Hawaii’s governor warns that scores more people could be found dead following wildfires on Maui

Hawaii’s governor warned that scores more people could be found dead following the Maui wildfires as search crews go through neighbourhoods where the flames galloped as fast as a mile a minute and firefighters struggled to contain the inferno with what some officials complained was a limited water supply.

The blazes that consumed most of the historic town of Lahaina are already the deadliest in the US in more than a century, with a death toll of at least 96. The cause was under investigation.

“We are prepared for many tragic stories,” Governor Josh Green told CBS Mornings in a recorded interview that was broadcast on Monday. “They will find 10 to 20 people per day, probably, until they finish. And it’s probably going to take 10 days. It’s impossible to guess, really.”

As mobile phone service has slowly been restored, the number of people missing dropped to about 1,300 from more than 2,000, Green said.

Twenty cadaver dogs and dozens of searchers are making their way through blocks reduced to ash.

“Right now, they’re going street by street, block by block between cars, and soon they’ll start to enter buildings,” Jeff Hickman, director of public affairs for the Hawaii Department of Defence, said on Monday on NBC’s Today programme.

Meanwhile, some state officials say there is a shortage of water available for firefighters, and they blame a recent ruling by an environmental court judge. It is part of a long-running battle between environmentalists and private companies over the decades-long practice of diverting water from east Maui streams that started during Hawaii’s sugar plantation past.