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The death toll from fast-moving wildfires in Maui rose to 89 on Saturday, making them the deadliest in the US in more than 100 years.
The number of fatalities, which previously stood at 80, is expected to climb further as authorities continue search and rescue efforts, Hawaii Governor Josh Green said at a press briefing. Just 3% of the area has been searched, officials said, adding they are bringing in 12 more cadaver dogs to help with the effort.
“This is the largest natural disaster we’ve ever experienced,” Green said. “It’s also going to be a natural disaster that takes an incredible amount of time to recover from.”
The death toll now means the wildfire is the deadliest since 1918, when 453 people were killed in Minnesota and Wisconsin by the Cloquet & Moose Lake Fires, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Losses are estimated to be approaching $6 billion, after roughly 2,200 structures were destroyed in West Maui across the 2,170 acres burned by the blaze.
Only two of the 89 people killed have been identified so far, Police Chief John Pelletier said. Efforts to identify the dead were complicated by the ferocity of the blaze, which melted metal and razed Lahaina, once the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Roughly 1,000 people were unaccounted for, they earlier estimated.