Two weeks after terrible wildfires scorched the Hawaiian island of Maui, authorities revealed Tuesday that at least 1,100 people are still missing, and the FBI is requesting assistance from family members to help identify the bodies of the deceased.
According to the most recent provisional death toll, the fires were the deadliest to strike the United States in a century, taking at least 115 fatalities.
Lahaina, a vacation destination with 12,000 residents, was virtually erased off the map, and thousands of individuals were listed as missing on records kept by various agencies, including the police, Red Cross, and shelters.
According to Special Agent Steven Merrill, who spoke to reporters on Tuesday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is currently trying to compile and validate the data.
“We’re cross-referencing all the lists so that we can determine who in fact truly is still unaccounted for,” Merrill said.
As of Tuesday, the FBI had counted 1,100 missing persons, he added, with the number likely to rise.
The FBI has set up a dedicated telephone hotline and has encouraged relatives of the missing to contact them.
“We really need the public’s help”, said Merrill, particularly in terms of getting additional information to verify details for some of the missing.
John Pelletier, the chief of Maui’s police, stated that authorities were cleaning up the information and hoped to release a verified list of those still missing “in the next few days.”
Regardless matter where in the globe they may be, FBI investigators have been gathering DNA samples from the families of the missing who are unable to travel to Maui.
It takes a lot of work to identify the unidentifiable bodies discovered in the Lahaina ruins.
Only 27 out of the 115 victims have been named thus far.
According to Julie French, vice president of ANDE, the organization in charge of these efforts, having the DNA of the families of the missing “is a critical step in order to make an identification” of the victims.
“Nearly three-quarters of remains that have been tested for DNA thus far have generated searchable DNA results,” she said.
But without DNA from relatives against which to compare this data, the process is futile.
Only 104 DNA samples from family members of the missing or dead have been collected so far, and the authorities were keen to dispel any distrust of the process.
“The DNA profiles are not being retained by the FBI” or the police, said Maui County District Attorney Andrew Martin.
“The only purpose for which it will be used is helping identify the unaccounted for.”
