- Over 1,200 People Accounted for Amid Maui Wildfires
- 850 Still Missing in Deadliest U.S. Wildfires
- Vice President Biden to Visit Hawaii Amid Criticism and Emergency Response
Following the wildfires that have claimed the lives of at least 114 people, the mayor of Maui, Richard Bissen, stated that over 1,200 people have been discovered safe. The Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, is scheduled to visit the island following criticism.
The mayor of Maui County, Hawaii, says 850 people are missing after catastrophic wildfires.
Mayor Richard Bissen stated in an overnight update that he was “both saddened and relieved by these numbers.”
It was anticipated that more than 2,000 people were missing, but 1,285 people have been accounted for.
Mr. Bissen said the flames were the deadliest in modern U.S. history, killing at least 114 people.
The Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, will interrupt his vacation in Lake Tahoe to travel to Hawaii in response to criticism from Republicans and others regarding his initial response.
When the tragedy occurred while he was on vacation in his Delaware beach home, he went days without mentioning it.
The White House responded that Mr. Biden has been overseeing a “whole-of-government” effort to aid the recovery of Hawaii.
Mr. Biden refused to visit Maui until he was assured he would not hinder emergency response efforts.
It comes one day after the director of the Maui Emergency Management Agency said he had no regrets about not using sirens to notify residents of the wildfires.
Some residents of Maui believe that lives could have been saved if emergency sirens had been utilized, but the agency decided against using them because they would have been ineffective and perplexing.
