Metro News
Apocalyptic: US wildfires death toll rises to 89, expected to rise
The raging wildfire that swept through the picturesque town of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui this week has killed at least 89 people, authorities said Saturday, making it the deadliest U.S. wildfire of the past century.
The newly released figure surpassed the toll of the 2018 Camp Fire in Northern California, which left 85 dead and destroyed the town of Paradise. A century earlier, the 1918 Cloquet Fire broke out in drought-stricken northern Minnesota and raced through a number of rural communities, destroying thousands of homes and killing hundreds.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said operations Saturday would focus on “the loss of life” as he toured the devastation on Lahaina’s beloved Front Street with representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The Lahaina fire was the most devastating and destructive of three large wildfires which erupted on the island Tuesday.
Wildfire damage is shown, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii.
“It’s going to rise,” Green remarked Saturday on the death toll as he toured the devastation on historic Front Street. “It will certainly be the worst natural disaster that Hawaii ever faced…We can only wait and support those who are living. Our focus now is to reunite people when we can and get them housing and get them health care, and then turn to rebuilding.”
FEMA said the agency has been spray-painting cars and buildings on Front Street with an “X” to indicate they had received an initial check, but that there could still be human remains inside. When crews do another pass through, if they find remains, they will add the letters “HR” next to the “X.”
As the death toll from the fires on the island rises, it’s unclear how morgues will be able to accommodate the number of victims considering there is just one hospital and three mortuaries.
Beyond the confirmed deaths in Maui, hundreds of other people remain unaccounted for.
Search and rescue teams with cadaver dogs brought in from California and Washington had so far searched only 3% of the burn area, Maui County Police Chief John Pelletier disclosed in a news briefing Saturday afternoon.
He said that FEMA had agreed to bring in another 12 cadaver dogs.
“We can only go as fast as that animal can go,” Pelletier said.
FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell said that 150 FEMA personnel were on the ground in Maui, and said more search and rescue teams were coming.
Pelletier also pleaded with residents who have missing family members get a DNA test.
“We need you to do the DNA test,” Pelletier said. “We need to identify your loved ones.”
Mike Rice has been looking for friends on the island but has yet to hear from them. It’s too early to give up hope, he said, but he has not discounted possibility that they might have perished along with scores of others.
A man walks through wildfire wreckage Friday, Aug. 11, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii.
“I think they could have very well made it out,” said Rice, who now lives in California. “They may or may not have made it, I’m not going to sit around with a sense of impending doom waiting to find out.”
Emergency managers in Maui were still assessing the scope of the damage Saturday in the center of Lahaina and searching for places to house people displaced from their homes.
In Saturday afternoon’s news conference, Green said that the state had secured 1,000 rooms to temporarily house displaced residents and incoming support staff. Green said officials had to ensure the hotels had working electricity before they could be utilized.
“What we’d like to do is get people in as early as now,” Green said. “But without stable power, once again, it will likely be tomorrow or Monday that we see the largest number of people get into housing.”
Green said long-term rentals would be made available “in the coming days.” Those rentals will be fully covered through a combination of state funding, FEMA funding and charitable donations, Green said.
The need for shelter was high, estimated to be as many as 4,500 people, according to the assessment posted by FEMA and the University of Hawaii’s Pacific Disaster Center.
At least 2,207 structures were estimated to have been damaged or destroyed in the wildfires, according to preliminary numbers from the Pacific Disaster Center, which also estimated that rebuilding the island would cost a projected $5.5 billion.
There also was new information Saturday about the damage to boats, with nine confirmed to have sunk in Lahaina Harbor according to sonar.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, on Friday, handed over $22,000 recovered from a convicted internet fraudster, Hakeem Olanrewaju, to the Federal Bureau of Investigations, in Lagos.
Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos had, on August 15, 2023, ordered that the money recovered from Olanrewaju, who was sentenced to two years imprisonment for identity theft and impersonation, be restituted to his victim in the United States of America.
The spokesperson for the EFCC, Dele Oyewale, revealed the development in a statement on Saturday.
Oyewale noted that, speaking during the handover ceremony in Lagos, the acting Director, Lagos Zonal Command of the EFCC, Michael Wetkas, reaffirmed the commission’s dedication to combating crimes and restoring sanity to the nation.
“We are delighted to be handing over this proceeds of crime today.
“The EFCC is willing and always ready to do more,” Wetkas was qouted as saying.
Responding, the FBI Legal Attaché, Charles Smith, said, “The EFCC and the FBI work collaboratively together, and it is thanks to the EFCC that we can recover funds of this nature, especially from Business Email Compromise.”
He noted that, “This type of crime cripples businesses in the US, and for them to recover the money within one to two years gives hope to the affected companies and brings some level of justice, even if not all subjects have been identified.
“We hope our relationship continues and fosters a more cohesive partnership between the two agencies. If there’s anything the FBI can do to support this investigation, we will do so.
“We appreciate this on behalf of the FBI and thank the EFCC.”
Metro News
Alleged $600k bribe: I had no contact with Emefiele… money was collected by ex-CBN official, witness tells court
It was a lucky escape for many commuters early Saturday morning after a truck rammed into a Lagos State BRT bus at Ibafo bus-stop along the Lagos Ibadan Expressway.
It was gathered that the accident occurred around some minutes to 6am on Saturday.
Officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps and Police are at the scene of the accident.
Unconfirmed reports from onlookers noted that several people on the BRT bus were injured.
Onlookers accounts noted that the BRT was parked loading its passengers at the bus stop before the truck loaded with cows heading to Lagos rammed into it, taking it off the road to destroy shops and kiosks by the roadside.
The cow truck had been towed a little away from the scene so as not to hinder traffic.
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