KAHULUI: Officials said on Saturday that the wildfires on the island of Maui in Hawaii were the “deadliest of the century” in the US, as the number of people who died rose to 89.
As the number of deaths is likely to rise in the coming days, the government looked at closely, and the state’s emergency alert system criticised. Rescue teams are still looking through the wreckage of Lahaina.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said that it would cost $5.5 billion to rebuild Lahaina because more than 2,200 buildings lost or damaged and more than 2,100 acres (850 hectares) of land burned.
At a press meeting on Saturday afternoon, Hawaii Governor Josh Green said that the number of deaths would keep going up as more bodies found. Maui County Police Chief John Pelletier said that dogs trained to find bodies have only searched 3% of the area.
After some locals asked if more could have done to warn them before the fire took over their homes, officials promised to look into the state’s emergency notification systems. Some had to walk through the Pacific Ocean to get away.
Sirens that set up around the island to warn of upcoming natural disasters never went off. Widespread power and cell phone outages made it hard for other signals to get through.
Anne Lopez, the state’s attorney general, said she would look into the decisions made before and during the fire. Green told CNN that he had ordered a review of the reaction to the fire.
A nightmare
Officials have said that a nightmare combination of things, such as a broken communications network, wind gusts of up to 130 kilometres per hour (80 miles per hour) from a hurricane off the coast, and a separate wildfire dozens of miles away, made it almost impossible to coordinate in real time with the emergency management agency that would normally send out warnings and orders to evacuate.
Green said, “Over time, we’ll be able to see if we could have protected people better.” He said that the various fires and dangerous winds made things very hard.
The fire, which started on Tuesday, was Hawaii’s worst natural disaster, killing more people than a tsunami that killed 61 people in 1960, a year after Hawaii became a US state.
The current number was higher than the 85 people who died in a fire in Paradise, California, in 2018. It was also the highest number of deaths from a wildfire since 453 people died in the Cloquet fire in Minnesota and Wisconsin in 1918.
Green said that officials have found 1,000 hotel rooms for people who lost their homes and are making plans for rental homes to used as free housing for families. Shelters for people in trouble had taken in more than 1,400 people.
The head of FEMA, Deanne Criswell, said that the agency already had 150 people on the ground and that more search teams and dogs would arrive in a day or two.
Quick progress
On Friday, authorities started letting people back into west Maui, but the fire zone in Lahaina still blocked off. Officials warned that toxic fumes could come from places that still burning and said that the search still going on.
There were still hundreds of people who were missing, but it was not clear how many.
June Lacuesta told people at a family support centre in Kahului that he was trying to find nine family members who hadn’t been heard from since Tuesday.
“I can’t explain how I feel when I see Lahaina town itself,” said Lacuesta, who was on his way to a church shelter to continue his search.
On August 12, 2023, in Honolulu, Hawaii, US, donations for the people who lost their homes in the Maui wildfires pile up at a spot set up by the Ward Village Moms and Dads group. — News Corp.
On August 12, 2023, in Honolulu, Hawaii, US, donations for the people who lost their homes in the Maui wildfires pile up at a spot set up by the Ward Village Moms and Dads group. — News Corp.
Just after midnight on Tuesday, there was a report of a brush fire in the town of Kula, which is about 35 miles (55 km) from Lahaina.
Power Shortage
Lahaina lost power about five hours after the storm hit. Maui County said in updates made on Facebook that morning that a three-acre (1.2-hectare) brush fire started around 6:30am in Lahaina but put out by 10am.
In later news reports, the Kula fire, which had burned hundreds of acres and caused some people to leave their homes, was the main topic. But, according to information from the county, the Lahaina fire started around 3:30 p.m.
Some people started to leave, but people on the west side of the town, including hotel guests, were told to stay put. In the hours that followed, the county put a number of evacuation orders on Facebook, but it wasn’t clear if people were getting them as they ran away from the quickly spreading fire.
Some witnesses said they didn’t have much time to get ready and said they were scared as the fire burned the town around them in what seemed like minutes.
