2023-08-16 09:49:45
Update
August 16, 2023
11:49
In Hawaii, there are 106 dead following the deadliest fires in the United States in more than a century. Hundreds of people are still missing.
The death toll from the deadliest fires in more than a century in the United States continues to grow. We now deplore 106 dead, according to an announcement by authorities on Tuesday. And unfortunately it is not over. The archipelago is currently continuing its fight to find the victims with the macabre presence of a mobile morgue on the island of Maui, extremely affected by the flames.
“We are heartbroken by such a loss,” said the governor of the archipelago Josh Green in a television announcement on Tuesday evening.
A quarter of the excavated area
The task ahead is immense following such a disaster. On the island of Maui, in the town of Lahaina razed by the flames, rescuers and sniffer dogs covered just over a quarter of the area. Given the scale of the unexamined terrain, authorities fear the death toll will climb significantly. These have already warned that it might double.
While there were still 1,300 missing at the start of the week, they are gradually being found by their relatives as communications are restored. However, hundreds of people have not yet been located and some will inevitably join the ranks of the victims.
In the former capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii Lahaina, the intensity of the flames melted the metal. More than 2,000 buildings were destroyed and many houses were reduced to ashes.
Relatives of missing persons are encouraged to take a DNA test to help identify the corpses, which are often unrecognizable.
Biden expected
President Joe Biden’s reaction to the disaster was swift. He immediately signed a declaration of natural disaster allowing the release of significant federal aid to finance relief, emergency accommodation and reconstruction efforts.
However, following a week, he still has not been there. In complete disarray, many inhabitants then expressed their feeling of abandonment while the management of the crisis causes more controversy every day. This Tuesday, Joe Biden promised to go to Hawaii “as soon as possible”. And justified himself: “I want to be sure that we will not disrupt the relief operations”.
“I want to be sure that we won’t disrupt the relief operations.”
“What happened, in my opinion, borders on negligence,” Annelise Cochran, a 30-year-old who is part of dozens of Lahaina residents had to throw themselves into the sea to escape the flames. Surprised by black smoke, like many of her neighbors, the young woman did not receive an alert. Completely taken aback, she spent eight hours in the ocean before being rescued, clinging to a stone wall that left her with numerous scratches on her legs and arms.
Open investigation
However, official alerts have been issued on television, radio and telephones. But it was without counting on numerous power and network cuts which made them quite useless. The alarm sirens, meanwhile, remained silent. Therefore, an investigation was opened to examine the crisis management.
Remarkably: in Lahaina, some firefighters were even delayed by dry fire hydrants or whose flow rate was very low.
The electricity supplier Hawaiian Electric is also facing charges in a lawsuit that blames him for failing to turn off the power despite the high risk of fire with strong winds fueled by a hurricane moving southwest from Maui, likely to cause collapse electricity pylons.
A catastrophic summer
July 2023 was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth, according to the European service Copernicus. Heat waves and fires are increasing. Currently, nearly 170,000 people have already been evacuated to the Canadian Far North threatened by intense forest fires. The Northwest Territories have declared a state of emergency.
More the list of consequences of global warming is immenseis becoming more and more visible and is proving dramatic for many people around the world.
In Hawaii, reconstruction will be long and expensive. For the Lahaina fire alone, its cost is estimated at $5.52 billion by federal authorities.
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