‘We’re looking into it’: Biden says he’s considering visiting Maui over beach weekend as wildfire death toll reaches 93
- Biden is spending the weekend at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
- He and the first lady went for a ride on their bicycles on Sunday morning
- Meanwhile, the death toll on the Hawaiian island of Maui continues to rise
President Joe Biden told reporters on Sunday morning that he was considering making a trip to Hawaii to see the devastation of wildfires for himself.
He spoke only briefly during a bike ride when the death toll on the island of Maui reached 93, making it the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than 100 years.
Biden spent the weekend at his oceanfront home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Just after 9 a.m., he and the first lady set off on their usual bike ride.
“We’re looking into it,” he called to reporters asking about plans for a trip.
President Joe Biden went biking near his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Sunday morning. He told reporters he was “watching” a trip to see the devastation of wildfires
Davilynn Severson and Hano Ganer search for belongings through the ashes of their family’s home in the aftermath of a wildfire in Lahaina, western Maui that left the death toll at 93
For now, a presidential visit to the devastated island is virtually impossible. The emergency services are already working beyond their capacity without also having to deal with the provision of agents for security, traffic and crowd control tasks.
More than 2,000 properties have been destroyed and damage is already estimated at $6 billion.
Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono described the devastation in Lahaina on Sunday.
She described walking through the devastated city and passing a line of charred cars at the ocean’s edge, where it was clear the occupants had fled quickly—probably into the water.
“We are in a period of mourning and loss,” Hirono told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
She also said the attorney general was investigating why the early warning sirens had not sounded.
“There’s not enough recognition that we’re going to have to fight these kinds of wildfires,” Hirono said.
The death toll is expected to continue to rise.
Biden and the first lady took a ride on their bikes along the Gordons Pond Trail on Sunday
The president waved to the onlookers and shouted, “How are you?” About thirty people cheered in response when he cycled past it during his beach weekend
A resident uses a garden hose to extinguish hot spots after his home was destroyed by a forest fire in Kula on August 12, 2023
Members of a search and rescue team walk down a street, Saturday, August 12, 2023, in Lahaina
Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said crews with cadaver dogs covered only 3 percent of the search area.
Pelletier said identifying the dead was a huge challenge because “we’re picking up the remains and they’re falling apart.”
He added, “When we find our family and our friends, the remains we find are from a fire that melted metal.”
The work has taken on a grim practice.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it has spray-painted cars and buildings on the city’s Front Street with an “X” to indicate they received an initial check, but could still contain human remains.
Six active fires raged in Maui and the Big Island, destroying the city of Lahaina
An aerial view shows destroyed homes and buildings burned to the ground around the harbor and Front Street in the historic city of Lahaina
This photo, taken from a plane landing in Maui, shows the extent of the fires that ravaged the small island
When crews make another pass, they add the letters “HR” if they find any remains.
At least two other fires have burned on Maui with no reported fatalities so far: in the Kihei area of southern Maui and in the mountainous, inland communities known as Upcountry.
A fourth broke out Friday night in Kaanapali, a coastal community north of Lahaina, but crews were able to put it out, authorities said.
The death toll from the Lahaina fire now exceeds that of the 2018 Northern California campfire, which killed 85 and destroyed the city of Paradise.
A century earlier, the 1918 Cloquet Fire broke out in drought-stricken northern Minnesota and swept through a number of rural communities, destroying thousands of homes and killing hundreds.