The death toll from the Maui wildfires has climbed to 99. Here's what we know about the deadliest US fire in over a century | CNN
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Crews in west Maui are doing the devastating work of sifting through the ashes of incinerated homes and beloved landmarks as the death toll from the deadliest US wildfire in more than 100 years is still rising.

As of Monday afternoon, officials confirmed 99 people have died, up from the previous count of 96. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green told CNN Monday the death toll would likely increase “very significantly” and could double over the next 10 days.

  • MicroWave@lemmy.worldOP
    7·
    1 year ago
    • While the deadly fires spread rapidly into neighborhoods, the largest siren system in the world was silent. Emergency communications with residents were largely limited to mobile phones and broadcasters at a time when most power and cell service was already knocked out.
    • The state’s main electric provider, Hawaiian Electric, is facing a lawsuit claiming power lines blown over by high winds helped to cause the destructive Lahaina wildfire, though an official cause of the wildfire has not yet been determined.
    • Hawaii’s emergency management agency reported last year the risk posed by wildfires to human life was low. Officials underestimated the deadly threat of wildfires even as they acknowledged a lack of necessary resources to mitigate them, records show.
    • HobbitFoot
      3·
      1 year ago

      So basically the system didn’t have backups to protect against this type of disaster and the government wasn’t expecting something like this to happen.

      • doppelgangmember@lemmy.world
        3·
        1 year ago

        Some people try to say the sirens are for tsunamis/hurricanes and using them would potentially have made people panic and run in-land.

        I also heard because of all the invasive agriculture that made the fires much worse due to old growth that used to previously feed cattle.

        But do your own research to verify those. I dont live in Hawaii