Hawaii fires: questions arise over response as death toll rises to 93 – as it happened (2024)

Thank you for reading along with us as we learn more about the tragedy and its aftermath in Maui. We will continue our coverage of the fire and ongoing recovery efforts but for now, here’s where things stand:

• At least 93 people have died making this disaster the deadliest US wildfire in over a century. The grim numbers may continue to rise as search and rescue teams work to uncover and identify remains in the rubble.

• The Federal Emergency Management Agency and other federal agencies have deployed hundreds of workers to aid in the state-run recovery, but residents claim the response has been slow. Contaminated water and widespread power outages continue to hamper relief efforts as thousands of displaced locals are depending on assistance.

• While the cause of the brush fire is still being determined, experts are looking into whether active power lines may have ignited the blaze that spread quickly in the hot, dry, windy weather. So-called “public safety power shutoffs” help reduce fire risks caused by electric infrastructure, but Hawaiian Electric hadn’t adopted the strategy as part of its mitigation plan.

• As the number of fatalities continued to climb through the weekend, officials said identifying the victims has been a challenge. Authorities are encouraging locals to share DNA samples with family assistance centers if they are still missing family members.

• As Lahaina residents wait and wonder over what the future holds in the aftermath of the blaze, concerns are growing that the fire will only accelerate the displacement of Native Hawaiians in the area.

• Tourism on the island, essential to Maui’s economy, has come to an abrupt standstill. But officials and residents have urged visitors to postpone their travels as the island responds to Hawaii’s worst ever natural disaster.

• Hawaiian officials are instructing concerned members of the public on best ways to support relief efforts in Maui, encouraging donations to reputable nonprofit organizations that can handle distribution of goods and services. Here are the nonprofits highlighted by the governor for those hoping to help out:

  • Hawaii Community Foundation – Maui Strong Fund, www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org/maui-strong

  • Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement – Kāko‘o Maui Fundraiser, www.hawaiiancouncil.org/maui

  • Maui United Way – Maui Fire Disaster Relief, https://mauiunitedway.org/disasterrelief

As heartbreaking images continue to spill out of Maui, Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii offered a symbol of hope – she is optimistic the badly burned banyan tree at the heart of Lahaina will bloom again.

“Standing before the world-famous, iconic 150-year-old banyan tree, we just got through talking to the arborist who is doing everything he can,” she said, the scorched branches splayed out behind her. “If we can get this tree to begin to rejuvenate it gives the rest of us hope.”

Hawaiian officials are instructing concerned members of the public on best ways to support relief efforts in Maui, encouraging donations to reputable nonprofit organizations that can handle distribution of goods and services.

“Canned goods, blankets, clothing and similar donations all need to be handled, stored, and then delivered where they are needed,” said James Barros, administrator of the Hawaii emergency management agency in a written statement.

Governor Josh Green’s office also asked individuals not to “self-deploy” to help out, emphasizing that fire-impacted areas remain inaccessible to the public and extra security is in place to ensure protection for iwi kūpuna [ancestral bodies] and historically and culturally important items.

Here are the nonprofits highlighted by the governor for those hoping to help out:

• Hawaii Community Foundation – Maui Strong Fund, www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org/maui-strong

• Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement – Kāko‘o Maui Fundraiser, www.hawaiiancouncil.org/maui

• Maui United Way – Maui Fire Disaster Relief, https://mauiunitedway.org/disasterrelief

While Maui grapples with the aftermath of this week’s deadly fires, tourism on the island has come to an abrupt standstill. Beaches are empty, and the airport is quiet.

Typically full flights have been arriving to Maui with few passengers – many of whom are emergency responders coming to help the island through the disaster. Thousands of unused rental cars are parked on the grounds of the airport, a sight reminiscent of when Covid shut down tourism, several residents commented.

“It’s just like pandemic time. Hopefully we don’t get laid off again,” a worker at a rental car agency told a customer.

Since Wednesday, about 46,000 people have flown out of Kahului airport, the Hawaii Tourism Authority reported.

Tourism is essential to Maui’s economy – the island hosts an average of 70,000 visitors a day. But officials and residents have urged visitors to postpone their travels as the island responds to Hawaii’s worst ever natural disaster.

“Don’t come to Maui. Cancel your planned vacations. Survivors need the hotel rooms. Give our community time to grieve and heal,” Kaniela Ing, the national director of the Green New Deal Network, said on Twitter.

A slew of federal agencies are aiding in relief efforts in Hawaii, as more than 250 Federal Management Agency (Fema) workers have been deployed to help on the ground with the state-led recovery.

The US Department of Food and Agriculture is working to reunite people with their lost pets and trying to bring in food and water for large animals in Lahaina, according to a Fema press release. The Army Corps of Engineers has been assigned to clear roads and help get electric services restored, while the EPA begins hazardous waste removal. These are just some of the elements being handled by the federal government, which has been criticized, along with state agencies, by locals who’ve grown frustrated at the slow response to the disaster.

As volunteers stepped up to fills the gaps in aid they said were harming victims left with nothing after the fires, several have reported being blocked or turned away along with their vital supplies.

“They’re just standing there blocking the road, they haven’t passed out one simple water bottle, a plate of lunch, nothing,” Alexa Kailieha, from Oahu, told NBC News. “They’re just standing there and letting our families starve and not letting us help them.”

Hawaiian representatives are bracing for the massive financial burden their constituents will carry as recovery from the fire begins. Noting that there will be investigations into how and why the tragedy unfolded – and how systemic failures and unpreparedness contributed to the disaster – Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii said the focus now is on support.

