Death toll in Maui fires climbs to 93, expected to rise further

Officials say tallying the death and destruction in Maui will take some time the number of people killed in those fires is expected to grow significantly there is billions of dollars in damage with thousands of structures including homes burned the fires have displaced thousands who are now in shelters School

Gyms and hotels as the community tries to pick up with the death toll already high the question isn’t will it climb it’s how much higher the cbc’s Lindsey duncombe joins us now from Honolulu Lindsay how challenging is this search for victims it is incredibly slow and Incredibly dangerous work what is happening right

Now is the specialized Crews with cadaver dogs are going structure to structure to determine if there are any victims there and then marking those homes and businesses to let other Crews know what they have found but the work is so slow and so dangerous that officials say they have only covered

Three percent of the area that they are expecting to search as a result of these wildfires here’s how the governor described the terrain we have to go with caution there are heavy metals there there are toxic states where the houses have come down and the businesses have come down the

Recommendations are to avoid those structures because they can still fall on people and we’ve lost too much life already there are propane tanks there there’s really a lot of Hazard now more of those special s Crews with the cadaver ogs are expected to arrive in Maui that will be to supplement the

Additional federal emergency FEMA staff 150 Personnel who are currently on the ground at the same time as that search or rescue effort is ongoing there is also the effort to get food and water to the people who remain displaced and remain staying in those shelters Lindsay

The extent of the damage it just looks devastating what are the conditions like for the people in Lahaina well in some ways they are improving but in other ways you know especially when we’re looking at days now living with limited access to power or Communications uh the frustration and

The reality and really a lot of anger is setting in on the improving part the officials at their news conference last night said that they have restored power to more than five thousand different buildings and that includes hotels remember this is a resort community so the idea is once you get power into

These large places then that becomes places where people who don’t have anywhere else to go can move in so the idea would be get those hotels up and running and then let people who are homeless go in there there’s also a plan with respect to longer term kind of

Rental housing that might become available so finding people places to stay is going to be an ongoing challenge for the community now the other thing is the frustration that’s going from people who want to know what if anything they have left and remember there are still

Fires and hot spots in this area part of the reason is we heard the governor say that it’s dangerous is because of the smoldering because of the smoke and as a result a number of roads have been closed off in the area that means people

Who want to go back and look at what’s left haven’t had a chance here’s what one of them had to say the police won’t let us go to our to our home you know we lived in the same house for 50 years since 1971. so I wanted to go down there

See if if anything’s left you know but they won’t let us you know I guess it’s dangerous or something you know so we’ll deal with it and we’ll wait a week or two and we can go see what’s left and uh and start from scratch and rebuilt yeah

And you know we are just beginning to get a sense of how extensive that rebuilding he was talking about will be the estimates from FEMA on on rebuilding Lahaina are 5.5 billion dollars and that really is just the beginning so you can imagine you heard the frustration in his voice there

Is frustration grief and anxiety and now that we’re a few days into this you know the weight and the scope of exactly what’s Happening Here certainly is setting it absolutely those emotions you can really feel them coming through thank you so much for this Lindsay the cbc’s Lindsey duncombe reporting in

Honolulu and for more on these wildfires we’ve reached Nicholas Winfrey he’s the president of Maui United Way Nicholas we just heard I mean the losses are devastating how is your community coming together in this difficult time yeah good morning I just want to preface this as I might break down after hearing

Everything again I’m just trying to focus look The community’s Reeling right now um I I want to equate what we’ve seen in the last few days I’ve had my head down uh really it’s been you know uh an explosion of uh uh individuals coming together in every form and fashion to

Try to support in any way that they can um that that has gotten a little bit more coordinated but really in all honesty it’s it’s Devastation it’s moments of levity it’s it’s it’s toughness but it’s also the Aloha Spirit which has been here for much longer than

I have been here of people coming together to really do anything anything that they can to support those in need completely appreciate the mix of emotions that we’re hearing and everything is always continuously evolving and I I don’t want to take you to a place where you don’t want to go

But what are some of the scenes that you have seen and heard that you won’t soon forget look it’s it’s people saying don’t use body count you know use remains right um I’m a former Marine I worked at Australian Red Cross as well I I know I’ve always heard about what what you

Can expect I I never knew what how I would feel and if I would ever experience something like this um the scenes that that I’ve heard right I’m in a small tiny little office camped out in front of my desk doing everything that we can our sheer just Devastation

It’s it’s you know right now we’re hearing that okay the the count is just what we’re what’s being found easily right in in the streets that’s that’s not everything else so it’s sheer destruction it’s loss of life this is small town Lahaina this is Hometown lineup people think that oh it’s a

Tourist location no this is home it’s we’re a small rural community so that’s that what we’re seeing here is just a buzz everybody coming together and now more more coming together are lining up with specific resources and lots of Zoom meetings and sirens and and just uh smoke still at times as well

Um so I know I’m rambling I apologize energize at all Nicholas I wonder you mentioned cooperation it sounds like the people in Lahaina are really doing their best to have one another’s backs what kind of support have you seen from the other islands in the United States as a whole

Look and I’ll even go to Canada you know we’re seeing support come in there as well so big big Mahalo to to to you know our Northern Neighbors on the continent locally it’s not just Lina right it’s it’s Maui Nui we’ve got Lanai Molokai and Maui here it’s our entire Maui Nui

From the broader State you know where we’re working I’m working with my direct counterparts at United Way standing up our 2-1-1 operations compounding that scaling that building out payment systems to get payments directly to individuals being affected um any and all support coming coming our way in that space from the mainland what

I am seeing is is my network of United ways coming together they’re sending out support I’ve got a solid operations to be my right hand person coming in tonight I’ve got the individual that helped manage a lot of the support for long-term relief efforts from the campfires coming out as well it’s it’s

An all hands on deck coming together and now we’re starting to see kind of the the larger scale things coming in as well including FEMA Red Cross standing up all of their operations uh so yeah it’s it’s all hands on deck it’s going to get bigger and bigger and bigger and

More and more resources getting to those that need it because impatience is is understandable um but you know we’re we’re doing everything that we can to do as much as we can for short long and and and very far into the future Nicholas we’ve heard some um

Figures in the billions to rebuild do you have any idea I mean the images we see it’s just utter Devastation destruction do you have any sense of how long it might take for your community to rebuild years infrastructure’s gone right they’re working on putting up polls getting power to other areas before even

Getting into there um you know boat harbors right everything everything you know we have concerns you know we need to build for Hawaiians Hawaiians first this is this is this is I’m a visitor here right I’ve only been here for five years um it’s it’s going to take a very very

Long time I’ll be honest I think the jigsaw puzzle of what This Disaster that has been dumped out we still don’t know that full picture we’re flipping those pieces over right now I think there’s going to be more assessments coming and and more long-term plans and and a

Better better understanding of that on the horizon Nicholas I gotta wrap up but I just want to ask you quickly for Canadians who are watching at home what’s one thing that they can do you’ve brought up that there’s help coming in but what can Canadians do so donate donate to Maui United Way

We’ve been you know established as a trusted entity Red Cross Salvation Army Maui Economic Opportunity there’s tons that have been vetted all of our partners that are on our website I stand by um financial support now and stand by as we’re going to need a lot of other uh

Expertise coming on the horizon absolutely Nicholas Winfrey thank you so much Mahalo Nicholas Winfrey is the president of the Maui United Way

There have been 93 confirmed deaths after wildfires ripped through the Hawaiian island of Maui. Officials say they’ve only searched a small percentage of the area, and the death toll is expected to continue to climb.

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