Hawaii officials fear 1,000 people missing amid Maui wildfires that quickly spread and caused extensive damages.
The death toll currently stands at 67 people, with large areas of the island of Maui decimated. The historic town of Lahaina remains in smoldering ruins, with power, water, and internet access still down.
Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said that there are no standing structures in the town, “I’m telling you, none of it’s there. It’s all burned to the ground.”
Hawaii Governor Josh Green expects the death toll to rise as first responders continue to access parts of the island that were previously inaccessible due to multiple ongoing fires.
“We are seeing loss of life,” Gov. Green said at a Thursday news conference. “We will continue to see loss of life.” He added that the fires were the “greatest emergency we’ve seen in decades.”
Maui County Police Chief John Pelletier estimates the number of missing people to be around 1,000 but added that they “honestly“ don’t know.
“Doesn’t mean that’s how many that we have that have passed. I’m not saying that number at all,” he clarified at Thursday’s news conference. “But because we can’t contact them, and because they can’t come into the greater valley as quickly or as much as we’d like, because they’re actually in shelter until we get some of those basic things set up, we’re not going to have that number.”
Officials say fire moved so quickly from brush to neighborhoods that it was “physically impossible” to get messages to the emergency management agencies in time.
“The fires came up so quickly and they spread so fast,” Mayor Bissen said on Friday. “I think this was an impossible situation.”
“The gusts were up to 80 miles an hour. Some sustained between 45 and 60, 65,” he said. “Everything happened so quickly. I can’t comment on whether or not the sirens sounded or not, but I know that the fires came up so quickly and they spread so fast.”
