Biden appears to FORGET the name of devastated Maui as he breaks silence on firestorm which has left at least 101 dead

Joe Biden appeared to have forgotten the name of Maui on Tuesday, referring to the island in a Milwaukee speech as “the island you see on television all the time.”

As the death toll climbed to 101, the president told the crowd that fires were still burning on the Big Island – also known as Hawaii.

He pointed out that the fires were blazing on the Big Island, not Maui, but he seemed to have trouble mentioning Maui.

“The army helicopters helped suppress fire on the Big Island because there are still fires on the Big Island — not the ones, not the ones you see on television all the time,” he said.

Biden, who quickly approved a Federal Emergency but has been criticized by Republicans for not yet traveling to the devastated island, said he and his wife planned to visit soon.

“My wife Jill and I are going to Hawaii as soon as possible,” he said.

“I talked to the governor about that.

‘I don’t want to get in the way. I’ve been to too many disaster zones. But I want to make sure we have everything they need. We want to make sure we don’t disrupt ongoing recovery efforts.”

On Sunday, he added to his anger by replying “no comment” when asked about his reaction to the tragedy after spending two hours on the beach in Delaware.

Kaniela Ing, a former Democratic member of the Hawaii state legislature, said he was unhappy with the Biden administration’s response.

“I campaigned for you,” he said. “Now, if I lose dozens of my friends, family and neighbors – this?”

More than 3,000 people have applied for federal assistance, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and that number is expected to grow.

FEMA provided $700 to displaced residents to cover the costs of food, water, first aid and medical supplies, in addition to qualifying coverage for the loss of homes and personal property.

The Biden administration also sought $12 billion more for the administration’s emergency relief fund, as part of its supplemental funding request to Congress.

The grim task of locating and identifying victims of the United States’ worst wildfire in 100 years continued on Tuesday.

Maui County officials said Tuesday morning they had combed just a third — about 32 percent — of the search area, a week after fires broke out near the devastated city of Lahaina.

Maui police chief John Pelletier said at a news conference Monday that he hopes searchers will have 85 to 90 percent coverage by the weekend.

A mobile morgue unit finally arrived on Tuesday to assist Hawaii officials who were working diligently to identify the 101 confirmed dead.

The site was being prepared by FBI agents on Sunday, but it was expected to be up and running by Tuesday.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has deployed a team of coroners, pathologists and technicians along with exam tables, x-rays and other equipment to identify victims and process remains, said Jonathan Greene, the agency’s deputy assistant secretary for response .

“It’s going to be a very, very difficult mission,” Greene said.

“And patience will be extremely important because of the number of casualties.”

Only three bodies have been identified and officials are expected to begin releasing names on Tuesday, Pelletier said.

He urged others who have missing relatives to submit DNA samples.

So far, 41 samples have been submitted, the provincial statement said, and 13 DNA profiles have been obtained from the remains.

Josh Green, the governor of Hawaii, said on Tuesday that there are children among the missing.

“Tragically, yes,” he told Hawaii News Now. “If the bodies are smaller, we’ll know it’s a child.”

He described some of the sites being searched as “too much to share or only view from a human perspective.”

Another complicating factor, Green said, is that storms with rain and high winds were predicted for the weekend.

Officials are in doubt whether to “preventively shut down or not for a short period of time, because at the moment the whole infrastructure is weaker.”

A week after the fires started, some residents were left with intermittent power, unreliable cell phone service and uncertainty about where to get help.

Some people occasionally walked to a sea wall, where the telephone connections were strongest, to make calls.

A single-prop plane flew low off the coast and used a loudspeaker to give information on where to get water and supplies.

The local power company has already faced criticism for failing to cut power as strong winds pounded a parched area at high risk of fire.

The official cause of the fire has not been confirmed and it is not clear whether the utility’s equipment played a role in igniting the flames.

Shelee Kimura, the president of Hawaiian Electric, said many factors go into a decision to cut power, including the impact on people who rely on specialized medical equipment and concerns that a closure in the fire area would have disrupted water pumps. switched off.

Green has said the flames raced up to a mile every minute in one area, fanned by dry grass and pushed by strong winds from a passing hurricane.

The fire that engulfed ancient Lahaina last week destroyed nearly every building in the city of 13,000.

That fire is 85 percent under control, according to the province. Another blaze, known as the Upcountry fire, was 60 percent contained.

The Lahaina fire caused about $3.2 billion in insured property losses, according to calculations by Karen Clark & ​​Company, a leading disaster and risk modeling firm.

The company said more than 2,200 buildings were damaged or destroyed by flames, with about 3,000 damaged by fire or smoke or both.

Even where the flames have receded, authorities have warned that toxic byproducts may remain, including in drinking water, after the flames emit toxic fumes.

As a result, many were unable to return home.

The Red Cross said as of Monday, 575 evacuees were spread across five shelters.

Green said thousands of people will need housing for at least 36 weeks.

He said on Tuesday some 450 hotel rooms and 1,000 Airbnb rentals were made available.