Mayhem in Maui as officials reveal list of 388 people missing in wildfires is only a ‘subset’ and HUNDREDS more are still unaccounted for: 46 victims identified as search and rescue of burn zone nears end and death toll remains at 115

Officials on Maui revealed Friday that a list of 388 names of people still missing from the August 8 wildfires, published the day before, was just a “subset” — with “hundreds” more still missing.

Thursday night, 16 days after the fires devastated the historic city of Lahaina, the first official list of ‘validated names’ was published – weeks of speculation that there may still be 1,500 people missing come to an end.

The 388 names were considered “validated” because they included a first name, last name, and the details of the person who reported them missing.

But on Friday, officials admitted that this list was only part of a much larger list, which they also worked from. They didn’t say how many people were on this second list. They also don’t publish live updates to the list, which means that many people who have said they are fine are still listed as missing.

“The 388 names were names we had more information on,” revealed Steven Merrill, the FBI’s special agent in Honolulu.

“That’s why we released that first.

“We have hundreds of other names where we need even more information.

These 388 names are a subset of a larger list. We care about every person on that list and we will not rest until we know how each of those people on that list is doing.”

Merrill said “100 people or more” have been removed from the list of 388 names.

He added, “We’re also happy to see more people added to the list.”

Merrill said they had received “thousands of reports” of missing people and were able to find “two-thirds” of them on that list.

While the initial confusion over the number of missing people was understandable, with communications and electricity down and communities scattered, it has become less justified as the weeks go by.

Hawaii Governor Josh Green said Sunday that more than 1,000 are still missing.

Maui Mayor Richard Bissen then said in a pre-recorded video on Instagram that the number was 850.

And during President Joe Biden’s tour of the devastation on Monday, White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall put it at between 500 and 800.

On Friday, Police Chief John Pelletier defended the slow process in identifying the dead and missing.

“We have to vet every person that comes in to make sure it’s what it looks like,” he said.

“We want to make an updated list.

“We’re going to do well, not quickly.”

Pelletier said he would like to provide a weekly update of the missing persons list, although he could not guarantee that would happen.

“We confirm that they are actually alive,” he said.

“We don’t want to be hasty in taking them off. Unfortunately, people aren’t that honest and don’t report integrity when they call.

“We can’t just come in here and say we’ve reduced the number to 150. That would be great, but it would be unrealistic.

‘There is no secrecy about a hidden agenda; we’re going as fast as we can, but we’re doing it the right way.’

The search of the fire zone is almost complete: officials said it was 99 percent done, and all they had to do was continue their underwater search and revisit locations they wanted to double check.

“We will continue until the experts tell us that there is nothing left to repair,” says Mayor Bissen.

“And we’re very close to that.”

The death toll remained at 115, with 46 of those bodies identified so far.

Of the 46, 36 next of kin had been notified, while 11 had yet to be located or notified.

Some of those who found their names on the list of 388 said they were shocked and could not get confirmation that they had been removed.

Heidi Mazur of Lahaina was frustrated with being on the list when she was active on Facebook and started an online fundraiser after the fire.

“They’ll find me in New York in a minute if I don’t pay my license plate or taxes, but it seems they can’t locate me here in Lahaina in a disaster!” she told AP.

MalamaKai Watson, 40, was not in Lahaina during the fires, but on the other side of the island.

With cell phone and internet services disrupted, she understood when she first appeared on a Facebook missing persons list.

But she was soon listed as found after being able to contact her loved ones.

She was stunned to find herself on the new, more official list.

She called the FBI to say she was safe, but saw no changes online Friday.

“Now it’s annoying,” she said.

“There are people out there who are definitely missing. The focus must be on the people who have yet to be found.’

Seth Alberico, a football coach from California’s Bay Area, said his name and that of his daughter Kalia had previously circulated on the unofficial, crowdsourced list, but he didn’t realize they were also on the new “verified” list until AP told him.

“I would like to be taken off the list,” he said. “We’re both safe.”

At the time of the fire, he was staying in an apartment on Kaanapali Beach, not far from the fire area.

A former player knew he had been to Maui and knew he had a daughter, and she reported them missing when she couldn’t reach him on Facebook afterward, he said.

His daughter hadn’t even been with him, he said.

He said he unsuccessfully messaged on Facebook and Instagram to be taken off the list.

Earlier this week, officials pleaded for relatives of people still unreported come forward and give DNA samples to help identify the remains, promising that the samples would not be entered into law enforcement databases or used in any other way.

At the time, DNA had been collected from only 104 families, a figure described by officials as alarmingly low.

Maui prosecutor Andrew Martin, who heads the family assistance center, said there has been a slight increase in sample donations since then, but “we’re still not where we want to be.”

Among the many reasons people are hesitant is a “historic and generative mistrust of government,” Martin said, referring to a sentiment rooted in the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893.