“We are with you, as long as it takes, I promise”: US President Joe Biden, traveling Monday August 21 on the island of Maui, Hawaii, wanted to show unwavering support for a local population bereaved by devastating fires. The federal state will support the reconstruction efforts “by ensuring that your voices are heard, that your traditions are respected”, promised the American president, while the reaction of the authorities to the disaster aroused many criticisms.

“We will rebuild as the people of Maui want,” he insisted, as locals worried about the potential takeover of land on the island by developers wanting to build expensive residences there.

The 80-year-old Democrat, who gave a short speech next to an iconic century-old tree in the city of Lahaina, the former capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii, wanted to see it as a symbol: “Fire cannot reach its roots . This is Maui. This is what America is. »

“I know that feeling of emptiness”

While the toll of the disaster, today of 114 dead, could still increase, Joe Biden summoned, as often on such occasions, his personal experience of mourning. Recalling that he lost his first wife and their baby daughter in a road accident in 1972, and that it was not until he knew that his two sons, present in the car, had survived, he declared “I know that feeling of a lot of people in this town, that feeling of emptiness in your chest, sucking you in like a black hole. »

Joe Biden, accompanied by his wife Jill Biden, flew over the devastated areas in a helicopter. He must meet families, rescuers and local officials.

The American president, who has made compassion his great political marker, has been criticized by the Republican opposition for not having spoken sufficiently publicly about the disaster, in particular when the toll was considerably increased there. a week old. In Maui, as his convoy passed charred homes, some residents held up signs in support of former President Donald Trump.

Titanic reconstruction work

In recent days, Joe Biden has multiplied messages of support and promises of federal aid. The White House insistently recalls that it took barely an hour to declare, on August 10, a state of major natural disaster in Hawaii, at the request of local authorities.

The Democrat has also appointed a federal coordinator for the reconstruction work, which promises to be titanic. A thousand people have not yet been located, some of whom could increase the toll of deceased victims, while the fire is already the deadliest for more than a century in the United States.

The response from local authorities has sparked bitterness in Hawaii. The presidential visit comes just days after the head of Maui’s crisis management agency resigned, accused of failing to sound the alarm sirens. Taken aback, some residents had thrown themselves into the sea to escape the flames.

“Would I have liked the sirens to sound?” Of course,” Gov. Josh Green said Sunday, while explaining that they were “historically” not used for fires, but for tsunamis and hurricanes.

About 85% of the affected area was covered by “an army” of rescuers and sniffer dogs searching for bodies in the rubble, Josh Green said Sunday.