- Jeff Hickman, the public affairs director for the Hawaii Department of Defense, said he had seen unconfirmed reports of 1,000 people missing
- The death toll is now at 53: Josh Green, the governor, said it would likely rise, and an update will be given at 9:30pm EST
- Green said 1,700 buildings are believed to have been destroyed, and said billions of dollars of damage have been caused
Hawaii‘s governor said on Thursday that the death toll from the Maui wildfires was likely to rise substantially, as an official with the Hawaii department of defense said unconfirmed reports suggested 1,000 people were still missing.
The death toll is currently at 53, and a little earlier, with the toll at 36, Josh Green said it would rise. Officials will provide an update at 9:30pm EST on Thursday.
‘I’ll tell you, by the time this disaster is all described, I’m sure there will be dozens of people that lost their lives and billions of dollars of property that was destroyed,’ said Green.
Unconfirmed reports said there were up to 1,000 people still missing, said Jeff Hickman, the public affairs director for the Hawaii Department of Defense.
‘It’s a very large number,’ he told CNN, noting that people were using social media to try and locate their missing loved ones.
He said there were 30 burns victims, three of them seriously injured.
Some had been flown to Oahu for more intensive treatment.
‘We’re going to have to go building by building, block by block, trying to find bodies,’ he said.
Then there will be an initial clean up, and then residents will be allowed to return.
‘It’s going to be a long process.’
He said they were trying to ‘get the visitors out and take care of the residents.’
He added: ‘Everyone goes to Lahaina. It had the best Halloween party. It had the best fishing. Tourists flock there because it’s a neat town. I’m sure it’ll bounce back, but it’ll be a while.’
Hickman, a former member of the National Guard, said: ‘We never thought it would happen, and we’ve never seen anything like this.
‘It’s just amazing. It’s something we’ve never seen, and never expected.’
Green, meanwhile, told CNN‘s Wolf Blitzer that 1,700 buildings were probably destroyed in the fire.
He said most buildings in Lahaina, a historic town in Maui, are completely gone, some of them still smoldering.
Only some stone buildings are still standing, he said.
‘We also are only now getting some of our search and rescue personnel into other houses,’ Green said, adding that helicopters are also surveying the area.
The cause of the wildfire remains unknown.
The National Weather Service said dry vegetation, strong winds, and low humidity fueled them.
Green said it was likely to prove a worse natural disaster than the tsunami of May 1960, sparked by an earthquake in Chile.
That tragedy left 61 people dead.
Hawaii is not immune to wildfires: in 2018, a total of 30,000 acres burnt, with flames fanned by Hurricane Lane.
This time, strong winds were caused by Hurricane Dora, which passed south of the islands.
Wildfires occur every year in Hawaii, according to Thomas Smith, an environmental geography professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science – but this year’s fires are burning faster and bigger than usual.
