The Hawaiian island of Maui has increased the number of missing people from the Lahaina firestorm to 1,100
The increase from 850 comes two weeks after deadly wildfires ravaged the island
Maui police chief John Pelletier said authorities were refining the data and were hoping to publish a verified list of missing persons ‘in the next few days’.
The number of missing people in Maui has increased by 250 to 1,100 two weeks after deadly fires ravaged the island and left more than 115 people dead.
The fires were the deadliest to hit the United States in a century and search and rescue efforts have been slow.
Few of the dead have been publicly identified and crews have scoured the destruction to locate the missing. There is fear that as missing people are found, it will cause the death toll to rise further.
The tourist town of Lahaina, home to 12,000 people, was all but wiped off the map, with thousands of missing persons appearing on lists maintained by various organizations, including the police, Red Cross and shelters.
As of Tuesday, the FBI had counted 1,100 missing persons and is now working to collate and verify the data with a list to be released later this week, Special Agent Steven Merrill told reporters on Tuesday.
‘We’re cross-referencing all the lists so that we can determine who, in fact, truly is still unaccounted for,’ Merrill said.
FEMA: ‘We Still Expect Several More Days’ to Finish Maui Search
h/t Coastie Patriot