FBI: at least 385 people STILL missing 27 days after deadly Maui wildfire killed 115 – as more than half of Lahaina’s 12,000 residents are forced to live out of hotels and temporary accommodation

There are still 385 people on the official missing list after the Maui wildfire, 27 days after the blaze swept through the resort town of Lahaina, killing at least 115 people.

The FBI and Maui Police announced on Friday that 245 of the people on the previous week’s missing persons list of 388 had been located and removed from the list. But almost as many new names were added.

The new figure was an unfortunate change from what Hawaii Governor Josh Green had expected a day earlier, which was that the number of missing people would fall below 100.

“We think the numbers are down in the double digits, so thank goodness,” Green said in a video.

In a statement, he added: “It will take time, maybe a very long time, to finalize the exact numbers.”

Following the new update, Green said the number of fatalities from mass casualty events is often in flux until the investigation is complete.

He also said there are less than 50 “active missing persons cases,” although he did not go into details about that number.

Authorities believe at least 115 people died in the 1,000-degree blaze. The names of 50 deceased have been made public and the rest have yet to be identified.

On August 8, flames driven by 100-mph winds tore through the town of 12,000, flattening homes and businesses and destroying a place that had strong ties to Native Hawaiian history.

More than half of the city’s residents are now living in hotels and short-term rental properties as they figure out what to do next as the EPA works to eliminate hazardous waste that remains in the city’s incineration zone.

Reconstruction will be a long and expensive process.

It is possible that Hawaiian Electric power lines started the fire, although no cause has been formally stated.

Maui County has sued the utility, which in turn has acknowledged that its power lines started a wildfire early August 8.

However, the company blamed county firefighters for declaring the fire under control and leaving the scene, so a second wildfire would break out nearby.

Local officials in Maui and Lahaina have come under scrutiny for their perceived inability to respond appropriately to the threat of the fire.

Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen has dodged questions about his actions on the day of the fire.

He said he did not call the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency on the day of the fire, despite it being his job to ask the state for emergency assistance.

“I can’t talk to what — or whose responsibility it was to communicate directly,” Bissen told CBS last week. “I cannot say who was responsible for communicating with General Hara,” the director of the Emergency Management Agency.

Hara recently said that important details about the fire had not been provided to him. He said he was not informed of any fatalities from the fire until the day after.

Republicans in Washington have launched a formal investigation into the federal government’s response to the fire.

“The response of federal, state and local officials to the catastrophic wildfires in Maui raises serious questions,” James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement last week.

As recovery efforts continue, the House Oversight Committee has a responsibility to ensure that taxpayers’ money is used efficiently and effectively. To minimize the risk of waste, fraud and misuse of taxpayers’ money, the Oversight Committee will examine the federal government’s response in Maui.”

Comer added that his committee would work with other committees “to ensure accountability.”

Speaker Kevin McCarthy previewed the research last month.

“I think there should be a congressional inquiry into what happened. How can we lose so many Americans in this day and age? And the federal response seems very delayed,” he said.

Biden, who visited Maui nearly three weeks after the fire, drew criticism from the start for his reaction to the fires when he told a reporter he had “no comment” while lounging on the beach in Delaware.

The White House later said he had not heard the reporter’s question about Maui when he made the comment.

His visit to the island would always be contentious, and the president’s motorcade was driven past both boos and jeers, with some raising their middle fingers and waving Trump 2024 flags.

The president’s speech promised Maui that the support of the federal government would be “with you as long as it is needed.”

“The country grieves with you, stands by your side, and we will do everything possible to help you recover, rebuild and respect the culture and traditions when the reconstruction takes place.”

But beyond that, Biden did little to endear himself to the traumatized islanders. He gave an extended speech referring to the deaths of his wife and infant daughter in 1972, and later related an anecdote about a 2004 kitchen fire at his Delaware home.

Biden passed a declaration of emergency hours after the fire broke out and deployed hundreds of federal employees there to help with the fallout.

“Whatever you need, you’ll get it,” he told residents.

For weeks after the fire, cell service and access to electricity were lacking at best, and survivors said they struggled to find housing, medical attention and daily necessities.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has pledged one-time payments of $700 for basic necessities to nearly all households affected by the fires, in addition to distributing food and other essentials to camps set up to house displaced residents.