“I’m not going to make any excuses for this tragedy, but the attorney general has launched a review of what happened with those sirens and some of the other actions that were taken,” Hirono told host Jake Tapper today on CNN’s State of the Union. “And there will be time enough, I would say, for those kinds of reviews and investigations to occur. But we are really focused, as far as I’m concerned, on the need for rescue and, well, location of, we know, sadly, more bodies.”

Meanwhile, on CBS, Representative Jill Tokuda of Hawaii said it’s still too early to know when residents will be allowed back into the area. She emphasized the need for funding not just for this disaster but for others caused by the climate crisis:

This is a national disaster we are facing. Rural America is getting hit by these types of climate change cases every single day is disaster. Rural America, which is what Hawaii is, faces a crisis of also being able to get those first responders and support as fast as they need to to be able to respond in these situations. So we have to make sure Fema has the tools and the resources to execute support back home at Hawaii. But quite frankly, this is going to be happening across the country and they need the money to be able to respond to wherever disaster strikes.”

With at least a thousand people still unaccounted for, the slow-going search through charred the rubble continues and authorities are expecting the death toll to rise further. The fire is already the deadliest to impact the US in the last century with 93 lives lost but just a small percentage of the burn scar has been combed through by crews, and the Maui Police Cheif John Pelletier said the process of retrieval and identification has been challenging.

“We’ve got an area that we have to contain that is at least 5 square miles, and it is full of our loved ones,” he said during a news conference Saturday, adding, “none of us really know the size of it yet.”

Cadaver dogs barks to indicate potential victims as crews searched the smoldering ruins of more than 2,200 buildings, which were then marked with bright orange letters – an “X” for those where an initial search was done and “HR” where human remains had been found, the Associated Press reports.

Pelletier has encouraged locals to share DNA samples with family assistance centers if they are still missing family members.

Questions remain on whether the county has the facilities to handle the tragedy, especially as fatality numbers rise. According to AP, officials declined to provide information about where recovered remains are being kept and how they will be released to families, considering there is just one local hospital and three mortuaries.

As funerals aren’t yet on the minds of mourners, faith leaders are instead putting resources in place to shelter victims, deliver badly-needed supplies, and provide solace to survivors.

“Our people just need to keep going,” Rev. Jay Haynes, the pastor at Kahului Baptist Church told AP. “We don’t know why things happen, but we believe we have the strength to soldier on,” Rabbi Mendy Krasnjansky said, adding that the Chabad of Maui was spared.

As Lahaina residents wait and wonder over what the future holds in the aftermath of the blaze, concerns are growing that the fire will only accelerate the displacement of Native Hawaiians in the area.

“I’m more concerned of big land developers coming in and seeing this charred land as an opportunity to rebuild,” Richy Palalay told the Associated Press on Saturday. The 25-year-old resident with “Lahaina Grown” tattooed across his forearms is one of an estimated 4,500 residents needing shelter, unsure of what’s to come for their historic hometown that’s become a tourist haven in recent years.

Governor Josh Green told reporters he’s trying to get ahead of the issue. “We want Lahaina to be a part of Hawaii forever,” Green said. “We don’t want it to be another example of people being priced out of paradise.”

More from the Associated Press:

The median price of a Maui home is $1.2 million, putting a single-family home out of reach for the typical wage earner. It’s not possible for many to even buy a condo, with the median condo price at $850,000.

Sterling Higa, the executive director of Housing Hawaii’s Future, a nonprofit organization that advocates for more housing in Hawaii, said the town is host to many houses that have been in the hands of local families for generations. But it’s also been subject to gentrification.

“So a lot of more recent arrivals – typically from the American mainland who have more money and can buy homes at a higher price – were to some extent displacing local families in Lahaina,” Higa said. It’s a phenomenon he has seen all along Maui’s west coast where a modest starter home two decades ago now sells for $1 million.

Residents with insurance or government aid may get funds to rebuild, but those payouts could take years and recipients may find it won’t be enough to pay rent or buy an alternate property in the interim.”

California, a state that has much experience with fire disasters, is deploying teams to help with search and rescue efforts in Hawaii. Three canine teams from the Los Angeles county fire department departed on Sunday, joining units from Riverside, Alameda and Sacramento counties already aiding in devastated areas, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.

California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, announced last week that, in coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, 11 members of the state urban search and rescue task forces were being sent to Hawaii along with six others from California’s office of emergency services.

“California stands with the people of Maui and all Hawaiians amid these horrific wildfires that have claimed lives and destroyed the historic town of Lahaina,” Newsom said last week. “Our state is sending resources to support our Pacific neighbors during their time of need.”

As the number of fatalities continued to climb through the weekend, authorities said identifying the victims has been a challenge.

“So realize this – when we find our family and our friends, the remains we are finding is through a fire that melted metal. We have to do rapid DNA to identify them,” Maui police chief John Pelletier told reporters at a press conference on Saturday. “We know we have got to go quick – but we have got to do it right.”

He pleaded with those on the scene to give officials more time to contain the areas where victims were still being uncovered, painting the scene in graphic detail. Getting emotional as he spoke, he added that the task of telling loved ones was a daunting one.

Pelletier is no stranger to massive tragedies, having also served as a commander in Las Vegas during the 2017 mass shooting. “I understand the pain this is going to take – and we aren’t done,” he added. “None of us really know the size of it yet.”