West Maui opens on Oct 8 to visitors. We need you to come back — so many of my friends' jobs are resting on the return of visitors. https://t.co/ydB4OYGWag
— HawaiiDelilah™ 🟦 #MauiStrong (@HawaiiDelilah) September 16, 2023
Death toll from Maui wildfires drops to 97, with 31 missing https://t.co/B7hrjsuADQ
— Jeffrey Levin 🇺🇦 (@jilevin) September 16, 2023
Good (if gruesome) explainer from the Washington Post — “Death toll from Maui wildfires drops to 97, with 31 missing”:
The death toll from the devastating wildfires on Maui dropped unexpectedly to 97 on Friday, a decrease that officials attributed to more precise testing done by military experts who found that some body bags contained human remains belonging to the same people and cautioned that a final count is still not finalized.
The blaze, which began Aug. 8, was already the deadliest in modern American history, far outstripping the 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 people in Paradise, Calif. Previously, Hawaii officials said at least 115 people died in the fires that quickly subsumed the historic town of Lahaina, but Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D) said Friday the confirmed number of deaths has gone down.
“That number dropped a little bit because the Department of Defense and all of their physical anthropologists were able to help us discern better who was in cars or in houses,” Green said in a video statement. “So thank God, fewer people have passed away.”
There are still 31 open reports of missing people. “And not all of those who are lost have been identified,” Green added.
During a news conference Friday, Maui police said they’ve positively identified 74 individuals.
John Byrd, the laboratory director for the Pentagon’s agency in charge of identifying remains of U.S. war dead, said his team is assisting in the process but is not prepared to offer a final count for the number of fatalities…
Driving past Lahaina is so difficult. Nothing left of the town I call home. The news cycle moves so quickly. Don’t forget about us. Rally your representatives and senators to do the right thing and vote for the funding to help us. pic.twitter.com/Iz8yE9hgjm
— HawaiiDelilah™ 🟦 #MauiStrong (@HawaiiDelilah) September 15, 2023
My research on the disinformation campaign(s) targeting the Hawaii fires —which was amplified by Russia and China — is featured in this new piece by @HawaiiNewsNow.
The takeaway: Crises are a target for disinfo and social media is an attack surface.https://t.co/ddRXAHnYWe
— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) September 13, 2023
And it’s arguably good news that the local media is warning Hawaiians against the Space Laser! conspiracists…
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – A disinformation campaign that sprung up almost immediately after wildfires ravaged Maui was spread by China and Russia, researchers have concluded.
And, they say, that campaign made the government’s response to the disaster even more difficult.
From weather warfare to floating bodies on another island to thousands of missing children to a Maui land grab, experts say online posts about the wildfires might have started as genuine concern.
But they also said China and Russia are now using artificial intelligence to amplify false messages and spread fear, division and distrust in government.
Caroline Amy Orr Bueno, a University of Maryland postdoctoral research associate and digital deception expert, said the online rumors started the day after the Aug. 8 fire.
One phrase “Hawaii, not Ukraine” was similar in messaging to what was seen online after the Ohio train derailment disaster.
“They link that to the U.S. providing support to Ukraine. The idea is the reason that the aid to Hawaii was inadequate was because our attention and our resources were going to Ukraine,” said Bueno.
“It was the same narrative with this overarching idea pitting the support for Ukraine against support for a local community,” she added.
Gov. Josh Green reacted to research on HNN’s “Spotlight Now,” saying the disinformation is disappointing — and dangerous.
“When you start talking about laser beams and heat rays coming from space that would take out a people on Maui, coming on let’s get real,” Green said…
New York Times correspondent Steven Lee Myers, who covers misinformation, told Hawaii News Now that Maui wildfire rumors had photos generated by artificial intelligence.
They were on all digital platforms and in multiple languages.
He says it’s hard to tell if China and Russia started the rumors or amplified once it was online…
“People are hurting, people are upset, they are looking for answers and in that space I think people can be vulnerable,” he added.
Experts also said that platforms like Facebook have taken down several pages linked to China, but say they need to do more.
