Photo: PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images
A total of 850 people are still missing in connection with the deadly wildfires that devastated the Hawaiian island of Maui earlier this month.
This was announced by County Mayor Richard Bissen in a Facebook post, where he noted that at least 114 people died in the wildfires, the deadliest in modern US history.
Bissen said that so far 27 victims have been identified and 11 of the families have been notified, while the authorities continue working to find the disappeared and identify the fatalities.
“There is positive news in this number, because when this process began, the list of missing persons contained more than 2,000 names,” he said, noting that more than 1,285 people have been located safely.
While the number of people initially feared missing was more than 2,000, as Bissen noted, it dwindled as cellphone communications were restored and people were able to contact loved ones.
On Friday, The FBI announced the opening of a site where people could provide DNA samples that would be compared to remains that have already been found.in an attempt to help expedite the victim identification process.
Those not on Maui can contact the FBI to provide DNA samples, Bissen said.
In some cases, arriving at an accurate count in a mass casualty disaster can take months or even years, researchers and forensic anthropologists said.
On Tuesday, Bissen will give a press conference and answer questions from the public. “Our lives have been changed forever and things will never be the same again. What will be the same is how we care for each other as we grieve and go through this together,” she added.
Many of the victims may be children who were home while schools were closed, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green told Face the Nation on Sunday.
Gov. Green said he wished the sirens had alerted Maui residents to evacuate as the wildfire spread rapidly through Lahaina.
“As a person, as a parent, as a doctor, I wish all the sirens would go off. The challenge you’ve heard, and it’s not to excuse or explain anything, the challenge has been that historically those sirens are used for tsunamis,” he said.
Green said that officials are now focused on recovery and obtaining resources to “make life somehow livable for the survivors.”
“This is the biggest catastrophe and disaster to ever hit Maui, probably ever to hit Hawaii outside of war events. So we just thank everyone in the world for reaching out and supporting us through all the, you know, ways that you can,” he noted.
Fast-moving flames ripped through Maui this month and the historic city of Lahaina felt the brunt of the fire. The city, once the capital of Hawaii, was completely devastated, with more than 2,700 structures destroyed.
Some residents and tourists jumped into the ocean to try to escape the flames, while others tried to run.
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