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Tag: iab-disasters

  • Tropical Storm Idalia is expected to rapidly intensify as it aims for Florida’s Gulf Coast, threatening to hit as a Category 3 hurricane | CNN

    Tropical Storm Idalia is expected to rapidly intensify as it aims for Florida’s Gulf Coast, threatening to hit as a Category 3 hurricane | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Florida is bracing for “major impact” as Tropical Storm Idalia is expected to rapidly strengthen into a powerful Category 3 hurricane and aim for its Gulf Coast, threatening dangerous storm surge and winds, authorities said.

    Idalia is expected to intensify over the coming hours before it makes landfall in the Sunshine State on Wednesday morning near the Big Bend of Florida – a rare event for a natural, storm surge-prone divot along the coast stretching from Tampa to just south of Tallahassee.

    “Idalia could become a hurricane later this morning, and is forecast to become a major hurricane by early Wednesday,” the National Hurricane Center said.

    The storm is churning maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, roughly 190 miles southwest of the Dry Tortugas, where tropical storm conditions were expected Tuesday morning, the hurricane center said in a 2 a.m. ET Tuesday update.

    “This is going to be a major hurricane,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a Monday news conference.

    On its current track, Idalia’s center is forecast to soon pass near or over western Cuba, trek over the eastern Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, before slamming into the Gulf coast of Florida Wednesday – though its impacts could be felt from the Florida Keys as soon as Tuesday.

    It’s not just Florida that’ll feel the impacts. After the storm makes landfall, damaging winds and heavy rain will spread far inland into Florida, parts of Georgia and even the Carolinas.

    The storm is expected to dump 4 to 8 inches of rain from Tuesday into Thursday across parts of the west coast of Florida, the Florida Panhandle, southeast Georgia and the eastern Carolinas – where streets could flood.

    As the storm makes its way to Florida, preparations could be seen across the state. Here’s the latest:

    • Airports close: Tampa International Airport will suspend all commercial operations beginning Tuesday and stay closed until it can assess any damages later in the week, airport officials announced. The St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport Terminal building will close Tuesday afternoon.
    • Evacuations in at least 10 counties: Hillsborough, Franklin, Taylor, Levy, Citrus, Manatee, Pasco, Hernando, Pinellas and Sarasota counties have all called for residents to evacuate certain at-risk areas.
    • Schools close: 32 County School Districts have issued closures, as did multiple colleges and universities, including Florida State University, the University of Florida and Florida A&M University.
    • Emergencies declared: DeSantis expanded an emergency declaration to 46 of 67 Florida counties on Monday morning. Several local jurisdictions have also declared emergencies.
    • The Florida National Guard activated: More than 5,000 National Guard members were activated to help respond to the storm.
    • US Navy ships begin leaving: Navy ships have begun leaving Florida ahead of Tropical Storm Idalia’s landfall, the Navy said Monday.
    • Power outages expected: DeSantis told residents to prepare to be without power. “If you are in the path of the storm, you should expect power outages so please prepare for that,” the governor told residents Sunday.
    • Hospital system suspending services: Patients will be transferred from at least three hospitals: HCA Florida Pasadena Hospital, HCA Florida Trinity West Hospital and HCA Florida West Tampa Hospital.

    “We want everyone to take this storm seriously,” Barbara Tripp, Tampa’s Fire Rescue Chief said during a news conference.

    The Fire Chief also asked citizens to clear debris from property ahead of the storm’s arrival and look out for neighbors who may need help.

    “Once the wind reaches a certain miles per hour, Tampa Fire Rescue will not be able to respond,” Tripp warned.

    With the storm forecast to strengthen quickly as it tracks through the Gulf of Mexico, it’ll be tapping into some of the warmest waters on the planet ahead of making landfall in Florida.

    If it does so, it would join a growing list of devastating storms like monster Hurricane Ian — which leveled coastal Florida and left more than 100 dead — to rapidly intensify before landfall in recent years.

    Idalia posed a “notable risk” of this phenomenon, the National Hurricane Center warned Monday, as it travels through the Gulf of Mexico.

    Water temperatures around southern Florida climbed to 100 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas this summer, and temperatures in the Gulf overall have been record-warm, with more than enough heat to support rapid strengthening.

    Life-threatening storm surge up to 12 feet is possible in Florida’s Big Bend – a danger that will only be worsened by waves fueled by hurricane-force winds stronger than 100 mph.

    Storm surge, which is when a storm blows the ocean onshore, is one of the deadliest aspects of a hurricane and the reason behind most storm evacuations.

    Cedar Key could be cut off by the high storm surge, National Hurricane Center Deputy Director Jamie Rhome said.

    “I’m especially concerned for them,” Rhome said during a briefing on Facebook Live. “If you’re watching from Cedar Key, it is imperative that you take this very seriously and if ordered to evacuate, heed those evacuations immediately. The entire island could be completely cut off with conditions like that.”

    Rhome stressed that evacuation orders that have been issued along the coast are in place because of the projected storm surge.

    Storm surge accounts for nearly half of all hurricane-related fatalities, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

    It’s not just the coastal areas that could flood.

    Inland areas, where people may evacuate to, could see hazardous flooding and heavy rainfall from Idalia.

    Andrew Kruczkiewicz, senior researcher at the Columbia University’s Climate School, warns that heavy rainfall-related hazards can also occur as far as 100 miles away from where the storm center tracks.

    “This is something that we’re seeing more and more, and this is a climate change connection because we’re seeing wetter tropical cyclones and wetter hurricanes,” he told CNN. “So we need to pay more attention to the risks associated with intense precipitation, especially in areas that are distant from the coastline.”

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  • Climate change has ravaged India’s rice stock. Now its export ban could deepen a global food crisis | CNN Business

    Climate change has ravaged India’s rice stock. Now its export ban could deepen a global food crisis | CNN Business

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    Harayana, India
    CNN
     — 

    Satish Kumar sits in front of his submerged rice paddy in India’s Haryana state, looking despairingly at his ruined crops.

    “I’ve suffered a tremendous loss,” said the third generation farmer, who relies solely on growing the grain to feed his young family. “I will not be able to grow anything until November.”

    The newly planted saplings have been underwater since July after torrential rain battered northern India, with landslides and flash floods sweeping through the region.

