On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell stated that the search of Maui’s burn zone is 87% finished, but it will take “several more days” for the search to be completed.
Criswell said, “I had an opportunity to get a full brief from our urban search and rescue teams that are on the ground in Maui. And while we’re 87% complete, where we find ourselves today is in an area that now requires some heavy equipment to go through the last bit of structures that have been burned to go in there and make sure that we are doing a thorough job in accounting for everybody that may have been perished in this fire. And so, we still expect several more days for these teams to continue to go through this area. But, again, we’re doing it very deliberately to make sure that we cover every square inch.”
She continued, “As we continue to work with the community and with the local officials, we already have everybody out of non-congregate sheltering. They’re all in either a hotel room or maybe an Airbnb or staying with family and friends. And we have a joint housing task force here on the island that’s made up of the state, supported with our federal partners and the American Red Cross, to talk through what these long-term solutions are going to be as people start to make decisions about what their next steps will be.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
