89 people have been confirmed dead in the Maui wildfire that destroyed the historic town of Lahaina, the deadliest US fire in a century.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green warned Saturday that the number of victims could rise “significantly,” as forensic work continues to identify the victims.
Hundreds are missing while hundreds more are filling shelters on Maui after fleeing the flames.
“It’s an impossible day,” Mr Green said.
He said the fires would “definitely be the worst natural disaster Hawaii has ever faced”.
“All we can do is wait and help those who are staying. Our focus now is on reuniting people when we can and providing them with housing and providing them with health care. are, and then turn to reconstruction.”
While the wildfires are now largely under control, efforts to fully extinguish them are ongoing in parts of the island, including around Lahaina, which have caused havoc.
Authorities have focused on combing what’s left of the island’s coastline, using sniffer dogs trained to detect bodies to find signs of bodies under the debris.
So far, they’ve only covered 3 percent of the search area, said a visibly emotional Maui Police Chief John Pelletier.
“You have to do rapid DNA [testing] to identify them, every one of those 89 is a John and Jane Doe [initially unknown],” he said.
“None of us understand the size of it yet.”
Jeremy Greenberg, a senior official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), told JEE News that additional assistance was being sent, including civilian search and rescue and firefighting teams.
“The absolute number one priority is the safety of survivors,” he said.
Mr. Greenberg added that while about 1,000 people have yet to be contacted, some of them are safe but out of reach for a variety of reasons.
