The Federal Emergency Management Agency is urging wildfire survivors who have left Maui to apply for disaster assistance remotely.
"We know that a lot of people are still on Maui and we're meeting them there," said FEMA spokesperson Patrick Boland. "But we also know that there have been people who have relocated to other islands to be with family or friends."
Boland said it's common for people to disperse in the wake of a disaster.
Officials estimate that roughly 12,000 people have been displaced by the Maui wildfires.
FEMA said that it's providing financial support to house more than 4,000 individuals on Maui. Boland doesn't have an exact estimate of how many people have relocated elsewhere, but he expects it's substantial.
"New Orleans lost over 25% of its population after Hurricane Katrina," Boland said.
In that event, FEMA workers went "out as far as Florida and into Texas and Oklahoma and Arizona to reach people."
Individuals wanting to apply for FEMA disaster assistance do not need to travel back to Maui to do so. They can apply onlineor by calling the disaster assistance hotline at 800-621-3362.
