There are 1,000 people with whom contact has been lost in Hawaii and the latest death toll caused by the fires, especially in the city of Lahaina, speaks of over 60 dead. But local authorities believe the number will continue to rise.

Certainly there is instead the devastation, with damages not yet calculated but such as to make Governor Josh Green say that it will take years and billions of dollars will be needed to rebuild Lahaina, the historic and tourist center of the island of Maui, reduced to ruins steaming from what Green himself calls the worst natural disaster in state history, where thousands have been left homeless after fires razed more than 1,700 buildings.

Among those rubble could now multiply the data on the victims.

From Italy, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani expressed closeness to the US and also confirmed that there are about 60 Italians on the island "we are tracking them down", he wrote on social media, also confirming that "there are no compatriots among the victims ».

Pope Francis has sent a message of condolences for the dead with a telegram, signed by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, in which he expresses "solidarity with all those who suffer from this tragedy, especially those who have lost loved ones" and assures his prayers "for the dead, wounded and displaced, as well as for rescuers and emergency personnel".

(Unioneonline/ss)