President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris — unsurprisingly — won’t travel to Maui as the island suffers from devastating wildfires because they “don’t want to distract” from the ongoing rescue efforts.
“We don’t want to distract from the resources that need to go in to the victims of this tragedy, and of course, the needs of the first responders have to be able to focus on that issue and not worry about focusing on us [because] we’re there,” Harris told reporters before boarding Air Force Two for Chicago on Friday, C-SPAN reported.
“We are coordinating federal resources to swiftly get there to support the work in terms of recovery but to just support the folks on the ground. It is tragic,” Harris noted. She said that she and Biden are “deeply concerned” about the wildfires that have cost the lives of 55 people.
On Thursday, Biden issued a federal disaster declaration for the island, as reported by CNN, which noted that federal efforts are underway.
“We’re working as quickly as possible to fight those fires and evacuate residents and tourists. In the meantime, our prayers are with the people of Hawaii, but not just our prayers: every asset that we have will be available to them,” Biden said, according to CNN.
KTVU Fox 2 reported that search-and-rescue efforts are still ongoing on the island, and officials estimate that at least 1,000 people are still missing. The outlet noted that official estimates are not conclusive because it’s “impossible” to determine the exact number of people missing on Maui because of communication issues.
Fox 2 pointed out the situation of Nikki White, a woman who was looking for her father, T.K., a 65-year-old Air Force veteran, who was living on the island.
“He was saying he couldn’t get through to the places we were telling him to go because of the fire and structures were down,” White said. “And then, just communication stopped. No one in our family has heard from him.”
Lauren Henrie, a communications consultant for Maui Rescue Mission, told CNN that rescue efforts are being hindered because of communication problems throughout the island.
“We as a local nonprofit are not able to even access anything west of Maalaea. West Maui is completely cut off from communication and power,” Henrie said. “We are looking at years, years of recovery here.”
While Biden and Harris chose to skip a visit to the island, celebrity Oprah Winfrey was seen volunteering at a relief shelter, according to the New York Post.
“It’s a little overwhelming, you know,” Winfrey told the BBC. “But I’m really so pleased to have so many people, you know, supporting, and people are just bringing what they can and doing what they can.”
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