The terrible death toll from the fires in Hawaii continues to grow and now exceeds 100 dead. Many people are still missing and could swell the number of deaths.
The threshold of 100 dead has been exceeded on the archipelago of Hawaii, where the island of Maui has been ravaged by lightning fires, the deadliest in more than a century in the United States.
“101 lives have now been lost,” state Governor Josh Green said in a televised announcement Tuesday night. “We are heartbroken by such a loss,” he added.
Rescuers and sniffer dogs searching the rubble of the nearly blazed town of Lahaina on the island of Maui only examined just over a quarter of the area, he said. . Authorities fear the death toll will rise dramatically and have already warned it could double.
mobile mortuary
Hundreds of people are still missing. Among them, some are gradually located by their relatives as communications are restored on Maui, but others will inevitably join the ranks of the victims of the tragedy.
In Lahaina, which had 12,000 inhabitants before the disaster, the search for bodies is laborious. The fire was so intense in this former capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii that it melted the metal: more than 2000 buildings were destroyed and many homes were simply reduced to ashes.
Relatives of missing persons are encouraged to take a DNA test to help identify the corpses, which are often unrecognizable. A mobile morgue also arrived on the island of Maui on Tuesday, along with several US Department of Health personnel. What to facilitate the identification of victims.
Open investigation
A week to the day after the multiple fires that ravaged Maui, President Joe Biden vowed on Tuesday to travel to Hawaii “as soon as possible” with his wife Jill.
“I want to make sure we don’t disrupt relief operations,” with the logistics of a presidential trip, said the 80-year-old Democrat, who signed a natural disaster declaration quickly to fund relief and recovery efforts. reconstruction.
“I assured the governor that Hawaii would continue to receive everything it needs from the federal government, and I asked Administrator Criswell (director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, editor’s note) to continue to increase resources and personnel for as long as necessary,” he also wrote on Twitter.
An investigation into the authorities’ crisis management has also been opened.
Source: BFM TV