    Kumar said he has not seen floods of this scale in years and has been forced to take loans to replant his fields all over again. But that isn’t the only problem he’s facing.

    Last month, India, which is the world’s largest exporter of rice, announced a ban on exporting non-basmati white rice in a bid to calm rising prices at home and ensure food security. India then followed with more restrictions on its rice exports, including a 20% duty on exports of parboiled rice.

    The move has triggered fears of global food inflation, hurt the livelihoods of some farmers and prompted several rice-dependent countries to seek urgent exemptions from the ban.

    More than three billion people worldwide rely on rice as a staple food and India contributed to about 40% of global rice exports.

    Economists say the ban is just the latest move to disrupt global food supplies, which has suffered from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as well as weather events such as El Niño.

    They warn the Indian government’s decision could have significant market reverberations with the poor in Global South nations in particular bearing the brunt.

    And farmers like Kumar say market price rises caused by poor harvests doesn’t result in a windfall for them either.

    “The ban is going to have an adverse effect on all of us. We won’t get a higher rate if rice isn’t exported,” Kumar said. “The floods were a death blow to us farmers. This ban will finish us.”

    Satish Kumar with whatever is left of his rice crops.

    The abrupt announcement of the export ban triggered panic buying in the United States, following which the price of rice soared to a near 12-year high, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

    It does not apply to basmati rice, which is India’s best-known and highest quality variety. Non-basmati white rice however, accounts for about 25% of exports.

    India wasn’t the first country to ban food exports to ensure enough supply for domestic consumption. But its move, coming just one week after Russia pulled out of the Black Sea grain deal — a crucial pact that allowed the export of grain from Ukraine — contributed to global concerns about the availability of grain staples and whether millions would go hungry.

    “The main thing here is that it is not just one thing,” Arif Husain, chief economist at the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) told CNN. “[Rice, wheat and corn crops] make up bulk of the food which poor people around the world consume.”

    Workers in India sift through rice grains in capital New Delhi.

    Nepal has seen rice prices surge since India announced the ban, according to local media reports, and rice prices in Vietnam are the highest they have been in more than a decade, according to customs data.

    Thailand, the world’s second largest rice exporter after India, has also seen domestic rice prices jump significantly in recent weeks, according to data from the Thai Rice Exporters Association.

    Countries including Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines, have appealed to New Delhi to resume rice exports to their nations, according to local Indian media reports. CNN has reached out to India’s Ministry of Agriculture but has not received a response.

    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has encouraged India to remove the restrictions, with the organization’s chief economist, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, telling reporters last month that it was “likely to exacerbate” the uncertainty of food inflation.

    “We would encourage the removal of these types of export restrictions because they can be harmful globally,” he said.

    Now, there are fears that the ban has the world market bracing for similar actions by rival suppliers, economists warn.

    “The export ban is happening at a time when countries are struggling with high debt, food inflation, and declining depreciating currencies,” Husain from the WFP said. “It’s troubling for everyone.”

    Indian farmers account for nearly half of the country’s workforce, according to government data, with rice paddy mainly cultivated in central, southern, and some northern states.

    Summer crop planting typically starts in June, when monsoon rains are expected to begin, as irrigation is crucial to grow a healthy yield. The summer season accounts for more than 80% of India’s total rice output, according to Reuters.

    This year, however, the late monsoon arrival led to a large water deficit up until mid-June. And when the rains finally arrived, it drenched swathes of the country, unleashing floods that caused significant damage to crops.

    The heavy floods have affected the country's farmers.

    Surjit Singh, 53, a third generation farmer from Harayana said they “lost everything” after the rains.

    “My rice crops have been ruined,” he said. “The water submerged about 8-10 inches of my crops. What I planted (in early June) is gone… I will see a loss of about 30%.”

    The World Meteorological Organization last month warned that governments must prepare for more extreme weather events and record temperatures, as it declared the onset of the warming phenomenon El Niño.

    El Niño is a natural climate pattern in the tropical Pacific Ocean that brings warmer-than-average sea-surface temperatures and has a major influence on weather across the globe, affecting billions of people.

    The impact has been felt by thousands of farmers in India, some of whom say they will now grow crops other than rice. And it doesn’t just stop there.

    India's rice stock is piling up as a result of the ban.

    At one of New Delhi’s largest rice trading hubs, there are fears among traders that the export ban will cause catastrophic consequences.

    “The export ban has left traders with huge amounts of stock,” said rice trader Roopkaran Singh. “We now have to find new buyers in the domestic market.”

    But experts warn the effects will be felt far beyond India’s borders.

    “Poor countries, food importing countries, countries in West Africa, they are at the highest risk,” said Husain from the WFP. “The ban is coming on the back of war and a global pandemic… We need to be extra careful when it comes to our staples, so that we don’t end up unnecessarily rising prices. Because those increases are not without consequences.”

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  • 2 dead, 2 injured from fire rescue helicopter crash in Pompano Beach, Florida | CNN

    2 dead, 2 injured from fire rescue helicopter crash in Pompano Beach, Florida | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A Broward County, Florida, sheriff’s fire rescue helicopter crashed into an apartment complex Monday morning, leaving two people dead and two others injured.

    Authorities identified the dead as Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue Captain Terryson Jackson, who was in the helicopter, and an unnamed adult woman who lived in the apartment complex.

    The crash occurred near an airfield just north of Fort Lauderdale as the helicopter was on its way to an emergency call, authorities said.

    “At approximately 8:46 a.m., emergency personnel responded to a call of an aircraft alert located southwest of the Pompano Beach Airpark. The helicopter involved in the crash is a BSO Fire Rescue helicopter. Pompano Beach Fire Rescue transported two people to an area hospital,” the Broward County Sheriff’s department said in a news release.

    A total of three Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue personnel were on board the helicopter “that crashed into a structure following an in-flight fire one-half mile from Pompano Beach Airpark,” according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

    Just before it crashed, the aircraft was smoking and on fire near the rear, video posted to CNN affiliate WPLG appeared to show.

    The two injured victims are being treated at the hospital and “do not have life-threatening injuries and are listed in fair condition,” officials said.

    Terryson Jackson, 50, had worked in fire rescue in Broward County for 19 years, according to a Facebook post from the sheriff’s office.

