Crews are continuing to battle blazes in several places on the island while authorities are urging visitors to stay away. Video / NZ Herald / AP / Reuters
The death toll of the wildfires burning across Maui has risen to at least 67, say Maui County officials, as some Kiwis struggle to contact family in the midst of the disaster brought on by Hurricane Dora.
One woman contacted the Herald to say they were unable to contact their sister and wife who were in Napili, Maui.
“This is my favourite town outside of NZ. I surf there most years and it has been destroyed by a dreadful fire. It is a historic whaling village steeped in cultural traditions and mana.”
“As we were leaving yesterday morning we saw the beginning of the fire, there were fire trucks there and looked like they had it under control.
“The news reports said by about noon, they said the fire is under control. Then five hours later, it’s raging again and the roads close, so it changed very quickly.”
Buell said the winds on the east side of the island were extremely strong, brought on by Hurricane Dora.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority has asked visitors who are on non-essential travel to leave Maui, and non-essential travel to Maui is being strongly discouraged.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said they have not received any request for assistance at this point.
“We remain in close contact with the US authorities as they evaluate the situation.”
New Zealanders in need of consular assistance can contact the 24/7 Consular Emergency Line on +64 99 20 20 20.
The search of the wildfire wreckage on the Hawaiian island of Maui on Thursday revealed a wasteland of burned out homes and obliterated communities. Photo / AP
AP: At least 55 people died on Maui. Residents had little warning before wildfires overtook a town
Hawaii emergency management records show no indication that warning sirens sounded before people ran for their lives from wildfires on Maui that killed at least 55 people and wiped out a historic town. Instead, officials sent alerts to mobile phones, televisions and radio stations — but widespread power and cellular outages may have limited their reach.
Hawaii boasts what the state describes as the largest integrated outdoor all-hazard public safety warning system in the world, with about 400 sirens positioned across the island chain to alert people to various natural disasters and other threats.
But many survivors said in interviews Thursday that they didn’t hear any sirens or receive a warning that gave them enough time to prepare and only realized they were in danger when they saw flames or heard explosions nearby.
Governor Josh Green of Hawaii said the fatalities from the wildfires on Maui were likely to grow beyond the toll from a tsunami that hit the state in 1960, killing 61 people. “It’s very likely that our death totals will significantly exceed that,” he said in an interview on CNN.
Aerial footage showed whole sections of the historic town of Lahaina had been reduced to grey ash, including on Front Street, where tourists shopped and dined just days ago. Smoking heaps of rubble lay piled high next to the waterfront in the town, which dates to the 1700s and is the biggest community on the island’s west side. Homes and shops were stripped to their frames or less, boats in the harbour were scorched, and smoke hovered over the leafless skeletons of charred trees.
“It’s horrifying. I’ve flown here 52 years and I’ve never seen anything come close to that,” said Richard Olsten, a helicopter pilot for a tour company. “We had tears in our eyes.”
Fueled by a dry summer and strong winds from a passing hurricane, the fire started Tuesday and took Maui by surprise, racing through parched growth covering the island.
Maui County said yesterday at least 36 people had died, making it the deadliest US wildfire since the 2018 Camp Fire in California, which killed at least 85 people and laid waste to the town of Paradise. The Hawaii toll could rise, though, as rescuers reach parts of the island that had been unreachable due to three ongoing fires or obstructions. Officials said earlier Wednesday that 271 structures had been damaged or destroyed and that dozens of people had been injured, including some critically.
“We are still in life preservation mode. Search and rescue is still a primary concern,” Adam Weintraub, a spokesperson for Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, said.
He said search and rescue teams still won’t be able to access certain areas until the fire lines are secure and they’re sure they’ll be able to get to those areas safely.
“What we have here is a natural disaster,” Weintraub said. “There may have been questions that need to be examined about whether it was handled in the right way. But we still got people in danger. We still have people who don’t have homes. We still have people who can’t find their loved ones.”
Burned out cars sit after a wildfire raged through Lahaina, Hawaii. Photo / AP
The flames left some people with mere minutes to act and led some to flee into the ocean. A Lahaina man, Bosco Bae, posted video on Facebook from Tuesday night that showed fire burning nearly every building on a street as sirens blared and wind-blown sparks raced by. Bae, who said he was one of the last people to leave the town, was evacuated to the island’s main airport and was waiting to be allowed to return home.
