Fires became the deadliest natural disaster in the state\u2019s history
\nISLAMABAD
\nHawaii\u2019s chief legal officer said on Friday she was opening a probe into the handling of devastating wildfires that killed at least 80 people in the state this week, as criticism grows of the official response.
\nThe announcement came as residents of Lahaina were allowed back into the town for the first time \u2014 with most finding their homes had been reduced to ashes, and even the lucky few angry at a sense of abandonment.
\n\u201cEverything has been coconut wire,\u201d said William Harry, referring to a system of rumours. \u201cOne person heard, then told another, but it\u2019s not official information. They don\u2019t come here and explain anything.\u201d
\nAnother man, who did not want to be named, told AFP he felt like he had been left to fend for himself.
\n\u201cWhere is the government? Where are they?\u201d he fumed. \u201cThis is insane. We can\u2019t move freely, we don\u2019t get the support, now we\u2019ve heard about looting.\u201d
\nHawaii\u2019s Attorney General Anne Lopez said her office would be examining \u201ccritical decision-making and standing policies leading up to, during and after the wildfires on Maui and Hawai\u2019i islands this week.\u201d
\n\u201cMy department is committed to understanding the decisions that were made before and during the wildfires and to sharing with the public the results of this review.\u201d
\nFor some of those who made it back into Lahaina, there was elation as they tearfully reconnected with neighbours they feared might not have got out alive.
\n\u201cYou made it!\u201d cried Chyna Cho, as she embraced Amber Langdon amid the ruins. \u201cI was trying to find you.\u201d
\nFor some of the luckiest, there was joy \u2014 albeit tempered by the scale of the tragedy that counts among the worst natural disasters to hit the state of Hawaii.
\n\u201cI just couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d Keith Todd told AFP after finding his home intact. \u201cI\u2019m so grateful, but at the same time it\u2019s so devastating.\u201d
\nTodd, 64, discovered his house and his neighbour\u2019s house untouched, and his solar panels providing electricity to the fridge, which was still dispensing ice on demand.
\nBut even those few whose homes still appeared habitable were being warned they might not be safe.
\n\u201cSome structures in the Lahaina water system were destroyed by the fire\u2026 These conditions may have caused harmful contaminants, including benzene and other volatile organic chemicals (VOCs), to enter the water system,\u201d said Maui\u2019s water department.
\n\u201cAs a precaution\u2026(we) are advising residents to not use the tap water for drinking and cooking until further notice.\u201d
\nSome of those who made it back to Lahaina wandered in stunned silence trying to take in the enormity of the destruction.
\nAnthony La Puente said the shock of finding his home burned to nothing was profound. \u201cIt sucks not being able to find the things you grew up with, or the things you remember,\u201d he told AFP of the house he had lived in for 16 years.
\n\u201cThe only thing I can say is that it hurts. It takes a toll on you emotionally,\u201d the 44-year-old said.
\nLa Puente dug through the still-warm ashes of his home, picking out a Starbucks tumbler that had survived, but despairing at the loss of irreplaceable things, like mementoes of his late father.
\n\u201cI had packed up my dad\u2019s belongings\u201d hoping to sort through them at some point, he said. But that will never happen. \u201cNow it\u2019s gone.\u201d
\nThe confirmed toll rose to 67 on Friday, surpassing the number of people killed when a tsunami struck the Big Island in 1960.
\n\u201cWithout a doubt, there will be more fatalities. We don\u2019t know ultimately how many will have occurred,\u201d Governor Josh Green said.
\nCrews from Honolulu arrived on Maui along with search and rescue teams equipped with K-9 cadaver dogs, Maui County said.
\nFirefighters were continuing to extinguish flare-ups and contain wildfires in Lahaina, with spot blazes evident to the AFP team in the town.
\nMaui County Police Chief John Pelletier said on Thursday that as many as 1,000 people could be unaccounted for, though he stressed that this did not mean they were missing or dead.
\nCommunications in the western part of the island remain tricky, and Pelletier said many of those whose whereabouts were not known could simply be out of reach.
\nThe fires follow other extreme weather events in North America this summer, with record-breaking wildfires still burning across Canada and a major heat wave baking the US southwest.
\nEurope and parts of Asia have also endured soaring temperatures, with major fires and floods wreaking havoc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fires became the deadliest natural disaster in the state\u2019s history ISLAMABAD Hawaii\u2019s chief legal officer said on Friday she was opening a probe into the handling of devastating wildfires that killed at least 80 people in the state this week, as criticism grows of the official response. The announcement came as residents of Lahaina were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349041,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-349023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n