The administrator of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, Deanne Criswell, said Joe Biden will on Monday reassure the people of Lahaina they will be in control of how they rebuild when he visits the Maui community devastated by a historically deadly wildfire.
The president and the first lady, Jill Biden, will meet first responders, officials and victims, getting a first-hand look at the widespread devastation, Criswell told CNN’s State of the Union.
“He’s going to be able to reassure the people of Maui that the federal government is there to support them but we’re doing it in a way that’s going to allow them to rebuild the way they want to rebuild,” Criswell said.
Wildfires incinerated Lahaina on 8 August, destroying 2,200 homes and businesses and leaving hundreds of people missing. As of Sunday, 114 were confirmed dead.
Speaking to ABC’s This Week, Criswell said search efforts were 78% complete and victims had received more than $8m in federal assistance.
Biden has faced criticism from Republicans for not speaking publicly about the tragedy until five days after it occurred. Criswell said she was in communication with the president in those days, helping him understand the magnitude of the situation and what resources were needed.
“He directed me to make sure that we are doing everything we can to help the people of Maui and to bring in all of the federal resources to help with this immediate response,” she said.
On Friday, Biden authorized additional federal support for Hawaii, the White House said
The cause of the fires has not been determined, pending the results of an official investigation. Details have begun to emerge about the lives of those killed. Forensic pathologists, X-ray technicians, fingerprint experts and forensic dentists are working 12 hours a day to identify those lost.
Speaking to CBS’s Face the Nation, Hawaii’s governor, the Democrat Josh Green, said around 1,050 people had been accounted for but it would take several weeks to identify remains. Green said 85% of the fire’s impact zone had been covered by rescue teams using 41 dogs.
“Now we go into the larger buildings, which require peeling back some of the floors and structures,” he said. “That last 15% could take weeks. We do have extreme concerns that because of the temperature of the fire, the remains of those who have died, in some cases, may be impossible to recover meaningfully. So there are going to be people that are lost forever.”
Local authorities were working with the FBI, he said.
Green also said Hawaii had seen multiple small fires following the massive Lahaina blazes.
“Although it’s not been reported in the press, we’ve had multiple small fires, some on Oahu, some on Big Island, of course, more on Maui, even in the days since the fire,” he said, adding that some areas are denser and have more support, including firefighters and water, than others.
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On Maui, getting children back to school poses challenges. Hundreds have enrolled in schools in areas outside the burn zone but some will be too traumatized to attend when schools in Lahaina reopen. Some parents will opt to move rather than rebuild.
Green said some children would return to school later this week.
“Children can go to any school that’s in the region or where they are,” he said. “We have six hotels that are basically full with families and their children that have survived. We also are doing distance learning.
“Others will, of course, go to neighboring schools. You have to remember this is a very rural part of Hawaii and that’s one of the challenges so schools are far apart. We’ve authorized other means of transportation … [including] vans … to help families get farther distances to school.”
Asked about the cause of the Lahaina fires, Green warned of the impact of the climate crisis as well as potential human error in emergency notifications, saying: “I know that there is debate out there whether we should be talking about climate change or not. Well, let’s be real world, climate change is here. We are in the midst of it with a hotter planet and fiercer storms.”
Asked if climate change amplified the cost of human error in the Lahaina fires, Green said: “Yes, it did.”
Reuters contributed reporting
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