Crews in west Maui are continuing the heart-wrenching work of sifting through the ashes of what used to be homes and beloved landmarks wiped out by the deadliest US wildfire in more than 100 years \u2013 and the death toll has been rising.
So far, at least 93 deaths have been confirmed from the fires and there\u2019s still people unaccounted for as search teams with cadaver dogs look for remains in decimated neighborhoods.
The devastation is what\u2019s left behind after multiple, simultaneous wildfires began spreading erratically Tuesday, suddenly jumping onto and engulfing homes, forcing harrowing escapes and displacing thousands.
\u201cThis is the largest natural disaster we\u2019ve ever experienced,\u201d Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said at a Saturday night news conference. \u201cIt\u2019s going to also be a natural disaster that\u2019s going to take an incredible amount of time to recover from.\u201d
While the Federal Emergency Management Agency earlier on Saturday said it was premature to assign even an approximate dollar amount to the damage done on Maui, the governor estimated that \u201cthe losses approach $6 billion.\u201d
Even as authorities take stock of the losses and work gets underway to identify lost loved ones, the firefight hasn\u2019t stopped.
While firefighters have made progress against the three largest wildfires, the deadly fire in hard-hit Lahaina is still not fully under control, Maui County Fire Chief Brad Ventura said Saturday.
Here\u2019s what we know about the fires, their toll on the island and the mountain of work up ahead:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most destructive and deadly of the fires, the Lahaina wildfire, traveled at an extraordinary speed, the governor said in a video update Sunday afternoon. Crews in west Maui are continuing the heart-wrenching work of sifting through the ashes of what used to be homes and beloved landmarks wiped out by the deadliest US wildfire in more than 100 years \u2013 and the death toll has been rising.So far, at least 93 deaths have been confirmed from the fires and there\u2019s still […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":16801,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[21592,21591,21472],"class_list":["post-16800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-93-dead","tag-deadly-blaze","tag-maui-wildfire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16802,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16800\/revisions\/16802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cWhen the winds rose up \u2013 winds gusting as high as 81 miles per hour \u2013 fires spread rapidly,\u201d Green said. \u201cWe believe between 60 miles per hour and 81 miles per hour across that part of the island, and that meant that fire traveled one mile every minute.\u201d
The weather service had issued \u201ca red flag warning\u201d on Monday as dry lands, gusty winds and low humidities combined to set the stage for critical fire weather conditions.
By Tuesday afternoon, winds associated with powerful Hurricane Dora passing hundreds of miles south of Hawaii were fanning the flames of already burning wildfires and multiple evacuations were announced for the Lahaina and Upcountry Maui fires.
The flames jumped across highways and suddenly showed up in people\u2019s yards and homes.
\u201cIt was a very fast-moving fire,\u201d US Fire Administrator Lori Moore-Merrell said at the Saturday news conference.
The fire was moving \u201clow to the ground and structure to structure \u2013 incredibly fast that outpaced anything the firefighters could have done in the early hours,\u201d she added.
As of 3 p.m. local time Sunday, the Lahaina fire stretching across 2,170 acres was 85% contained. Meanwhile, the Upcountry or Kula fire was 60% contained and was estimated to cover 678 acres.
Around 2,200 structures have been destroyed or damaged because of the fires in western Maui, where the hard-hit historic town of Lahaina is located, according to Green. About 86% of the structures were residential, he added.
The \u201colder neighborhood\u201d of Lahaina, an economic hub in western Maui that drew millions of tourists each year, is destroyed, Maui County Mayor Richard T. Bissen Jr. has prHistorical and cultural sites\u00a0in Lahaina have also been engulfed by the fires, a\u00a0CNN analysis\u00a0of new Maxar Technologies satellite imagery shows.
Fires leveled entire neighborhoods, burning everything in their paths.
\u201cIt is going to take many years to rebuild Lahaina. When you see the full extent of the destruction of Lahaina, it will shock you,\u201d Green said last week.
The devastation has displaced thousands of people, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell estimated. As of Friday night, a total of 1,418 people were at emergency evacuation shelters, according to Maui County officials.
The governor said Sunday that work is being ramped up to get displaced Lahaina residents into temporary homes, with more than 500 hotel rooms already obtained with government subsidies.
\u201cAirbnb is going to offer us hundreds of typically short-term rentals in a longer term capacity, so we can put people into a place for months,\u201d Green said.
