President Joe Biden toured on Monday, August 21, the site of the worst US wildfire in a century, where at least 114 lives were lost in Lahaina town in Hawaii. Amid criticism for a slow government response, locals express frustration with the perceived lack of urgency in the official reaction.
President Joe Biden on Monday told survivors of a horrific blaze in Hawaii the government would not abandon them as he toured the scene of the worst wildfire the United States has seen in over a century.
The 80-year-old donned the mantle of comforter-in-chief as he saw for himself the devastation wreaked on Lahaina by a fire that killed at least 114 people as it levelled the historic town.
“I know the feeling that many people in this town, this community (have); that hollow feeling you have in your chest like you’re being sucked into a black hole,” he said as he stood by the blackened skeleton of a historic banyan tree.
“We’re gonna rebuild the way that the people of Maui want to build. The fire cannot reach the roots. That’s Maui. That’s America.”
Biden is fighting criticism his government was too slow to respond to the disaster that devastated a town of more than 12,000 people, with locals angry at what some see as a plodding official response.
Former president Donald Trump said it was “disgraceful” that his successor had not visited Hawaii sooner, though the White House has said Biden delayed his trip so as not to distract officials and rescuers working on the ground.
Biden and First Lady Jill Biden walked through the ravaged remains of Lahaina with Hawaii’s Governor Josh Green and his wife, nearly two weeks after ferocious, wind-whipped blazes sent residents jumping into the ocean to escape the flames.
The couple also took to the air in Marine One, the presidential helicopter, to see the crushing extent of the devastation that left the former royal capital in ashes.
Katrine Houmøller, with AFP
