The List of Missing Maui Residents Has Grown Substantially in the Last 2 Days
The official tally of people missing after the fires that devastated Maui has increased two days after it was cut by more than half.
Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said Sunday that the number of missing people was at 850, down from 2,000, according to People.
On Tuesday, the FBI said the number was now between 1,000 and 1,100, noting that even that was an uncertain estimate.
“Every day the numbers will change,” said Steven Merrill, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Honolulu field office, according to NBC.
“That being said, the number that we’re most concerned about is, obviously, trying to clear people from the list. And that has reliably gone down every day.”
There have been 115 confirmed deaths from the Aug. 8 fires that tore through the area of Lahaina and burned other areas of the island.
Merrill said the list of missing people includes every person unaccounted for.
“We’re considering everybody on that list until we can prove they shouldn’t be on that list,” he said.
He noted that the search for the living and dead may not be conclusive.
Officials have asked for DNA samples to help identify remains found in the ashes.
“We may not know in the end about everybody,” he said, according to The New York Times.
Maui Police Chief John Pelletier underscored that reality Tuesday.
“Please understand this. Once the search is done, I can’t guarantee nor can anyone say we got everybody. We are going to do our darndest and make every effort to do that,” he said, according to MauiNow.
“We are going to do it right. We are not going to do it fast. We are not going to be in a rush. We got one chance. And when this is all said and done, realistically, let’s be honest here, we’re going to have a number of confirmed [dead], and we’re going to have a number of presumed [dead].”
About 1,400 of the 2,500 people initially reported missing were found alive, Merrill said, according to CBS.
Bissen said details on the missing have varied from first names only with no further details to more precise information, according to Hawaii News Now.
He said the list of missing people does not include any minors who have been identified, although children were among the victims.
“The numbers are not adding up,” said Jason Musgrove, who has spent two weeks searching for his mother, Linda Vaikeli, 69, according to The New York Times.
“I’m going to keep searching,” he said Monday after a day of frustration and failure. “I only have one opportunity to do this, to find my Mom.”
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