On Maui, work continues to identify fatalities. Some 1,000 people are still missing and 1,400 remain in shelters.
It is already considered the deadliest fire of the last century in the US (after the 2018 episode in northern California, which consumed the city of Paradise) and the latest balance of victims caused by fires in the Hawaiian archipelago points to to an even higher number. Heartbreaking serious scenario: there are already 89 confirmed deaths in Maui, once the historic city of Lahaina was devastated, describes The New York Times.
The number of fatalities, however, could increase “significantly”, Governor Josh Green warned this Saturday, since the search teams, including the sniffer dogs, cover only 3% of the area in question, so the balance current is very provisional.
At the same time, the work to identify the victims continues (another of the main challenges in the coming days). About a thousand people are still missing, Senator Mazie Hirono told The Washington Post, and the authorities appealed to the population that does not know the whereabouts of some relatives to take DNA tests in Kahului to expedite the identification process.
Some 1,400 people, according to Mauiu authorities and the local Red Cross, are now sheltering in shelters after managing to escape the flames.
“Without a doubt, the fires will be the biggest natural disaster Hawaii has ever faced,” added the governor, who noted that although the flames are under control in most of the territory, efforts to extinguish them once and for all continue in some parts of the country. island, even around Lahaina.
Speaking to RTP3 this Saturday, Tyler dos Santos-Tam, Portugal’s honorary consul in Hawaii, admitted that there are descendants of missing Portuguese, although local authorities have not yet made the list of victims public.
Four days after the fires began, the extent of the damage is, according to the Post, becoming increasingly clear. An assessment by the Pacific Disaster Center estimates that more than 2,207 structures were damaged and that the vast majority of buildings exposed to fire were residential.
Locals criticize insufficient relief efforts and the failure to activate emergency sirens in the face of the disaster. Island officials advise residents to drink only bottled water, as structures in the Upper Kula and Lahaina water systems were destroyed by fire and may have caused the entry of carcinogens.
Still at Saturday’s press briefing, Josh Green stressed that high winds of up to 50 mph from the hurricane that battered Hawaii created “incredibly intense and dangerous circumstances” for emergency crews battling the Maui fires.
Source: Observadora
