MADRID, 13 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Around 200 members of the Hawaii National Guard will arrive in Maui in the coming days to reinforce rescue, identification and reconstruction efforts after the devastating fires that have already left 93 dead and hundreds missing.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) thus responds to the petition launched late Saturday by the mayor of Maui County, Richard Bissen, while the Police continue to work on identifying the deceased in the epicenter of the city of Lahania, in the west of the island.
There, the strong winds of the nearby hurricane ‘Dora’ turned the place into a firestorm that has become the deadliest forest fire in more than 100 years in the US and a tragedy that Hawaii Governor Josh acknowledged. Green, “it will take a very long time to recover.”
“We are finding remains in a fire that has melted metals,” recalled Maui Police Chief John Pelletier, who has asked relatives of the approximately 1,000 people who are still missing for patience.
Pelletier already described on Saturday night a grim picture in terms of the number of victims. The police chief then explained that the search teams had only covered 3 percent of the devastated area, a total of more than six square kilometers.
A total of 1,418 people are in emergency evacuation shelters, according to Maui County authorities. Around 2,200 structures – approximately 86% of them residential – have been destroyed or seriously damaged in the west of the island, and the economic cost of the damage could exceed 5.5 billion euros.
