At a press conference, the governor of Hawaii, Josh Green, admitted that, a week after the tragedy, the toll could still increase considerably, at a time when hundreds of people are still missing.
“This leaves us heartbroken”, added the governor.
Rescue teams, made up of first responders and sniffer dogs, have only finished searching for bodies in about 38% of the affected area in Lahaina, the historic capital of the island of Maui, Green said.
“This is a very difficult search operation,” said the leader of FEMA, the federal agency responsible for responding to natural disasters in the United States, Deanne Criswell.
Hawaii authorities have been calling for relatives of the missing to take a DNA test to help identify the bodies. Only nine of the 111 dead have yet been identified, according to ABC News.
Read more in Diário de Notícias
