Joe Biden will have to deploy all the empathy of which he is capable on Monday during his trip to the island of Maui in Hawaii, bereaved by catastrophic fires and where there is a certain bitterness in the face of the management of the drama by the authorities.
The American president flew from Nevada, where he is vacationing, with his wife Jill Biden. He will arrive on an island that mourns at least 114 dead, and where search operations continue, nearly two weeks after the fires.
“It’s not clear that Biden will get a warm reception from some groups in Maui,” the official warned. Star Advertiser, a Honolulu newspaper. The 80-year-old Democrat, who has made compassion his great political marker, to the point of being described as America’s ‘chief comforter’, is being criticized by his Republican opponents for not speaking out enough publicly about the disaster.
” No comment “
The right in particular has widely shared on social networks images dating back a week. Joe Biden, relaxed, returning from the beach, is questioned by a journalist on the increasingly heavy toll of the fires. “No comment,” he says only before getting into the car. The American president has since multiplied press releases and promises of aid.
On Monday, he is due to meet families, rescue workers and local officials in the archipelago located in the Pacific. He will fly over the devastated regions in a helicopter and appoint a federal coordinator for the reconstruction efforts. Joe Biden will be able to “feel the desolation”, declared Sunday on CNN Deanne Criswell, boss of the American federal agency for disaster management (Fema).
A thousand people have not yet been located, some of whom could add to the death toll. The president had declared a state of natural disaster in Hawaii on August 10, two days after the start of the fires, allowing the deployment of emergency aid resources from the federal state.
Presidential picture
Critics also relate to the response of local authorities. The presidential visit will take place just days after the resignation of the head of the Maui crisis management agency, accused of not having sounded the alarm sirens during the deadly fire that ravaged the town of Lahaina (12,000 inhabitants), on the west coast of the island. 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.
Faced with the rumbling feeling of abandonment, Joe Biden must not repeat the mistakes of his predecessors. If these visits to the population are a must after a disaster, they can prove harmful to the presidential image.
The Hawaii fire is already the deadliest in more than a century in the United States. And the final balance sheet could be much heavier. 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. Few bodies have been identified so far.