Hawaii [US], September 16: Governor Josh Green of Hawaii (USA) recently said that the number of deaths in the forest fire in Maui last month was 97, down from the initial statistics.
In an interview with CNN on September 15, Mr. Green also said that the number of people missing in the forest fire in Maui was 31, according to Reuters. Last week, Mr. Green said that the death toll from the wildfires in Maui was 115 and 66 people were missing.
"The death toll is down because we have Department of Defense anthropologists who can do more advanced genetic research," Green said.
The death toll makes the Maui wildfire the worst natural disaster in Hawaii 's history , surpassing the tsunami that claimed 61 lives in 1960, a year after Hawaii became a state. US state, according to Reuters.
The latest figure also surpasses the 85 people killed in the 2018 wildfire in the California town of Paradise, and is the highest death toll from a wildfire since 1918, when the Cloquet fire in two states of Minnesota and Wisconsin claimed the lives of 453 people.
The wildfire disaster in Maui began shortly after midnight on August 8, when a fire was reported in the town of Kula, about 55 km from the resort town of Lahaina on the island.
In addition to casualties, the Maui wildfire left more than 2,200 structures damaged or destroyed and 850 hectares burned, with the cost of rebuilding the town of Lahaina estimated at $5.5 billion, according to the Administration. Federal emergency (FEMA).
Source: ThanhNien Newspaper