Maui deadliest U.S. wildfires in a century as death toll hits 89
The death toll from the Maui wildfires is now at 89, officials said on Saturday, making it the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century.
Governor Josh Green warned at a news conference on Saturday afternoon that the death toll would continue to rise as more bodies were discovered. Local officials have described a nightmarish confluence of factors, including communications network failures, powerful wind gusts from an offshore hurricane and a separate wildfire dozens of miles away, that made it nearly impossible to coordinate in real time with the emergency management agencies that would typically issue warnings and evacuation orders.
Touring Lahaina earlier on Saturday, Green said state and federal agencies were working to aid those who had survived. “It’s going to be sad to get down there,” said Za Dacruz, 33, as he waited on Friday in a traffic jam to try to return to Lahaina. “We’re just looking for everyone to be alive, to be safe - that’s all we’re trying to do. And the rest? We’ll go from there.”At a family assistance center in Kahului, June Lacuesta said he was trying to locate nine relatives who had not been heard from since Tuesday.
Subsequent updates were focused on the Kula fire, which had burned hundreds of acres and forced some local evacuations. But at around 3:30 p.m., according to the county’s updates, the Lahaina fire flared up.
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