Miracle in Maui, sixty survivors of the fires who took refuge in a single house are rescued

He The death toll has risen to 106 more than a week after wildfires broke out on the Hawaiian island of Maui, while some 1,300 people remain missing.

As hopes fade that survivors will be found in Lahaina, the search continues. Therefore, the discovery of the group, many of whom were not listed, was considered miraculous. They were found seeking refuge in a remote private home where electricity and telephone lines had been cut.

Rescue teams continue to search for victims among the rubble of the devastating fires in Hawaii on Wednesday. A provisional morgue was set up to identify the dead.

Archipelago governor Josh Green has warned several times that the final balance of the fire that devastated the city of Lahaina last week — the deadliest in the United States in more than a century — could even “double.”

two dead Mexicans

The dead include two Mexicans, according to the Latin American country’s foreign ministry, which did not provide details about the circumstances of the death.

So far, only a quarter of the disaster area in Lahaina, on the west coast of the island of Maui, has been tracked by dogs trained to search the body, Green says.

In addition to Health Ministry personnel, some refrigerated containers were installed on the island, as a temporary morgue, to speed up the complicated process of identifying the victims, an AFP journalist confirmed.

Green stressed that authorities will do everything they can to prevent developers from taking advantage of the situation to buy land.

“Our goal is to have a local commitment — forever — to this community as we rebuild,” he said.

“We will make sure that we do everything we can to prevent the country from falling into the hands of outsiders,” he added.

Victims difficult to identify

The process of identifying the victims is progressing slowly. Authorities had collected DNA samples from 41 people whose relatives disappeared in the tragedy.

Only five of the deceased had been identified.

Maui County officials released two of his names after notifying next of kin of his death.

Hundreds of people are still reported missing, although this number is declining as communications are restored on the island.

In In Lahaina, which had a population of 12,000 prior to the tragedy, more than 2,000 buildings were destroyed and many homes flattened. That city used to be the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

The president quickly signed the declaration of natural disaster to fund emergency equipment and reconstruction.

The management of the crisis has been harshly criticized and many residents have said they feel let down by the authorities.

Hundreds of jumps into the sea

“What happened, in my opinion, borders on negligence (…) I’m only here because I saved myself,” Annelise Cochran, a 30-year-old woman who survived the flames by jumping into the sea, told AFP.

When she was surrounded by flames on the Lahaina boardwalk, this veteran swimmer didn’t think twice and, like other people, saw that jumping into the sea was her only option. She spent between five and eight hours in the water, clinging to the rock wall that borders the end of the boardwalk, before she could be rescued.

A similar case lived the Argentinian Nicholas Vasquez. He is now in a shelter, but when he saw him he left his car on a busy road and jumped into the sea.

He spent eight hours in the water before being rescued. Nicolás told Infobae that he had arrived on the island three days earlier and was stuck in traffic as fire approached from the front and rear. He decided to dismount and jump into the water. Safe in the waves, he watched as the flames engulfed all the remaining cars.

Nicolás says he had to spend eight hours in the water and he had to be submerged every time smoke came out of the fire. He saw people die. It wasn’t until 3 am that they started looking for him.

More than a week after the devastating fire, Maui authorities are trying to provide shelter for the survivors, who have lost almost everything. Some 2,000 accommodations (hotel rooms, Airbnb locations or private individuals) are freely accessible to residents for at least 36 weeks.

polemic

But the Controversy and criticism of the management of the authorities in the face of this kind of disaster do not stop growing.

Many point out that some fire crews were unable to act quickly because the hydrants were dry or had a very low flow rate.

These fires are happening in the middle of a summer marked by extreme events around the world, such as the unprecedented fires in Canada, all of which experts say are linked to climate change.

Other residents also expressed their discomfort with touristsbecause despite the tragedy, many travelers frolic on the beaches of luxury hotels a few miles from the disaster.

In factmany continued to arrive on the island arousing the ire of the residents while still trying to assimilate the consequences of the tragedy.

For example, this Monday, at Wailea Beach, in Maui, the sky was clear and bright. In the luxury hotels lined up in front of the beach, guests they were scattered on the sand. Some waded into the ocean, while others sat under umbrellas with white towels.