Officially, the number of missing on Maui, as released on August 25th, stood at 388 people.

But as that number and the names of missing people were released, it turned out that the Top Men of the FBI, who were working on the list, had a lot of problems.

Within a day of Maui County releasing 388 names of people unaccounted for following the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, more than 100 of them or their relatives came forward to say they’re safe, the FBI said Friday.

The agency is reviewing the information they provided and working to remove the names from the list.

“We’re very thankful for the people who have reached out by phone or email,” Steven Merrill, the FBI’s special agent in charge in Honolulu, said in a news conference. “As we get someone off of a list, this has enabled us to devote more resources to those who are still on the list.”

Several people on the list told The Associated Press earlier in the day that they are alive and well, with a few also saying they were confused or frustrated to be on it. At least two others were among the victims of the fire — people who are known to have perished but have not yet been positively identified as deceased in the official tally, which currently stands at 115.

Heidi Mazur, of Lahaina, told AP she was frustrated to be on the unaccounted-for list when she has been active on Facebook and started an online fundraiser after the fire.

“They will find me in a New York minute if I don’t pay my car registration or taxes, but they can’t seem to locate me in a disaster here in Lahaina!” she said via Facebook Mesenger.

MalamaKai Watson, 40, was not in Lahaina during the fires but on the other side of the island. With cellphone and internet service disrupted, she understood when she first appeared on a grassroots Facebook list of the missing. But she was quickly listed as found after she was able to get in touch with her loved ones.

She was baffled to be on the new, more official list. She called the FBI to say she was safe, but didn’t see any changes online Friday.

“Now it’s annoying,” she said. “There are people on there who are definitely missing. The focus needs to be on the people needing to be found still.”

Yay for the government, where you can still be listed as missing even after you contact the FBI to say that you are fine. This stirred a lot of hope among people that perhaps, just perhaps, the number of missing wasn’t nearly as bad as thought. Remember, the initial estimate of the missing was somewhere between 800 and 1000 people. The FBI’s list from August 25th had 388 names on them. This led the governor of Hawaii, Josh Green, to make the prediction this last Thursday that after the update that was supposed to come in late Friday (yesterday), the number of missing would be reduced to “double digits.”

8/31 Maui Fire Update pic.twitter.com/8SDJE0knlf

— Governor Josh Green (@GovJoshGreenMD) August 31, 2023

The number of people listed as missing from Maui’s devastating wildfire could drop from nearly 400 to fewer than 100 when authorities provide an update Friday on their efforts to locate them, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said.

“We think the number has dropped down into the double digits, so thank God,” he said Thursday in a video posted to X, formerly known as Twitter.

Well, the updated numbers were released, and those numbers reveal both egg on the governor’s face, and why these numbers are still a huge mess.

The Maui Police Department said 245 people on the missing persons list validated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation had been found and located. However, a nearly equal number of new names were added, bringing the total down from 388 to 385 missing, a net change of just three.

The updated total was a startling departure from what had been expected — a day earlier Gov. Josh Green said he believed the number would fall below 100.

After Maui police released the most recent numbers, the governor said the numbers of fatalities and missing persons are often in flux after a mass casualty event until investigations are completed.

“Exact numbers are going to take time, perhaps a long time, to become finalized,” Green said in a statement to The Associated Press.

So, Maui is back right where they started. But the FBI list is only dealing with people who can be identified by first and last name.

Of that first FBI-generated list, 122 remain unaccounted for.

But authorities have also also added to the list with new reports, bringing the number back up.

The FBI-validated list is in addition to lists compiled by other organizations, which counted the missing at more than 1,000. The FBI list, however, only includes people for whom authorities have a first and last name and contact information for the person who reported the missing persons case.

With that admission, it’s clear that the FBI’s list could be inaccurate as well. If a first and last name, plus a living contact person, is required to make the FBI’s list, then there could be a HUGE problem with the count, and it’s one that neither the local nor state government wants to address.

Hawaii, like many blue states, has a homeless problem. The problem is often exacerbated in a place like Hawaii because not only are blue states willing to cough up more money and services for the chronically homeless population, but the tropical weather is an attractive bonus to those who are homeless. Just this last January, a count was taken on Maui which gives us some actual numbers to work with.

Among the 704 homeless on Maui in the January report, 429 were single individuals and 275 were family individuals, including 129 adults and 146 children.

Among them, 244 have a mental health disability, 223 were considered chronically homeless, 196 have a substance abuse disability, and 22 are military veterans.

Broken down by region, Central Maui had the highest number of homeless at 325. There were also 170 sheltered and 155 unsheltered.

Total homelessness in Lahaina dropped slightly from 250 people counted in 2022 to 239 counted in January.

There were 113 unsheltered people, a drop from the 157 in 2022, as the number of sheltered individuals had an uptick from 93 in 2022 to 126 in January.

Upcountry had 56 homeless people and 35 unsheltered individuals, less than last year when there were 71 homeless and 56 unsheltered, leading to a slight increase in sheltered folks at 21 from the 15 counted in 2022.

For the record, Upcountry was another location of wildfires that destroyed homes, and took a long time to contain. But just look at the numbers of homeless counted in Lahaina, especially that number of 113 “unsheltered.” Do those people have someone who knows that they may be missing, and know their first and last name to put them on a list for the FBI? The homeless may be among the remains that are found, but cannot be identified, because no one knows that they could be dead, so there is no DNA swab to match them with – especially if they came from out of state.

The honest truth is that because so many people are allowed to live as homeless, and because entire families were killed in the wildfires, that there is no way to make an accurate count of the actual missing and dead. The FBI and Governor Green need to start being honest about that. At some point, the missing will be declared dead, because no further remains can be found. And then consider that the homeless, who often fall through the cracks when “tolerant” local governments let them exist this way, could have been consumed by this wildfire and gone without a trace. And no one deserves to die that way.

Featured image: aftermath of the Lahaina wildfire, taken on August 15, 2023 by State Farm on Flickr, cropped, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)