Tragedy struck Hawaii last week when wildfires broke out in the island of Maui, causing over 5 billion dollars of damage, displacing 11,000 people, and killing at least 99 more.
Josh Green, Hawaii’s governor, has spoken out about the devastating natural disaster, warning that more people could be found dead.
So far, the inferno is the US’ deadliest wildfire in the past 100 years – surpassing the 1960 fire in Hawaii that saw 61 people lose their lives.
On Monday evening (August 14) Green gave a news conference where he confirmed the new death toll, and said that the scale of destruction was “incredible”, according to the Honolulu Star Advertiser.
The number of missing people still remains in the hundreds, and emergency teams are continuing to battle the blaze in what remains of the historic town of Lahaina – which no longer exists apart from ashes and ruins, Mayor Richard Bissen told CNN.
Green said the fire – which has been propelled by hurricane winds – is rapidly moving and had been spreading at a rate of “one mile every minute”.
As for what the final death toll will be, no one knows, with Green saying that this figure is “impossible to guess”. He added that officials and emergency teams are anticipating the discovery of between 10 and 20 people a day for the next 10 days.
The blaze reached scorching temperatures and were so high that it was difficult for responders to recognize anybody – they have resorted to using DNA testing to identify remains.
Rescue workers have been walking around Lahaina – once home to 11,000 residents – with orange and yellow paint to mark areas that have been searched and also to indicate where human remains are.
Destroyed homes are marked with the letter “X” to indicate that an initial search has been made, while “HR” indicates that human remains have been found.
A tearful Maui Police Chief, John Pelletier, described how traumatizing locating human remains has been, stating that when responders pick up the remains they fall apart. “I don’t know how much more you want me to describe it,” he said during the press conference.
Amidst the horrific news, there was also a glimmer of hope. As cellphone service has slowly been restored across the island, the number of people missing dropped from 2,000 to about 1,300.
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