While most Maui schools will reopen this week, with students returning on Wednesday, schools in hard hit West Maui remain closed \u2013 including King Kamehameha III Elementary, which was damaged beyond repair, according to Superintendent Keith Hayashi.
\u201cOur hearts are heavy, and the road to recovery will be long, but I have faith in our collective strength to support one another and our students. Together, we will heal, we will rebuild, and L\u0101hain\u0101 and Maui will thrive once more,\u201d Hayashi continued.
Of the dozens found dead across the burn area, only two people had been identified as of Saturday, according to\u00a0Maui County.
Identifying everyone won\u2019t be an easy task, authorities say.
\u201cThe remains we\u2019re finding is through a fire that melted metal. We have to do rapid DNA to identify everyone,\u201d Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said Saturday.
He urged those with missing family members to contact authorities to coordinate a DNA test to assist in the identification process, saying, \u201cwe need to identify your loved ones.\u201d
As the death toll climbed, the Maui wildfires became the deadliest in the US in more than a century, surpassing the California\u2019s 2018 Camp Fire, according to research from the\u00a0National Fire Protection Association.
eviously said.
As searches of the burned ruins continue, officials warn they do not know exactly how many people are\u00a0still missing\u00a0in the torched areas.
As of Saturday night, just 3% of the fire zone had been searched with cadaver dogs, Pelletier said, adding, \u201cNone of us really know the size of it yet.\u201d
While some have turned up in shelters, there are still families desperately searching for loved ones.
\u201cThere are still people who are unaccounted for. They need to be identified,\u201d US Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii said. \u201cThere is a call for people to come in to provide DNA.\u201d
There have been some stories of hope: A grandfather finally\u2002reached his family\u00a0three days after they last heard from him.
Brittany Talley and her family last heard from her grandfather, Timm \u201cTK\u201d Williams Sr., on Wednesday when the 66-year-old man sent a photo of a raging wildfire on Maui as he evacuated the area of Kaanapali.
On Saturday, Williams was able to get enough signal on his cell phone to text Talley\u2019s mother, telling them he was safe, Talley told CNN.
\u201cThousands of people are experiencing the worst moment of their lives right now, so receiving a text was a small gesture, but a huge blessing for my entire family,\u201d Talley said.
As the deadly fires spread rapidly into neighborhoods,\u00a0the largest siren system in the world was silent.
Emergency communications with residents were largely limited to mobile phones and broadcasters at a time when most power and cell service was already cut.
\u201cThere were multiple fires at the same time, and the circumstance was greatly complicated also by the heat and the speed with which the fire spread, destroying a great deal of infrastructure,\u201d Green said Saturday when asked about why sirens weren\u2019t heard.
\u201cOver time, we\u2019ll be able to figure out if we could have better protected people. That\u2019s why we\u2019re reviewing everything,\u201d he added.
Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez is set to lead a comprehensive review of officials\u2019 response to the catastrophic wildfires, her office announced Friday.
The review will encompass \u201ccritical decision-making and standing policies leading up to, during, and after the wildfires,\u201d the attorney general\u2019s office said.
Meanwhile, Hawaii\u2019s main electric provider is already facing a lawsuit claiming that electrified power lines blown over by high winds helped to cause the destructive Lahaina wildfire.
\u201cBy failing to shut off the power during these dangerous fire conditions, Defendants caused loss of life, serious injuries, destruction of hundreds of homes and businesses, displacement of thousands of people, and damage to many of Hawai\u2019i\u2019s historic and cultural sites,\u201d says the complaint filed Saturday against Hawaiian Electric Industries and three subsidiaries, including the power utility that services Maui.
\u201cThese power lines foreseeably ignited the fastmoving, deadly, and destructive Lahaina Fire, which destroyed homes, businesses, churches, schools, and historic cultural sites,\u201d the lawsuit states.
Maui Mayor Bissen acknowledged Thursday that power lines that were \u201cstill energized\u201d had fallen on the roads, but the new lawsuit does not state exactly how the power lines allegedly caused the wildfire. An official cause of the wildfire has not yet been determined.
In a statement to CNN on Sunday, Hawaiian Electric vice president Jim Kelly said, \u201cAs has always been our policy, we don\u2019t comment on pending litigation.\u201d
\u201cOur immediate focus is on supporting emergency response efforts on Maui and restoring power for our customers and communities as quickly as possible. At this early stage, the cause of the fire has not been determined and we will work with the state and county as they conduct their review,\u201d Kelly told CNN in an email.
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