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Biden offers contemptible $700 per household for survivors of Maui wildfires
[World Socialist Website] As more facts about the death and destruction and what caused the Maui wildfires emerged, amid growing public outrage over the US government’s criminally inadequate response, President Joe Biden boasted on Tuesday of pathetic “one-time payments of $700 per household” for those who have lost everything in the disaster.Authorities reported on Tuesday that one-third of the burn area in the town of Lahaina had been searched for victims, and the number of confirmed dead had risen to 101. Hawaii Governor Josh Green told CNN on Monday evening that the number of confirmed deaths could double over the next 10 days. Maui County reported that just four of the sets of remains found have been identified so far. The identities of these individuals will be released after families have been notified. Among those who died were four members of the same family, who were engulfed while trying to escape the flames, according to a statement released to CNN affiliate Hawaii News Now. “On behalf of our family, we bid aloha to our beloved parents, Faaso and Malui Fonua Tone, as well as our dear sister Salote Takafua and her son, Tony Takafua,” the statement read. Another victim, Franklin “Frankie” Trejos, 68, who had lived in Lahaina for 30 years, had tried to save his property, along with his friend and roommate, Perez Grant. Grant escaped the blaze while suffering burns, only to discover the remains of his friend several blocks away. The painstaking process of identifying the dead was highlighted when county investigators reported that they had obtained the DNA profiles of 13 more people, and a total of 41 DNA samples had been obtained from the family members of those who are unaccounted for. Meanwhile, there are still more than 1,000 people missing, and thousands more have been left homeless. Three climate change-fueled wildfires that began on August 8 were whipped into a firestorm by winds from passing Hurricane Dora, destroying the town of Lahaina. So far, an estimated 4.45 square miles has been burned. Two of the three fires are still burning, with firefighters working by ground and air to contain the blazes and looking for hot spots and flare-ups. Fire officials said the Lahaina fire, the largest of the three at 3.39 square miles, had been 85 percent contained by Tuesday. The Upcountry/Kula fire, which has burned just over a square mile and destroyed 19 homes, was 65 percent contained. On Tuesday, President Biden, who refused to comment on the devastation in Maui on Monday, expressed the indifference of the White House to the disaster while speaking to the media at a previously scheduled event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Fumbling his way through an overview of the thoroughly inadequate response of federal authorities to the crisis on the Hawaiian island, Biden said FEMA authorized “one-time payments of $700 per household to those who have been displaced so they can do the immediate things,” like obtain the medications they need. He then announced that he and his wife would eventually travel to Maui to survey the damage, but gave no firm date for a trip. On a Twitter/X post earlier in the day, Biden claimed the administration was “laser-focused” on providing aid to survivors of the Maui wildfire, including the one-time payment, “during an unimaginably difficult time.”
Related: Maui: 2023-08-16 Consoler in chief? Lounge chair Biden revealing his true self on the beach Maui: 2023-08-16 Death toll in Hawaii fires rises to 99, and likely to increase, say officials Maui: 2023-08-14 Drone video shows Maui landscape scorched by deadly wildfires, President Biden mulling visit Posted by: Skidmark 2023-08-17 |
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