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AT LEAST 1,100 people are still missing two weeks after deadly wildfires ravaged the Hawaiian island of Maui, with the FBI seeking family members’ help in identifying the remains of the dead.
The fires were the deadliest to hit the United States in a century, claiming at least 115 lives, according to the latest provisional death toll.
The tourist town of Lahaina, home to 12,000 people, was all but wiped off the map, with thousands of missing persons appearing on lists maintained by various organizations, including the police, Red Cross and shelters.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is now working to collate and verify the data, Special Agent Steven Merrill told reporters on Tuesday.
“We’re cross-referencing all the lists so that we can determine who in fact truly is still unaccounted for,” Merrill said.
As of yesterday, the FBI had counted 1,100 missing persons, he added, with the number likely to rise.
The FBI has set up a dedicated telephone hotline and has encouraged relatives of the missing to contact them.
“We really need the public’s help”, said Merrill, particularly in terms of getting additional information to verify details for some of the missing.
Maui police chief John Pelletier said authorities were refining the data and were hoping to publish a verified list of missing persons “in the next few days”.
FBI agents have also been collecting DNA samples from the families of the missing who are unable to travel to Maui, wherever in the world they may be.
Identifying the unrecognizable bodies found in the ashes of Lahaina is a laborious task.
So far, only 27 of the 115 victims have been identified.
Having the DNA of the families of the missing “is a critical step in order to make an identification” of the victims, said Julie French, vice president of ANDE, the company in charge of these operations.
“Nearly three-quarters of remains that have been tested for DNA thus far have generated searchable DNA results,” she said.
But without DNA from relatives against which to compare this data, the process is futile.
Only 104 DNA samples from family members of the missing or dead have been collected so far, and the authorities were keen to dispel any distrust of the process.
“The DNA profiles are not being retained by the FBI” or the police, said Maui County District Attorney Andrew Martin.
“The only purpose for which it will be used is helping identify the unaccounted for.”
It’s like that episode of Father Ted..”the cliffs are closed Ted”
They took the roads In for the night lol
Careful now!
How does it cost almost $100k a day to maintain a hole in the ground?
Access road maintences,car parks,fish & wildlife services and park rangers wages,search&rescue,fire dept personel and even air traffic control in the actual canyon itself.Be amazed how many military jets,helicopters and ariel tour flites there in there every day of the week when it is open.
Over here on holidays at the moment and I just flew into the Grand Canyon on a helicopter, as that’s a private company running the tours, also the western canyon remained open as it is part of the Indian reservation, however southern and northern canyons ( which is the largest part) remained closed. All access to national parks are closed sealed off, including all access points to the Grand Canyon, really sad to see and slightly irritating considering how far I came to see it! however they need to reopen it, as people are sneaking in, it’s a bank holiday over here this weekend so it’s only going to get worse!
It took more staff to close them than to keep them open. Close the Grand Canyon?
Yawn
How do you close the Grand Canyon? Is there gates on it??
I don’t know about the Grand Canyon, but at Mount Rushmore they closed the car park. When some bright spark realised that you could see it from a particular part of the road, they tried to close the road as well. But of course they want the parks to be open.
Derek, they closed the access roads going to the canyon.
They pulled a big tarp over the Grand Canyon
Up go the prices so….
have your say