89 people have died in Maui county wildfires, United States officials confirmed late on Saturday, as authorities continue to battle the devastating effects of the “largest natural disaster in Hawaii history”.
“We’ve got 89 so far,” said Maui Police chief John Pelletier while speaking about the fatalities from the fire. “Today, we identified two,” he added.
However, he didn’t mention the names of the two victims – authorities now faced with a new challenge of identifying the remains of victims.
The wildlifes began last week and have kept officials on their toes since then. According to NBC News, 67 people were reported dead on Friday but the death toll increased to 89 in the last 24 hours as per official estimates.
U.S. officials said the Maui wildfires are the deadliest in over 100 years – the death toll is expected to increase in the coming days as more remains are found in the wreckage of the town.
More federal emergency workers arrived on Saturday while more active-duty personnel are expected in the coming days to help search for survivors and victims as canine units have only managed to search three per cent of the disaster zone.
“It’s also been a natural disaster that’s going to take an incredible amount of time to recover from,” said Hawaii Governor Josh Green at a press conference late on Saturday.
“Largest natural disaster Hawaii has ever experienced,” Mr Green added. “In the next few days as we characterize how many people we’ve lost (and how many people are coming) into our community.”
“In the short term it’s going to be heartbreaking and in the long term, people are going to need mental health care services and in the very long term, we’ll rebuild together.”
The wildfires have caused an estimated $5.5 billion losses and around 2,200 structures have been destroyed while an unaccounted number of people are still missing.
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