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The fires, which started the night of Aug. 8, wreaked widespread destruction in Lahaina. The city of about 13,000 people on northwestern Maui was once a whaling center and the Hawaiian Kingdom's capital, and now draws 2 million tourists a year.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) estimates it will cost $5.5 billion to rebuild the town.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Sunday there is "very little left" of Lahaina, where more than 2,700 structures have been destroyed in what is now the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. Green said he expects the death toll to keep climbing.
"It is a product, in my estimation, of certainly global warming combined with drought, combined with a super storm, where we had a hurricane offshore several hundred miles, still generating large winds," Green told CNN.
Rep. Jill Tokuda of Hawaii, who represents the area in Congress, also said that the state's warning sirens "likely did not go off." She told CBS News' "Face the Nation" that warnings typically sent to mobile phones could have been affected by mass power outages, preventing people from accessing useful information and guidance on how they should proceed.
Making matters worse, residents said the fire hydrants ran out of water, hindering firefighters' ability to contain the blazes. FEMA officials confirmed there was an issue that affected the hydrants' water supply.
Green warned that scores more bodies could be found. The wildfires, some of which have not yet been fully contained, are already the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century. Their cause was under investigation.
Green has said the flames raced as fast as a mile every minute in one area, fueled by dry grass and propelled by strong winds from a passing hurricane.
More than 3,000 people have registered for federal assistance, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and that number was expected to grow.
The language is stark: People in torched areas of Maui should not try to filter their own drinking water because there is no "way to make it safe,” Maui County posted on its Instagram account this week.
Brita filters, devices connected to refrigerators or sinks and even robust, whole-home systems are unlikely to address the “extreme contamination” that can happen after a fire.
For now, the county has told people to use bottled water for all their needs or to fill jugs at tankers called water buffalos, which have been brought in near the burns.
