Putting numbers on the Maui tragedy is like playing the lottery. One number is played and any other number is played.
The death toll from the devastating fire on the Hawaiian island does nothing but increase. The last count, at the time of writing, was 93, according to Hawaii Governor Josh Green.
This makes it the deadliest fire on record in the United States in over a hundred years. The record of Paradise (California) has been left behind, with 85 deaths in 2018.
The death toll may rise. Especially in the city of Lahaina, where it is reported that only a little more than 10% of the devastated area has been searched with the help of dogs. Until Sunday, according to Green, only two of the bodies had been identified. The rest remained nameless. “We are only at the beginning of the search and identification process,” emphasized John Pelletier, chief of the Maui Police Department. “No one really knows the extent of all this. Do you want to go fast or do you want to do it right? We are doing what is right,” he explained.
There is another number that raises more questions. The island has 80 sirens and none were activated to alert the neighbors of the apocalypse. Each siren makes a noise equivalent to that of a rock concert and can be heard in a radius of almost a kilometer. Until now, it was hailed by the archipelago’s authorities as the largest outdoor safety warning siren system in the world. “I’m not going to make excuses for this tragedy, but the Hawaii attorney general has already opened an investigation to review what happened with the sirens and other actions that took place,” Senator Mazie Hirono told CNN.
A 2020 report already warned that there was a high risk of forest fires in the western part of the island, where Lahaina is located.
In addition, three complaints have been filed with the Hawaii Electricity Agency. They allege that the destruction could have been avoided or mitigated if the utility company had de-energized the supply lines seeing the power of the wind. The governor estimated the physical damage at about $6 billion. In the western part, in the old capital of the kingdom, about 2,200 structures were destroyed and the majority, 86%, were residential properties. Before the fire, Hawaii had a serious housing problem amid the proliferation of hotels.
About 1,400 people live in shelters, but there are still people sleeping on the ground, under trees or on the beach. Locals, with the help of Hollywood stars who are from the land, such as Jason Momoa, have a message for tourists: “Maui is not the place for your vacation now.”