    “As a flight paramedic, he impacted the community daily, providing critical patients with the highest pre-hospital care,” reads the post. “He consistently showed an unmatched passion for the job. He always provided expert care, compassion and reassurance to those during their most significant time of need.”

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  • DeSantis leaves campaign trail and returns to Florida amid crises | CNN Politics

    DeSantis leaves campaign trail and returns to Florida amid crises | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    With a tropical storm intensifying in the Gulf of Mexico and Florida’s largest city reeling from a racially motivated attack that left three Black people dead, Gov. Ron DeSantis left the campaign trail Sunday and returned to his state to navigate the crises.

    DeSantis spoke Sunday afternoon from the state’s emergency operations center in Tallahassee to brace Florida’s gulf coast for Tropical Storm Idalia, which could make landfall as a hurricane as early as Wednesday.

    Before speaking on the storm, DeSantis read a statement addressing the attack at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville. The White gunman, who DeSantis called “a deranged scumbag,” used racial slurs, left behind a racist screed and drew swastikas on his firearm, authorities said.

    “Perpetrating violence of this kind is unacceptable,” DeSantis said. “And targeting people due to their race has no place in the state of Florida.”

    Saturday’s tragedy and the looming potential for devastation from another storm will test how DeSantis balances his official duties with his political ambitions. The Republican has spent much of the past three months on the road as he seeks to win the GOP nomination over a large field of contenders, including former President Donald Trump, whose own response to disasters became fodder for Democrats at election time.

    DeSantis’ campaign did not immediately provide an update on his future political travel, but he told reporters Sunday that he was “locked in on this” storm and “we’re gonna get the job done.” DeSantis canceled a town hall scheduled for Monday morning in South Carolina, as well as his keynote address at South Carolina Rep. Jeff Duncan’s 12th annual Faith & Freedom BBQ. His wife, Casey, will attend in his place, campaign press secretary Bryan Griffin said in a statement on X.

    Asked where he planned to be this week, DeSantis responded: “I’m here. I am here.”

    DeSantis provided updates on Idalia’s trajectory as it gained strength between Cuba and Mexico. The storm has maximum sustained wind speeds of 40 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center, and it could become a hurricane by Tuesday afternoon. DeSantis warned that the Gulf of Mexico, experiencing record warm sea surface temperatures, could quickly turn this storm more powerful.

    “Please just heed the warnings of your local officials (and) continue to watch the news,” he said.

    The remarks came during one of DeSantis’ first public appearances in his home state since he entered the race for president in May. He returned to Florida from Iowa, where he spent the weekend following the first Republican presidential primary debate touring the Hawkeye State for the fifth time in the last seven weeks. On Saturday evening, the governor’s office shared a video of DeSantis from Iowa condemning the violence as “totally unacceptable” and called the shooter “cowardly” for taking his own life.

    Until now, DeSantis has not felt the need to come back to Florida to publicly address a handful of other emergencies his administration has faced this summer, including outbreaks of leprosy and malaria, a deadly spree of flesh-eating bacteria, record-breaking temperatures off Florida’s shore that have threatened delicate coastal ecosystems and a teetering property insurance market.

    DeSantis’ return to Florida to manage two high-profile crises comes as he has intensified his criticism of President Joe Biden’s response to the Maui wildfires. Republicans have seized upon a five-day period of silence from when Biden first commented on the deadly fires to when he next spoke publicly about the devastation there.

    “Biden was on the beach while those people were suffering. He was asked about it and he said no comment. Are you kidding me?” DeSantis said at Wednesday’s GOP debate in Milwaukee. “As somebody that’s handled disasters in Florida, you’ve got to be activated. You’ve got to be there. You’ve got to be present. You’ve got to be helping people who are doing this.”

    DeSantis, though, has also faced blowback at home for his own handling of events that preceded the challenges he is now confronting upon arrival in Florida.

    Democrats have accused DeSantis of not speaking out forcefully enough against pervasive demonstrations of neo-Nazism in Florida. A string of antisemitic demonstrations have rocked Florida in recent years, especially in Jacksonville, where hateful messages were displayed in public, including a stadium during a Florida-Georgia college football game DeSantis attended.

    In January 2022, DeSantis lashed out at those who called on him to condemn neo-Nazi demonstrations that had taken place near Orlando, accusing his political opponents of trying to “smear me as if I had something to do with it.” During a visit to Israel this year, DeSantis signed a bill into law that prohibited antisemitic displays onto buildings.

    “Ron DeSantis repeatedly refused to condemn numerous Nazis rallys (sic) across Florida. Some even flew DeSantis flags alongside swastikas,” former state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith wrote on social media after Saturday’s deadly shooting.

    The Florida governor was interrupted by crowd members Sunday evening when he began to speak at a vigil for the Jacksonville shooting victims. As DeSantis was interrupted, Councilwoman Ju’Coby Pittman took the microphone and addressed the crowd, telling everyone to put parties aside.

    As for Idalia, storms often put Florida executives in a leadership crucible that test their responsiveness and ability to console during periods of tremendous devastation.

    DeSantis was elected in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, a powerful, destructive storm that ripped through the Florida panhandle. DeSantis as governor has overseen the recovery of the region, which is still ongoing.

    Last year, DeSantis commanded the state’s response to Hurricane Ian by holding regular news conferences that offered detailed and matter-of-fact updates on the logistics going into the rescue and recovery missions. He put aside his political rivalry with Biden during a joint appearance where the two assured local residents that their administrations were working in harmony.

    Ian’s destruction killed dozens of people who failed to leave their gulf coast homes in time, forcing DeSantis to defend the timing of evacuation orders from local officials and the efforts by his department of emergency management to warn people about the storm’s potential surge.

    Asked Sunday if Ian altered how the state prepares for evacuations, DeSantis again stood by the county response and said evacuation orders would continue to come from local officials.

    “That’s the way it’s always been,” he said. “That’s the way it’s going to be.”

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  • As hundreds remain missing in Maui, electric company admits evidence to determine how wildfires started may have been compromised | CNN

    As hundreds remain missing in Maui, electric company admits evidence to determine how wildfires started may have been compromised | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Hundreds of people are still listed as unaccounted for after this month’s devastating wildfires on Maui – a number that’s expected to change as the FBI continues vetting names.

