Some may be ‘lost forever’ as authorities search for missing after Maui wildfires

There are still more than 1,000 people unaccounted for in the wake of the deadly wildfires that raged across a historic Maui town earlier this month, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Sunday.

“As you reported, 85 percent of the land of the impact zone has been covered now by what amounts to an army of search-and-rescue teams and 41 dogs,” Green told CBS’ Margaret Brennan during an interview on “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

Searching the remaining 15% of the land “could take weeks,” and identifying and recovering the remains of those killed may be impossible.

“We do have extreme concerns that because of the temperature of the fire, the remains of those who have died, in some cases, may be impossible to recover meaningfully. So there are going to be people that are lost forever,” Green said.

A Maui official has said children may make up a large portion of the missing. Green told Brennan that could be true.

“That is possible. And that's-that's what we're sharing here internally, that it’s possible that there will be many children,” Green said, "This is the largest catastrophe and disaster that's ever hit Maui, probably that's ever hit Hawaii outside of wartime events."

As of Sunday, the death toll in Maui was more than 100.