'Too little, too late': Furious Maui residents slam Biden before his tour of Lahaina firestorm rubble - as president gives rambling speech and says devastation is 'overwhelming'
  • 8 months ago
President Biden told Maui the nation 'grieves with you' in his first visit to the island since wildfires ravaged the city of Lahaina and the surrounding community. 'The devastation is overwhelming, to date 114 dead,' Biden said, before launching into a lengthy anecdote about his own loss of his first wife Naomi and one-year-old daughter in a car accident in 1972. While the death toll in Maui has topped 114, some 850 remain missing. 'We're focused on what's next as rebuilding a long, long term rebuilding for long term and doing it together to help get us back on our feet to rebuild the way we want to rebuild,' Biden told the crowd as charred rubble lay in his background. 'By making sure your voices are heard, by respecting your traditions, by understanding the deep history and meaning the sacred ground and establishing your community not to change his character but reestablish it. We're also going to bring the capabilities to help you rebuild. So your critical infrastructure is more resilient in the future. That all of this matters. I mean, closer this from stories of grief. We've seen so many stories of hope and heroism of the aloha spirit.'
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