many of the fatalities that we’ll ultimately discover, a higher percentage will be from there,” he said. “But now that we’re going to the houses, we are not sure what we will see. We’re hopeful and praying that it’s not large, large numbers.”
It’s unclear how many people are unaccounted for, in part because of communication gaps, Green said Monday. “A lot of people had to run and left all they had behind. They don’t have their phones – the phones are incinerated,” he said.
A portable morgue unit has arrived in Hawaii and will help authorities identify and process remains with equipment such as examination tables, X-ray units and laboratory equipment, Jonathan Greene, deputy assistant secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, said Tuesday.
Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said in a Monday news conference that he hopes searchers will have covered 85% to 90% by the weekend.
“We started with one dog. We are at 20,” Pelletier said Monday. “We can only move as fast as we can, but we got the right amount of workers and teams doing it.”
Crews are going through what used to be homes, business and historic landmarks burned to the ground after wind-whipped wildfires began spreading erratically August 8, suddenly engulfing homes, forcing harrowing escapes and likely displacing thousands especially in western Maui’s Lahaina area.
A woman collects water at a local shopping center in Lahaina where different aid groups deliver health and food supplies to people on August 13, 2023.
There were 185 people on search-and-recovery teams, the governor said Tuesday.
“Nothing can prepare you for what I saw during my time here, and nothing can prepare them for the emotional toll of the impact that this severe event has taken on them,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told reporters Monday.
The Maui wildfires are the deadliest in the US in more than 100 years, according to the National Fire Protection Association.
Source: CNN
BDST: 1010 HRS, AUG 16, 2023
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