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Almost 100 people have been confirmed dead following wildfires that ripped through Hawaii last week and dozens more fatalities are expected, as the fallout of the disaster also spreads to the US state’s economy and main utility.
The official death toll rose to 96 on Monday morning in what has become the deadliest natural disaster in the state’s history. The figure is set to rise as rescue crews scour the ruins of burnt-out buildings.
“We are prepared for many tragic stories,” Hawaii’s governor, Josh Green, said in an interview with CBS Mornings aired on Monday.
“They will find 10 to 20 people per day probably until they finish. And it’s probably going to take 10 days. It’s impossible to guess really.”
US President Joe Biden last week declared a major disaster in the state and ordered federal aid to support the affected areas.
Officials have told tourists to stay away from the island, a popular holiday destination. About 46,000 people had been flown out of Kahului Airport since Wednesday, the Hawaii Tourism Authority said over the weekend.
The fires began last Tuesday and engulfed Lahaina in western Maui. More than 2,200 structures have been destroyed in the town, at an estimated cost already put at $5.5bn, according to a report released over the weekend by the Pacific Disaster Center and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Maui officials said on Monday that the Lahaina fire was now 85 per cent contained.
Shares in Hawaii Electric Industries, the state’s main power supplier, dropped by more than 40 per cent in early Monday trading after a class-action lawsuit was filed over the weekend alleging the company had “inexcusably kept their power lines energised during forecasted high fire danger conditions”.
Andrew Bischof, an analyst at Morningstar, said the market reaction was a “key near-term concern” for the company, as it contended with the fallout.
The state’s attorney-general has been tasked with carrying out a comprehensive review of the cause of the fires.
Strong winds from Hurricane Dora, which passed hundreds of miles to the south of the island, fanned the flames. The devastation in Hawaii has come during a summer of unusually high wildfire activity in Canada and authorities said July was the hottest month on record globally.
The number of people unaccounted remains more than 1,000 but has fallen in recent days after temporary mobile hotspots were set up to boost reception
“As we put up some temporary cell capacity people are calling each other so the number of missing went from in the two-thousands down to 1,300,” said Green.
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