The death toll from the fires that nearly wiped out the city on the island of Maui has now reached 110 dead, the authorities of the American archipelago of Hawaii announced yesterday Wednesday, who continue the painstaking and difficult search of the debris in anticipation of the visit of the President of the United States Joe Biden next Monday.

“110 people have been confirmed dead,” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green explained during a news conference announcing the discovery of four more bodies.

This reckoning is certain to become much heavier. As, a week after the tragedy, search crews and specially trained dogs searching the ruins of Lahaina, Maui’s historic town, have covered only 38% of the operations zone so far, authorities acknowledge.

“This is a very difficult business,” said Diane Criswell, the head of the Federal Disaster Management Agency (FEMA).

Medical examiners with equipment to set up a field morgue arrived to bolster efforts Monday. The teams operating in the field now include experts who had worked when the 9/11 attacks took place, in plane crashes, previous catastrophic fires…

The task remains difficult, the bodies must be located and identified in Lahaina, which had a population of 12,000 before the disaster. The true extent of the tragedy will not be revealed for weeks.

Genetic material

The fire had such a temperature that it melted metals. Many homes were reduced to piles of gray ash and often the victims found are beyond recognition.

Few bodies have been identified so far. The authorities have appealed to the relatives of the missing to submit to a DNA test in order to facilitate the identification process.

Given that there were many tourists in the city when the disaster occurred, the challenge becomes even greater.

Authorities need to create “some kind of system” that would allow relatives of missing vacationers to go to “local police stations” anywhere in the US to provide genetic material, said Adam Weintraub, a Hawaii crisis management official.

Hundreds of people are still missing. The number is dwindling as communications are gradually restored on Maui and residents are able to speak with their own. But others will be added to the victims of the tragedy.

Joe Biden “commits”

US President Joe Biden is expected in the archipelago on Monday with his wife Jill, the White House announced yesterday. The couple will meet “with rescue workers, survivors and officials” on Aug. 21, his spokeswoman Karin Jean-Pierre told reporters, according to a press release issued by the White House.

“I remain committed to providing everything Hawaiians need to recover from this disaster,” the head of state said via X (formerly Twitter).

Mr. Biden quickly declared Hawaii a state of natural disaster, which allowed federal resources to be deployed, and he has spoken repeatedly with Gov. Greene.

However, he is criticized by the Republican opposition for his reaction, characterized as insufficient or indifferent. Although he briefly mentioned Hawaii in a speech in Utah last Thursday, he didn’t speak publicly about the fires again until it became painfully clear how heavy the toll was going to be over the weekend.

Residents’ anger

In Hawaii, local authorities are also strongly criticized: the warning sirens, used in cases of tsunamis, were not activated. Alerts via television, radio and cell phones were useless for most because of the power outages.

Surrounded by flames without warning, dozens of residents in Lahaina jumped into the sea to save themselves.

An investigation into the management of the crisis is underway, as the feeling of being abandoned becomes even more acute for many residents.

A lawsuit was filed against Hawaiian Electric. It is accused of negligence, namely that it did not turn off the power when the fires broke out, which may have made matters worse, as many poles and substations of the distribution network burned.

“In my opinion what was done amounts to omission” [σ.σ. καθήκοντος]says Anneliese Cochran, a thirtysomething who fell into the sea to save herself.

Fueled by hurricane-force winds off Hawaii, the fires came amid a summer marked by extremes in many parts of the world that experts say are inextricably linked to climate change, including giant wildfires in Canada.