    The “validated list” curated by the FBI currently includes 388 names, Maui County said Thursday, as cell phone data is now being used to try to pinpoint where victims may have been when the deadliest US wildfire disaster in more than 100 years tore through the Hawaiian island. At least 115 people are confirmed dead, though authorities say that number is likely to change.

    The FBI on Friday acknowledged the list of names was “a subset of a larger list” of people who are believed to be missing. Steven Merrill, the bureau’s special agent in charge in Hawaii, said those currently on the list are people who authorities had more complete information about. Since the list was released, they’ve gotten “at least 100 people that have notified us that a certain person shouldn’t be on the list,” Merrill said – so the number of those still unaccounted for is expected to change.

    As the race to identify the lost continues, the state’s main electrical utility stands accused of compromising evidence in the fire investigation, and Maui County officials have followed others in suing the company over responsibility for the fire. First responders also are pressing for answers about why they weren’t better prepared after a similar ruinous fire five years ago.

    The updated list of the missing was released with hopes of confirming anyone who’s not truly still lost, officials said.

    “We’re releasing this list of names today because we know that it will help with the investigation,” Police Chief John Pelletier said in the release. “We also know that once those names come out, it can and will cause pain for folks whose loved ones are listed. This is not an easy thing to do, but we want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to make this investigation as complete and thorough as possible.”

    Pelletier said Friday that since the names were released, authorities have received hundreds of calls. Authorities would like to do a weekly update on the list of missing people to help notify the public, he said.

    The FBI has worked with agencies “to unduplicate people that have been reported missing,” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said earlier Thursday in a social media post. Some 800 to 1,200 people have been listed as unaccounted for since the fires, he said.

    The grim search for those believed missing began shortly after wind-whipped flames tore through the island on August 8. Much of the western Maui community of Lahaina – once a lively economic and cultural hub – was left in ruins, with entire neighborhoods and businesses reduced to ash. Some residents were forced to jump into the ocean to survive as flames overtook the town.

    Search crews and cadaver dogs have searched 100% of single-story homes in the disaster area, Maui County officials said Tuesday. They are now going through multistory homes and commercial properties.

    And an FBI team that specializes in using cell phone data has launched in Maui to help identify potential fire victims, a law enforcement source told CNN. The Cellular Analysis Survey Team was on the island working with local law enforcement, the official said.

    The team can get and analyze cell phone company subscriber records and cellular tower registration data, which could prove useful to the search efforts by geolocating the last known area where a victim’s cell phone was operating.

    The team in the past has used information obtained through court orders to help with terrorism, kidnapping and criminal investigations.

    “Cellular telephone analysis” is among the resources being provided by the bureau, Steven Merrill, special agent in charge of the FBI’s office in Hawaii, said during news conference Tuesday without giving specifics.

    Additionally, Maui County has named a new interim administrator of the Maui Emergency Management Agency after its prior chief resigned from the post August 17.

    In announcing Darryl Oliveira’s hiring Friday, Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said he has a track record of “invaluable experience and skill during challenging times.”

    Oliveira, who previously served as the administrator of the Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency, is expected to begin leading the county’s emergency agency Monday.

    In pictures: The deadly Maui wildfires

    As the human toll of the fire comes into focus, investigators also are trying to determine what sparked the flames, and while no official cause has been announced, the Hawaiian Electric Company is facing scrutiny over its actions before and after the fires broke out.

    Some evidence potentially vital in determining the cause of the deadly fire in Lahaina may have been compromised, Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) acknowledged in an exchange with attorneys included in court documents obtained by CNN.

    The company said fallen power poles, power lines and other equipment were moved during firefighting efforts and as officials worked to make the area safe for residents, according to letters part of a class action lawsuit. The company told attorneys, who are representing Lahaina residents in the class action suit, that it was “possible, even likely” that evidence that “relate(s) to the cause of the fire” might be lost, correspondence obtained by CNN shows.

    The equipment was removed from the area around the Lahaina substation – which is thought to be where the blaze started – before federal investigators arrived.

    Those actions could have violated national guidelines, which say the fire scenes should be heavily preserved for investigators and any and all evidence should be secured and not removed from the site without documentation, court documents filed by attorneys say.

    The ATF said on August 17 that its National Response Team was being deployed to Hawaii to help determine the cause and origin of the deadly fire – days after the utility company acknowledged equipment and evidence had likely been moved or lost.

    On August 10 – two days after the wildfire devastated the town of Lahaina, a group of attorneys notified the utility of anticipated litigation and requested that all electrical equipment that may relate to the origin of the fire – including power poles, lines and conductors – be preserved.

    An attorney for Hawaiian Electric responded on August 11 that some potential evidence may have already been compromised during the firefight, not by the utility itself, but by others.

    John Moore, an attorney for the utility wrote to attorneys for the families on August 11 that the company’s main focus was the safety of first responders and displaced residents and restoring power.

    The company also noted it was taking steps to preserve property but local, state and federal agencies were on the ground and it was possible “that the actions of these third parties, whose actions Hawaiian Electric does not control, may result in the loss of property or other items that relate to the cause of the fire.”

    The families’ attorneys then submitted a request for a temporary restraining order to stop Hawaiian Electric from altering the scene where it’s believed the Lahaina fire started, court documents show.

    A judge signed an interim discovery order on August 18, detailing how the company should handle evidence around the scene, including preserving and protecting all physical evidence within a defined area and refraining from destructive testing.

    The order also specified that it was not making any findings of any wrongdoing at this time.

    The class action lawsuit was filed several days after the fires ignited alleging Hawaiian Electric failed to deenergize power lines ahead of the fire despite high wind and red flag warnings. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. It is believed to have ignited near a power substation where “where authorities reported a downed power line early on August 8, 2023,” the complaint says.

    Hawaiian Electric vice president Jim Kelly previously told CNN that, “as has always been our policy, we don’t comment on pending litigation.”

    “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,” he said.

    Hawaiian Electric has been “in regular communication with ATF and local authorities and are cooperating to provide them, as well as attorneys representing people affected by the wildfires, with inventories and access to the removed equipment, which we have carefully photographed, documented and stored,” spokesman Darren Pai told The Washington Post.

    CNN has requested further comment on the potentially compromised evidence.

    The ATF’s National Response Team, which is investigating the cause of the fire, declined to comment.

