Hawaii Governor Josh Green (Democrat) said that the death toll from the devastating wildfires on Maui will likely climb from 99 in the coming days but that search efforts will take time because officials are trying not to disrupt the homes.
Nearly 500 federal emergency personnel are currently deployed to the island of Maui, where the historic town of Lahaina was razed last week in what’s already become the deadliest US wildfire in over a century. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has deployed more than 140 search and rescue team members, who have integrated with the Maui Fire Department.
Maui County said that as of Tuesday morning, the official death toll from the fire stood at 99, four of which have been identified. Green said he believes that number will climb as search efforts continue.
“We are prepared for many tragic stories,” he told CBS Mornings on Monday. “They will find 10 to 20 people per day, probably, until they finish. And it’s probably going to take 10 days. It’s impossible to guess, really.”
As of Tuesday morning, officials have searched about 32% of the impacted area. The governor said at a press conference that search efforts will take “a lot of time” because officials going through all of the territories in Lahaina have to be “very careful not to disrupt any of the homes there.”
“So for those people who have walked into Lahaina because they really wanted to see, know that they are very likely walking on ‘iwi,’” Green said, using the Hawaiian word for “bones.”
The fires on Maui began early August 8, breaking out in Upcountry and Kihei overnight. A fire started in the Lahaina area several hours later, but fire officials said the blaze was contained. Later that same day, the blaze was exacerbated by high winds from a hurricane south of the Hawaiian Islands, causing the fire to race through town. Residents were left to make split-second decisions on escaping, some driving through smoke while others jumped into the ocean.
The Lahaina fire destroyed at least 2,200 buildings ― about 1,500 residential ― and burned over 2,100 acres. No fatalities have been reported from the Kula and Upcountry fires.
On Monday, Green addressed fears from locals that out-of-state buyers will parachute in to build hotels and other property in the centuries-old town that once served as the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
“I’ve actually reached out to our attorney general to explore options to do a moratorium on any sales of properties that have been damaged or destroyed,” said Green, whom the Honolulu Civil Beat said has made housing a priority for his administration.
“Moreover, I would caution people that it’s going to be a very long time before any growth or housing can be built, and so you will be pretty poorly informed if you try to steal land from our people and then build here.”
US President Joe Biden on Tuesday called the work that search teams are doing “painstaking” and “nerve-wracking.” The president said he and First Lady Jill Biden want to travel to Hawaii to tour the devastation “as soon as we can.”
“I don’t want to get in the way. I’ve been to too many disaster areas,” he said. “But I want to go, make sure we got everything they need. I want to be sure we don’t disrupt the ongoing recovery efforts.”