Gov. Green hopes Lahaina fatalities have peaked
Aug. 24—LAHAINA — The number of fatalities from the deadly Lahaina fire remains at 115 this week, giving Gov. Josh Green a glimmer of hope that the number of dead may have peaked.
"To my knowledge, they have not found any additional casualties," Green told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser today. "It's a very hopeful sign."
Green believes that the task of accounting for Lahaina victims could be completed this weekend.
"Our heartache stands at 115 now," he said. "God willing it won't surge much higher."
At the same time, Green expects the number of unaccounted to fall as the FBI works with Maui County officials to reduce the list of missing who were reported with similar names, such as "a guy who could have been listed as Michael, Michael Thompson, or M.T. or could have been called Scooter as his nickname," Green said.
The Associated Press this week reported that the number of missing fell dramatically following the 2018 wildfire that killed 85 people and destroyed the town of Paradise, California.
Authorities in Butte County, home to Paradise, ultimately published a list of the missing in the local newspaper, a decision that helped identify scores of people who had made it out alive but were listed as missing, the AP reported. Within a month, the list dropped from 1,300 names to only a dozen.
Most of the Lahaina victims who have been identified so far were in their 70s and Green said they include "a very heavy majority of people of Filipino descent. A lot were middle-class hotel workers. You're seeing parents and multi-generational households. ... A lot of people live in unregistered ohana structures. It's a way that people have afforded housing."
Asked about concerns that signing up for government aid could cost survivors their property, Green said that FEMA has received applications from 10,032 people and eliminated about 500, bringing the actual number of apparently legitimate applications to 9,545 people. The 2020 U.S. Census counted 12,702 people living in Lahaina three years ago.
"It appears people understand that ... anyone is going to get support from us, from FEMA, the Red Cross or United Way," Green said.