    While the investigation continues, Maui County officials made their position clear in a lawsuit filed Thursday, claiming “the negligence, carelessness, and recklessness, and/or unlawfulness” of Hawaiian Electric Company and its subsidiaries is directly responsible for the fires.

    The utility, known as HECO, “inexcusably kept their power lines energized” in early August, despite the National Weather Service issuing a High Wind Watch and a Fire Warning, the lawsuit alleges. The warnings cautioned that strong winds could knock down power lines and ignite a fire that would spread quickly due to dry conditions, the lawsuit indicated.

    Maui County is seeking damages from HECO that may total tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, said John Fiske, an attorney representing the county in the suit.

    “Our primary focus in the wake of this unimaginable tragedy has been to do everything we can to support not just the people of Maui, but also Maui County. We are very disappointed that Maui County chose this litigious path while the investigation is still unfolding,” a spokesperson from Hawaiian Electric told CNN in a statement.

    Hawaiian Electric Company serves 95% of the state’s customer base.

    As of Thursday, officials still were tracking at least three active fires on Maui, including the Lahaina fire, which was 90% contained after burning more than 2,170 acres. The Olinda fire, which has burned an estimated 1,081 acres, was 85% contained, and the Kula fire was also 85% contained, with just over 200 acres burned, county officials said.

    And even as fire crews work to find and contain hot spots, a Hawaii police union official said firefighters “were set up for failure” ahead of the outbreak.

    Following a destructive wildfire that broke out in 2018 under similar conditions in the same area, no wildfire management or other preventative methods were taken to mitigate future disasters, Nicholas Krau, the Maui Chapter Chair for the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers, told CNN.

    “We all knew this was going to happen again. While no one could have predicted this much destruction or loss of life, we all knew there would be another destructive fire that would threaten these same businesses and homes again,” Krau said. “I don’t know who’s responsible for preventing wildland fires and managing the private owned land where the fire started, but they should definitely answer for it.”

    More than 2,000 acres burned and 20 homes were damaged in the 2018 fire, county officials have said.

    Many police officers who helped with evacuations this month suffered smoke inhalation because they didn’t have proper respiratory protection, even after it was requested following previous fires, Krau said.

    “If someone needs help, (the police) are going to rush in and do everything they can to help. But the department and county of Maui have the obligation to properly equip them,” he said.

    CNN has reached out to Maui County and the Maui Police Department for comment on Krau’s claims.

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  • ‘Unprecedented’ wildfires across Louisiana force multiple evacuations amid extreme drought | CNN

    ‘Unprecedented’ wildfires across Louisiana force multiple evacuations amid extreme drought | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Louisiana has recorded an unprecedented 441 wildfires in August, forcing multiple southwestern towns to evacuate Thursday and the state to implement a burn ban.

    The state is experiencing severe heat and drought conditions. In an email to CNN, Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry spokesperson Jennifer Finely said 441 fires have burned from August 1 to August 24.

    Finley said 8,385.73 acres have burned from August 1 to August 25, adding the number of acreage does not include the still-burning fire on Tiger Island, estimated to be more than 20,000 acres. “Tiger Island will not be known until it is out,” she said.

    As of Friday evening, there were at least six fires burning in Livingston, Sabine, Vernon and Beauregard Parishes.

    Gov. John Bel Edwards met with state and local officials Friday to assess the numerous wildfires burning throughout the state. At a Friday news conference in Beauregard Parish, where numerous communities are under mandatory evacuation, Edwards said officials are not dealing with one fire but fires all over the state “in a way that is very alarming.”

    According to CNN Weather, drought conditions have erupted quickly in southwest Louisiana, leaving 6% of the state in exceptional drought conditions. Nearly 50% of the state is in extreme conditions or worse. Around 77% of the state is in a severe drought or worse. In mid-July, there was no extreme drought in Louisiana.

    “Nobody alive in Louisiana has ever seen these conditions,” Edwards said. “It’s never been this hot, this dry, for this long.”

    “To have these fires burning the way they are and jumping fire lines, and when the wind picks up to have the fires burning in the crowns of trees rather than on the ground and low where they can be more easily contained, makes for a very difficult and dangerous situation,” the governor said.

    Edwards urged citizens to adhere to the statewide burn ban.

    “You should not be lighting a barbecue grill anywhere in the state of Louisiana today,” Edwards said.

    He added the National Guard is assisting in the efforts and the state has requested federal assistance and has looked to other states to help combat the flames.

    Speaking in Beauregard Parish, he governor said, “Louisiana National Guard has right at 100 soldiers active in this area in the firefight. They’re authorized to go up to 300 as they need to do that.”

    According to Edwards, as of Friday morning, helicopters have moved 348 loads of water, and close to 161,000 gallons have been dropped on the affected areas. No fatalities have been reported, the governor said.

    The Beauregard Parish Sheriff’s Office issued an evacuation order for the town of Merryville Thursday evening, saying the fire could reach the town limits within hours, according to Louisiana State Police. On Friday, the sheriff’s office issued further evacuation orders for Bancroft, the Ragle Road area, and the Junction community.

    “It is of the utmost importance to get out now,” the Beauregard Sheriff’s office urged in an order sent to Bancroft residents.

    Earlier Friday, the sheriff’s office said utilities had turned off services to the residents of Merryville. “All water should be conserved at all cost we need water to fight fires,” the agency said in a Facebook post.

    During a time of year when Louisiana is typically preparing for hurricanes and tropical storms, the state is instead dealing with a growing wildfire threat.

    Earlier this week there were almost 350 wildfires burning in the state, according to Mike Steele, communications director at the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Every parish in the state is under a red flag warning, according to the National Weather Service.

    State emergency operations centers were activated Wednesday morning to help battle the blazes.

    “This time, this year obviously we’re dealing with a different type of weather situation that requires everybody to be aware of the burn ban and to do their part to reduce the likelihood that we would have anything that could potentially start a fire,” the office’s director, Casey Tingle, said in a news conference Wednesday.

    Tingle says they’re stretching their resources thin as Louisiana has been under a burn ban since August 7.

    “When it comes to this time of year, typically, we’re talking about hurricanes, tropical storms, rain, flooding that sort of thing,” Tingle said, “Our public is very attuned to those type of messages and always does a great job of helping us as a state respond and recover from those events when they happen.”