Lahaina residents Kamuela Kawaakoa and Iiulia Yasso described their harrowing escape under smoke-filled skies on Tuesday afternoon. The couple and their 6-year-old son got back to their apartment after a quick dash to the supermarket for water, and only had time to grab a change of clothes and run as the bushes around them caught fire.
Front Street in Lahaina, Maui.
People abandoned their vehicles, jumping into the ocean to escape the fire.
“We barely made it out,” Kawaakoa, 34, said at an evacuation shelter, still unsure if anything was left of their apartment.
As the family fled, they called 911 when they saw the Hale Mahaolu senior living facility across the road erupt in flames.
Communications have been spotty on the island, with 911, landline and cellular service failing at times.
Chelsey Vierra’s grandmother, Louise Abihai, was living at Hale Mahaolu, and the family doesn’t know if she got out. “She doesn’t have a phone. She’s 97 years old,” Vierra said. “She can walk. She is strong.”
Wildfires in Hawaii fanned by strong winds burned multiple structures in areas including historic Lahaina town, forcing evacuations and closing schools. Photo / AP
Relatives are monitoring shelter lists and calling the hospital. “We got to find our loved one, but there’s no communication here,” said Vierra, who fled the flames. “We don’t know who to ask about where she went.”
As the fires raged, tourists were advised to stay away, and about 11,000 flew out of Maui on Wednesday, with at least another 1500 expected to leave, according to Ed Sniffen, state transportation director. Officials prepared the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu to take in the thousands who have been displaced.
In coastal Kihei, southeast of Lahaina, wide swaths of ground glowed red with embers Wednesday night as flames continued to chew through trees and buildings. Gusty winds blew sparks over a black and orange patchwork of charred earth and still-crackling hot spots.
The fires were fanned by strong winds from Hurricane Dora passing far to the south. It’s the latest in a series of disasters caused by extreme weather around the globe this summer. Experts say climate change is increasing the likelihood of such events.
Wildfires aren’t unusual in Hawaii, but the weather of the past few weeks created the fuel for a devastating blaze and, once ignited, the high winds created the disaster, said Thomas Smith an associate professor in Environmental Geography at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
The search of the wildfire wreckage on the Hawaiian island of Maui on Thursday revealed a wasteland of burned out homes and obliterated communities. Photo / AP
The Big Island is also currently seeing blazes, Mayor Mitch Roth said, although there had been no reports of injuries or destroyed homes there.
Power was out in parts of Maui. Cellular service was down, too, making it difficult for many to check in with friends and family members. Some were posting messages on social media.
Maj. Gen. Kenneth Hara, of the Hawaii State Department of Defense, told reporters Wednesday night that officials were working to get communications restored, distribute water, and possibly add law enforcement personnel. He said National Guard helicopters had dropped 568,000 litres of water on the Maui fires.
The Coast Guard said it rescued 14 people who had jumped into the water to escape the flames and smoke.
Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen Jr. said yesterday officials hadn’t yet begun investigating the immediate cause of the fires.
Mauro Farinelli, of Lahaina, said the winds started blowing hard on Tuesday, and then somehow a fire started up on a hillside.
“It just ripped through everything with amazing speed,” he said, adding it was “like a blowtorch.”
A wildfire burns in Kihei, Hawaii. Photo / AP
The winds were so strong they blew his garage door off its hinges and trapped his car in the garage, Farinelli said. So a friend drove him, along with his wife, Judit, and dog, Susi, to an evacuation shelter. He had no idea what had happened to their home.
“We’re hoping for the best,” he said, “but we’re pretty sure it’s gone.”
Gov. Josh Green cut short a trip and planned to return Wednesday evening. In his absence, acting Gov. Sylvia Luke issued an emergency proclamation and urged tourists to stay away.
US President Joe Biden declared a major disaster on Maui. While travelling in Utah today, Biden pledged that the federal response will ensure that “anyone who’s lost a loved one, or whose home has been damaged or destroyed, is going to get help immediately.”
Biden promised to streamline requests for assistance and said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was “surging emergency personnel” on the island. “Our prayers are with the people of Hawaii. But not just our prayers. Every asset we have will be available to them,” he said.
