Hawaii Gov. Josh Green warns ’10 to 20′ more Lahaina wildfire victims will be found dead each day as just 3% of the search area has been scoured – and says around 1,300 people are still missing
- Hawaii’s governor has predicted the remains of hundreds more people could be found during a search operation expected to last around 10 days
- ‘There are more fatalities that will come,’ he said, ‘it’s hard to recognize anybody’
- Green also said on Sunday that around 1,300 people were still missing after the fires
Hundreds more people could found dead in Lahaina during a lengthy search operation following the unprecedented wildfires which destroyed the town, according to Hawaii Governor Josh Green.
Green said he expects search teams will find ’10 to 20′ bodies per day during an operation that will last around 10 days.
The death toll currently stands at 96, but officials in Maui said on Saturday that teams had been able to cover just 3 percent of the search area.
The governor added on Sunday that around 1,300 people were still missing after the fires.
‘There are more fatalities that will come,’ he told CBS. ‘The fire was so hot that what we find is the tragic finding that you would imagine… It’s hard to recognize anybody. But they’re able to determine if someone did perish.’
Hawaii Governor Josh Green said search teams ‘will find 10 to 20 people per day probably until they finish’ the finish the searches, which take around 10 days
Governor of Hawaii Josh Green, left, and Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen, Jr., speak during a tour of wildfire damage on Saturday, Aug. 12, 2023, in Lahaina
Governor of Hawaii Josh Green, right, and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell look at a destroyed building along Front Street during a tour of wildfire damage on Saturday, Aug. 12, 2023, in Lahaina
Green, a doctor who has been treating casualties, said he’d been into Lahaina twice and ‘there’s nothing to see except full devastation’.
‘The buildings are almost nonexistent. It was so hot that even metal contorted so that you can’t believe what the building was.
‘But that’s what you see, and obviously there will not be any survivors in the area left. They’ve either escaped and escaped that night and now as we put up some temporary cell capacity, people are calling each other. So the number of missing went from in the 2,000s to 1,300.
‘Look, our hearts will break, beyond repair perhaps, if that means that many more dead. None of us think that, but we are prepared for many tragic stories.
‘They will find 10 to 20 people per day probably until they finish. And it’s probably going to take ten days. It’s impossible to guess really.’
Authorities have not published an official missing persons list but a Maui resident, Ellie Erickson, has created an online spreadsheet which currently lists about 1,200 names as ‘not located’.
About 4,000 more names on the spreadsheet are listed as ‘found’.
Twenty cadaver dogs and dozens of searchers are currently making their way through blocks reduced to ash. A member of the search and rescue team walks with her cadaver dog near Front Street on Saturday, Aug. 12, 2023, in Lahaina
The historic town of Lahaina has been devastated. The historic Banyan Tree is burned and scarred but still standing
Destroyed buildings surround the area in the aftermath of the fire in Lahaina on Front Street Thursday in handout photos provided by Hawaii Gov. Green
Twenty cadaver dogs and dozens of searchers are currently making their way through blocks reduced to ash.
‘Right now, they’re going street by street, block by block between cars, and soon they’ll start to enter buildings,’ Jeff Hickman, director of public affairs for the Hawaii Department of Defense, told NBC on Monday.
The blaze that swept into centuries-old Lahaina nearly a week ago destroyed nearly every building in the town of 13,000, leaving a grid of gray rubble wedged between the blue ocean and lush green slopes.
That fire has been 85% contained, according to the county. Another blaze known as the Upcountry fire has been 60% contained, officials said.
Green said he was frustrated following reports the Maui’s emergency warning system, including sirens and mobile phone alerts, allegedly did not give residents enough notice that fires were rapidly engulfing Lahaina.
‘We’re heartbroken that people couldn’t get out or didn’t get alerted. We’re doing a review already. My attorney general, I asked her to do it. Not to find fault in anyone but to say why this worked and this didn’t work,’ he said.
‘It is definitely a natural disaster because the winds were moving — any fire between 60 and 80 miles per hour. That’s a mile a minute.’
He said the speed and ferocity of the fires meant ‘moving people out’ had been the best hope of preventing deaths.
Source: Read Full Article