    “We desperately need everyone’s help in adhering to this (burn ban) order,” he said.

    And there’s no relief in sight: The upcoming forecast for the area and the state is expected to be dry and hot, Tingle added.

    State Fire Marshal Deputy Chief Felicia Cooper also said: “This situation is dangerous for every single one of us.”

    The area of Beauregard Parish experiencing the wildfires is in severe to extreme drought. Around 77% of the state is experiencing some level of drought, which is up from 7% of the state just three months ago, according to CNN Weather.

    Lake Charles, around 40 miles southeast of Merryville, has seen temperatures over 100 degrees every day since August 18 and temperatures over 95 degrees since June 29.

    “Our state has never been this hot and dry and we have never had this many fires,” Edwards posted on social media Thursday. “We need you and your neighbors to help keep our communities and first responders safe. Adhere to the statewide burn ban. Don’t burn anything.”

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  • Putin sends condolences to Wagner chief Prigozhin’s family after crash | CNN

    Putin sends condolences to Wagner chief Prigozhin’s family after crash | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Russian President Vladimir Putin made his first public comments Thursday on the plane crash believed to have killed Yevgeny Prigozhin, saying the Wagner leader had made “serious mistakes in life.”

    Putin said he was sending condolences to “Wagner Group employees” on board the plane that crashed on Wednesday.

    The crash took place northwest of Moscow and killed all on board, said Russia’s aviation agency, including Prigozhin, chief of the mercenary group that gained prominence for its brutal methods worldwide and its battleground victories in the Ukraine war.

    “First of all, I want to express my sincere condolences to the families of all the victims, this is always a tragedy. Indeed, if they were there, it seems … preliminary information suggests that Wagner Group employees were also on board,” Putin said during a meeting with the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Denis Pushilin in the Kremlin. 

    Speaking about Prigozhin in the past tense, Putin said he’d known the Wagner chief “for a very long time,” and that he was “a talented man, a talented businessman.”

    “He was a man of difficult fate, and he made serious mistakes in life, and he achieved the results needed both for himself and when I asked him about it – for a common cause, as in these last months,” the Russian president said.

    The crash of Prigozhin’s plane happened two months after Prigozhin and Wagner staged their insurrection, the biggest challenge to Putin’s rule in over two decades.

    Just days after the mutiny, a furious Putin made it clear that he viewed the actions of Wagner as a form of treason. While he did not mention Prigozhin by name, he accused “the organizers of the rebellion” of betraying Russia itself.

    A witness to the crash told Reuters he saw a wing fly off the plane before it headed toward the ground on Wednesday. “It glided down on one wing. It didn’t nose-dive, it was gliding,” he said.

    Prigozhin’s apparent death follows a series of incidents in which Kremlin critics have died or had attempts made on their life.

    No evidence has been presented that points to the involvement of the Kremlin or Russian security services in the crash. The cause of the crash is unknown and Russian authorities have launched a criminal investigation.

    Putin pledged this investigation would be thorough. “But what is absolutely certain, the head of the Investigative Committee reported to me this morning. They have already launched a preliminary investigation into this incident. And it will be carried out in full and brought to completion,” Putin said. 

    US President Joe Biden, prominent Russia critic Bill Browder and Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak have all suggested they believe Putin was behind the crash.

    CNN spoke to several individuals in Russia about the crash on Thursday. All agreed to be identified only by their first name so they could speak freely without fear of retribution.

    No one CNN spoke to believed Ukraine was responsible for the crash. Many openly speculated about its cause, including whether Russian President Vladimir Putin brought down the jet as retribution for Prigozhin’s failed mutiny in June.

    “He was killed by Putin, who does not forgive betrayal,” said Alexey from Moscow. “Putin was behind it or it could have been his Politburo but Putin knew and approved.”

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  • Hilary moves through Southwest with historic amount of rainfall | CNN

    Hilary moves through Southwest with historic amount of rainfall | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Hilary has triggered deadly flooding, heavy rains and powerful gusts across parts of the southwest and Mexico, transforming streets into raging rivers and forcing some residents to flee, and leaving others in need of rescue, even after the storm weakened to a post-tropical cyclone.

    More rain is expected to fall throughout Monday and Tuesday as officials clean up the aftermath. After hitting Southern California on Sunday as a tropical storm – the state’s first since 1997 – Hilary headed into Nevada as its first-ever recorded tropical storm. As Hilary moves across the southwest, the storm has brought power outages, life-threatening flooding and calls for residents to evacuate or shelter in place.

    Live updates: Hilary brings major flood risk to California

    The storm broke rainfall records across Southern California: Palm Springs got nearly a year’s worth of rain with 4.3 inches in 24 hours, one of its rainiest days ever. Death Valley nearly set a record with 1.68 inches, and the Furnace Creek area, which usually gets about two-tenths of an inch in August, got 0.63 inches.

    And the storm is the rainiest tropical storm system in Nevada’s history, nearly doubling the state’s 116-year-old all-time record, according to preliminary data from NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center. Hilary has released 8.7 inches of rain on Lee Canyon, Nevada, smashing the previous record of 4.36 inches in 1906.

    Watch: Massive mudslide sends firefighters scrambling to safety

    More rain is expected to cause dangerous flash, urban and arroyo flooding in some places, including landslides, mudslides and debris flows. Localized flooding is expected into Tuesday morning across northern portions of the Intermountain West.

    In Palm Springs, a section of Interstate 10 is shut down while road crews clear away mud left behind by floodwaters from Tropical Storm Hilary, but other routes in and out of the desert oasis near Joshua Tree National Park are open.

    In addition, many freeway off-ramps are limited because of mud, and CalTrans crews are working to clear those in an effort to ease accessibility.

    Emergency telephone service, which had been down since midmorning, has been restored, the police department said, but an outage continues to affect other areas of the Coachella Valley.

    “We are not used to this level of precipitation, generally – certainly not in the middle of summer,” San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria told CNN on Sunday.

    “With what we’re expecting, it may overwhelm us.”

    Tropical storm Hilary caused a section of the normally-dry Whitewater River to flood parts of a golf course in Cathedral City, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

    Here’s the latest:

    • Heavy rains and some flooding may continue Tuesday morning in parts of the Intermountain West, according to the National Hurricane Center. The rain will cause “mostly localized areas of flash flooding,” the National Weather Service Prediction Center said. Flood watches remain in place across eight Western states.

