Count of Those Unaccounted for in Maui Goes Up

UPDATE Aug 23, 2023 8:02 AM CDT

Officials on Tuesday upped the number of people who have not been accounted for following the Maui wildfires. Two days after putting the figure at 850, officials put the number in the 1,000 to 1,100 range. "That doesn't mean necessarily ... that these people are, in fact, missing," Steven Merrill with the FBI said. "We're considering everybody on that list until we can prove they shouldn't be on that list." NBC News reports that Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said there were challenges with the list: Some of the names on it are first name only, and others don't have a gender noted. But the New York Times reports there are no minors on the list, which is expected to be released to the public sometime soon.

Aug 21, 2023 1:34 PM CDT

Almost two weeks after wildfires swept through Maui, some 850 people are listed as missing—a horrifically high figure, but down significantly from earlier estimates. Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said the FBI "combined and refined" different lists of missing people, NBC News reports. "We are both saddened and relieved about these numbers," Bissen said in a video posted on Facebook. "There is positive news in this number, because when this process began, the missing person list contained over 2,000 names," he said. The mayor said more than 1,285 previously listed as missing have been found.

The death toll currently stands at 114, making the wildfire the deadliest in modern US history, and it is expected to keep rising. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Friday that some 470 search-and-rescue workers, with 40 cadaver dogs, are continuing to search the devastated town of Lahaina, Hawaii News Now reports. Workers are trying to cover as much ground as possible before heavy rains expected this week, though experts tell the BBC that the task of finding and identifying all the victims could take many months.

story continues below

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden, who are on vacation in the Lake Tahoe area, will visit Maui Monday to view the damage and speak to residents, officials, and first responders, the AP reports. "I know how profoundly loss can impact a family and a community and I know nothing can replace the loss of life," Biden said in a statement ahead of the trip. "I will do everything in my power to help Maui recover and rebuild from this tragedy." (More Hawaii wildfires stories.)