2023-08-15 10:00:35
LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — The death toll from the fires on Maui reached 99 Monday, a number that would likely rise as search teams scoured neighborhoods where the flames were moving at up to a mile per minute. .
The fire that consumed most of the historic city of Lahaina was already the deadliest in more than a century in the United States. The cause was being investigated.
Gov. Josh Green said the search would take time and asked for leeway to do it properly. “For those people who have walked up to Lahaina because they really wanted to see it, know that you are most likely walking on iwi,” he told a news conference in Maui, using the Hawaiian word for “bones.”
In an interview earlier Monday with CBS, Green estimated that crews would find the remains of 10 to 20 people a day until they complete their work. “And it will probably take 10 days. It’s impossible to guess, really,” he said.
As mobile phone service has slowly been restored, the number of missing people has dropped from more than 2,000 to regarding 1,300, according to Green.
Twenty corpse-sniffing dogs and dozens of searchers make their way between blocks reduced to ashes. By Monday they had covered regarding 25% of the area, compared with just 3% over the weekend, Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said.
Meanwhile, some state officials said there was a lack of water for firefighters, which they attributed to a recent ruling in an environmental court. The dispute was part of a long-running battle between environmentalists and private companies over the decades-old practice of diverting water from the island’s eastern streams, begun during the past from sugar plantations in the archipelago.
Green said people were discussing access to water to fight the flames. “We have a hard time in Maui and other rural communities getting enough water for homes, for our people, for any operation,” she said.
The prosecution was reviewing decisions associated with the fires, Green added.
Hawaiian Electric Co. Inc., Maui’s main power company, will cooperate with the state and do its own investigation, said its president and CEO, Shelee Kimura.
It was not clear if the company’s equipment had been a factor in the start of the fire. Hawaiian Electric has been criticized for not shutting off power as strong winds battered an area that was dry and at serious fire risk.
Kimura noted that the decision to cut off power requires considering many factors, including the impact on people who rely on specialized medical equipment. He also noted that shutting off power in the area of the fire would have put the water pumps out of service.
“Even in places where this has been used, it’s controversial and not universally accepted,” he said.
As the company worked to restore power, evacuees were expected to start settling in hotels Monday night. Green said there would be 500 hotel rooms for the displaced local population and another 500 reserved for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) workers working on recovery.
FEMA also began providing $700 to displaced residents to cover the costs of food, water, first aid and medical supplies, agency administrator Deanne Criswell said Monday. The money was in addition to the amount residents might claim to cover the loss of homes and property.
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