    • Strong and gusty winds will blow in Nevada, western Utah, southern Idaho and southwest Montana, the hurricane center said. Coastal tropical storm warnings have been discontinued.

    • Some portions of Southern California lost power during the storm but electricity was mostly restored by Monday evening. A total of about 41,000 customers in Los Angeles were without power at one point, Marty Adams, general manager and chief engineer at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said Monday.

    • People in parts of Southern California should not travel unless they are fleeing an area under flooding or under an evacuation order, the National Weather Service has warned.

    • Flooding, mudslides and downed trees and wires were widely reported across Southern California on Sunday and Monday. At least nine people were rescued Sunday in a San Diego riverbed, San Diego Fire-Rescue said, with water rescues also reported in Ventura County and Palm Springs.

    • In Mexico, where the storm first landed, power has been restored to 80% of customers in the three states affected by Hilary, according to the national power company. “379,850 users have been affected, and electricity supply has been restored to 302,134, equivalent to 80%,” said the Federal Electricity Commission in a statement Monday.

    Maura Taura surveys the damaged cause by a downed tree outside her home.

    To the west, Los Angeles and Ventura counties saw “considerable damage” Sunday night amid reports of dangerous flash flooding, and rock and mudslides, the National Weather Service said, adding up to half an inch of rain could fall per hour.

    Cars were stuck in floodwaters in the Spanish Hills area, the National Weather Service reported.

    Crowley urged residents to take precautions on the roads.

    “A relatively small amount of water can sweep a vehicle away,” she said.

    In Los Angeles, the worst of the storm was over as of Monday morning, according to officials. All weather warnings in the city were canceled. “We are past the brunt of the impact,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Ariel Cohen.

    Schools in San Diego and Los Angeles are set to reopen Tuesday after closing Monday in anticipation of the storm. Officials canceled classes for the more than 121,000 students in the San Diego Unified School District.

    The Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest in the nation, also shut down Monday. The district spans about 700 square miles, meaning the impact of the storm varied for its students.

    Schools in the Los Angeles district will reopen on Tuesday, according to superintendent Alberto Carvalho.

    “Our teams have been scouring our schools, and so far, conditions are pretty good,” Carvalho said. A couple dozen schools have lost phone and internet service, and one school has been impacted by a minor mudslide.

    “It would have been reckless for us to make a different decision,” Carvalho said of the decision to close schools Monday.

    “Los Angeles was tested but we came through it and we came through it with minimal impacts, considering what we endured,” said Los Angeles City Council President Paul Krekorian.

    The Nye County School District in Nevada also canceled classes Monday, with plans to reopen Tuesday.

    Cars stranded in roads deluged with mud and water

    Once a hurricane, Hilary weakened as it made landfall Sunday in Mexico – where at least one person died – then crossed into the Golden State. The storm’s center was roughly 10 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles around 8 p.m. local time Sunday, moving north with weakened 45-mph winds, according to the hurricane center.

    The Los Angeles Fire Department fielded more than 4,000 emergency calls on Sunday and responded to about 1,800 incidents, Chief Kristin Crowley said in a news conference on Monday. The calls included a request for help for five cars stranded in a flooded intersection of Sun Valley. One person was safely rescued and no one was injured in the Sun Valley incident, Crowley said.

    Flood water affected an underground power vault, leading to an outage for about 6,000 customers in the Beverly Grove area, with other outages reported in Hollywood, Hyde Park and Brentwood. The vast majority of city power customers remain unaffected by the storm, according to Los Angeles officials.

    As the storm barreled through, covering roadways with debris and water, roads were blocked across Southern California by Sunday night. A section of Interstate 8 in Imperial County, east of San Diego, was closed Sunday after boulders came loose from an adjoining slope and fell into the road.

    In San Bernardino County, a stretch of State Route 127 covered in floodwaters was closed, while a section of Interstate 15 was shuttered in Barstow because of downed power lines after a lightning strike, authorities said.

    Traffic is slowed as water and mud from Tropical Storm Hilary covers part of Interstate 10, between Indio and Palm Springs, California, on Monday.

    Crews across the region Sunday evening rescued people caught in the storm, including at least nine in a riverbed area in San Diego. “Crews are still looking for more people who may need help. #riverrescue,” San Diego Fire-Rescue said.

    And Ventura County firefighters searched the Santa Clara River for people trapped in the waters on Sunday night, videos show.

    The storm led to other disruptions across Southern California, with many parks, beaches and other locations closed as officials called on residents to stay indoors.

    And Hilary continued to cause damage as it moved into Nevada. In Mt. Charleston, Nevada, the storm brought significant flooding on Monday morning, washing out the roadways. Residents are sheltering in place, the power is shut off, and the Nevada National Guard is on its way to assist, according to a Facebook post from Clark County.

    West of Las Vegas, rushing water is flowing like a river down Echo Road, leaving vehicles stranded from Mary Jane Trailheads and Trail Canyon, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Emergency crews are evaluating and ask for people to stay out of the area, the service said.

    California had been preparing for difficult conditions, positioning first responders across Southern California to brace for water rescues in flood-prone areas like wildfire burn scars and deserts amid fears areas unaccustomed to rain could suddenly receive a year’s worth or more, triggering flash floods and landslides.

    Rainfall totals have been significant:

    Daily and monthly rainfall records were broken Sunday, with 1.53 inches falling in downtown Los Angeles, 1.56 inches in Long Beach and 2.95 inches in Palmdale, according to the weather service.

    At least three swift water rescues were conducted in Palm Springs, police department Lt. Gustavo Araiza told CNN.

    In Cathedral City, a desert community roughly a 110-mile drive east of Los Angeles, at least 14 people were rescued from a senior boarding care facility Monday afternoon after “a blockade” of mud trapped them inside, city spokesperson Ryan Hunt said.

    All of the people rescued are doing well, Hunt said.

    The fire department had to borrow a dozer truck from a recycling center so they could carry out the rescue, Hunt said. The department had firefighters sit in the dozer and then had those being rescued sit on top to be brought out of the structure, he added.

    Despite the “unorthodox method,” everyone stayed calm, he said.

    A motorist removes belongings from his vehicle after becoming stuck in a flooded street in Palm Desert, California, on Sunday.

