While the extent of the devastation is becoming clear after the devastating bush fires on the Hawaiian island of Maui, the death toll continues to rise. As the governor of the US state of Hawaii, John Green, announced on Saturday, at least 89 people were killed in the natural disaster. The city of Lahaina, popular with vacationers, has almost completely burned out. Meanwhile, criticism of the authorities’ crisis management is increasing.
“We counted 89 deaths and the number will continue to rise,” said Green. “We want people to prepare for this,” he added. In a previous balance sheet, “at least 80 dead” had been mentioned. More than 2,200 buildings were damaged or destroyed by the flames, according to the US civil protection agency Fema on Saturday. More than 1,410 people were housed in emergency shelters.
The fire destroyed his rental apartment in the seaside resort of Lahaina and burned all his belongings and memories, Anthony Garcia complained. “It took everything, everything. It breaks my heart,” said the 80-year-old Californian, who moved to Hawaii 30 years ago.
The historic city of 13,000, once home to Hawaiian royalty, is now mostly in ruins. The hotels and restaurants, previously scenes of hustle and bustle, burned down to the ground. Fema estimates the cost of rebuilding affected communities at around $5.5 billion.
The flames have also left their mark on a majestic banyan tree that has stood in the center of the city for 150 years. The one-time tourist attraction is still standing, but the foliage has burned and its sooty trunk looks like an ugly skeleton.
Meanwhile, residents of Lahaina were not allowed to return to their homes Saturday “until the area is declared safe,” police said. Anyone entering the disaster area could face up to a year in prison and a $2,000 fine, it said. Several people waited for hours at a suddenly erected roadblock hoping to return to their homes and search for missing loved ones or pets.
The judiciary launched an investigation into the authorities’ response to the fire. The decisions made by the authorities “before, during and after the forest fires on the islands of Maui and Hawaii” would be “extensively reviewed,” said Attorney General Anne Lopez on Friday (local time).
“We underestimated the danger, the speed of fire,” admitted US Congresswoman Jill Tokua on Saturday on US broadcaster CNN. Jeremy Greenberg, Fema’s chief of operations and a firefighter himself for many years, told MSNBC that the fires were “extraordinarily difficult” to control because they were spreading so quickly.
Meanwhile, criticism of the authorities’ handling of the devastating natural disaster increased. Numerous residents criticized that they had not been warned of the fire by sirens and accused those responsible of failure. People could only have relied on word of mouth, resident William Harry told AFP.
A spokesman for the agency responsible for crisis management in Hawaii told CNN that the sirens warning of fires had not been triggered. According to him, warnings were sent to the residents’ mobile phones. However, due to numerous power outages and network problems, many residents did not receive the warnings, and in some places the emergency call did not work either.
The bush and forest fires on Maui and the neighboring island of Hawaii – also known as the Big Island – broke out on Tuesday. Strong winds caused the flames to spread rapidly.
