President Joe Biden has said he does not want to “get in the way” of rescue work after the Hawaii wildfires following criticism of his response to the disaster.
Mr Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden “are going to travel to Hawaii as soon as we can”.
“I don’t want to get in the way,” he said, adding that recovery work being carried about by emergency responders and search and rescue teams is “painstaking work” that “takes time.”
Hawaii officials are working to identify the 101 people killed in Maui wildfires. Governor Josh Green confirmed the updated death toll on Tuesday, up from 99 earlier, after the last official update indicated that 25 per cent of the search area had been covered.
The toll is expected to continue to rise for days as hundreds of people remain missing with Mr Green predicting “10 to 20” more bodies found each day.
Meanwhile, as residents of hard-hit Lahaina return home to survey the devastation, officials have issued dire warnings about contamination that could pose health risks for months to come.
