Two weeks after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century swept through the Maui community of Lahaina, authorities say more than 800 people remain unaccounted for.
It’s a staggering number that presents huge challenges for officials trying to determine how many of those perished and how many may have made it to safety but haven’t checked in.
Something similar happened in 2018, after a wildfire killed 85 people and destroyed the town of Paradise, Calif. Authorities there ultimately published a list of the missing in the local newspaper, a decision that helped identify scores of people who had made it out
