Grim count is expected to grow significantly higher.
The death toll in Maui has surged to at least 89 people, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green reported at a press conference Saturday, making the island’s wildfire the deadliest in modern American history.
The grim toll slipped past the 85 killed in the 2018 Camp Fire in northern California that destroyed the town of Paradise. Hundreds perished in the Cloquet Fire in Minnesota, but that was more than 100 years ago in 1918.
The Maui death toll is still expected to surge significantly. Emergency workers have only begun to search inside buildings and through rubble.
Green said it would take an “incredible amount of time” for the area to recover from the disaster.