    Santa Clarita, about 30 miles north of Los Angeles, experienced steady rain for about 10 hours, with the storm dropping well over four inches of rain on the valley. Parts of Sand Canyon Road could be seen falling into rushing water.

    As the storm continues to affect the West, officials with Oregon’s emergency management are bracing for possible flooding across portions of the state.

    “At this point, we’re concerned about the substantial rainfall and the potential for fast-moving water and flooding. Flood watches have been issued for areas of Central and Eastern Oregon,” Oregon Department of Emergency Management spokesperson Chris Crabb told CNN Monday afternoon.

    “We have reports of minor flooding currently and communities using sandbags to mitigate the impacts, but there have been no requests for state support at this point,” Crabb went on.

    According to Crabb, the office is working with county and tribal partners.

    Portions of Oregon are under a flood watch through Tuesday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.

    “The remnants of Hurricane Hilary will bring periods of moderate to heavy rain to portions of northeastern Oregon through Tuesday,” the weather service said in a forecast message.

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  • Hurricane Hilary prompts historic tropical storm warning for California as Southwest braces for dangerous rain, flooding | CNN

    Hurricane Hilary prompts historic tropical storm warning for California as Southwest braces for dangerous rain, flooding | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Residents in the Southwest are bracing for heavy rains and potentially catastrophic flooding as Hurricane Hilary is expected to pummel the region as a rare tropical storm beginning Sunday and lasting into next week.

    Hilary remains a Category 4 hurricane as it marches toward the coast of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula with sustained winds of 130 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. Its core is expected to pass close to the peninsula Saturday night and then weaken into a tropical storm as it crosses into the US and Southern California.

    The threat has triggered California’s first ever tropical storm warning extending from the state’s southern border to just north of Los Angeles.

    The Southwest is forecast to see heavy rainfall through early next week – with the most intense conditions on Sunday and Monday – as Hilary advances. The deluges could bring more than a year’s worth of rain to parts of California, Nevada and Arizona.

    Parts of Southern California and Nevada could see 3 to 6 inches of rain and as many as 10 inches in some places, the center said. Elsewhere, amounts of 1 to 3 inches are forecast.

    While Hilary’s core will pack a powerful punch, the NHC warned that strong winds and rain will begin far in advance of its arrival.

    “Preparations for the impacts of flooding from rainfall should be completed as soon as possible, as heavy rain will increase ahead of the center on Saturday,” the hurricane center said.

    In anticipation of the storm, officials across the region have begun to prepare for perilous road conditions, downed power infrastructure and dangerous flood conditions.

    Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo announced Friday that 100 state National Guard troops will be deployed to southern Nevada, which may see significant flooding.

    President Joe Biden said in a Friday news conference that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has preemptively positioned personnel and supplies to respond in Southern California or other parts of the region, if needed.

    If Hilary makes landfall in California as a tropical storm, it would be the first such storm to do so in the state in nearly 84 years, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

    Parts of Southern California face a high risk for excessive rainfall – also the first Level 4 of 4 threat to be issued for the area. This level of risk is exceptionally rare. From 2010 to 2020, high risks were issued on fewer than 4% of days per year on average, but were responsible for 83% of all flood-related damage and 39% of all flood-related deaths, research from the Weather Prediction Center shows.

    Due to the significant threat, the state has prepared water rescue teams, California National Guard personnel and flood fighting equipment ahead of Hilary’s arrival, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said Friday.

    Highway maintenance crews will also be staffed around-the-clock in order to aid in roadway safety, the governor’s office said.

    Electricity utility Southern California Edison – which serves more than 15 million people in the region – said Thursday that Hilary is on track to impact much of its service area. The company said it is preparing to respond to outages but urged residents to gather supplies including flashlights, external battery chargers and ice chests.

    As the homeless community is particularly at risk for flooding dangers, officials in both Los Angeles and San Diego say they are performing outreach and offering temporary shelter. The LA County Sheriff’s Department said it is also mapping out at-risk encampments and making aerial announcements about the storm.

    “We hope that the storm does not cause any damage, and more importantly there is no loss of life,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said in a Friday news conference. “But we will prepare for a worst-case scenario, not only to assist people here in our county, but if we are not impacted or affected, we will become a resource to other neighboring counties as needed.”

    San Diego has also spent the last several days cleaning storm drains, clearing streets and readying equipment, Mayor Todd Gloria said Friday.

    The storm threat also prompted Major League Baseball to overhaul its weekend schedule in the region, moving Sunday games hosted by the Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres to instead be split doubleheaders on Saturday.

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  • Thousands scramble to evacuate capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories as more than 200 ‘unprecedented’ wildfires blanket region | CNN

    Thousands scramble to evacuate capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories as more than 200 ‘unprecedented’ wildfires blanket region | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Thousands of residents are rushing to evacuate the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories as more than 200 fires burn, leaving many to face dangerous road conditions or stand in line for hours for desperately needed emergency flights. Evacuations were also under way in British Columbia.

    The Northwest Territories capital Yellowknife – home to about 20,000 – and several other Northwest Territories communities have been ordered to evacuate as crews battle 236 active wildfires, and a massive fire creeps toward the city and a major highway.

    The infernos in the Northwest Territories are among more than 1,000 fires burning across Canada as the country endures its worst fire season on record. Smoke from the fires has drifted into the US, bringing harmful pollution and worsening air quality.

    A little rain was possible but strong northwest and west-northwest winds could push the fire to the outskirts of Yellowknife by the weekend, according to a Facebook post from a government fire-monitoring account.

    At a Friday news briefing, Canadian leaders pledged no one would be left behind during the unprecedented evacuation from Yellowknife and getting residents out safely would continue through the weekend.

    “We’ll continue to focus on helping the most vulnerable and will be there for as long as it takes,” Defense Minister Bill Blair said.

    While most were encouraged to leave via the only road out of the community, as many as 5,000 residents had requested flights out of the city.

    Smoke continues to shroud Yellowknife, as it has for weeks, but an unpredictable wind and a raging fire, now about 10 miles from Yellowknife, forced officials to order a complete evacuation.

    However, federal officials said they were confident they could continue to protect the majority of the community from fire damage and are working on building fire breaks by clearing trees and applying fire retardant.

    In West Kelowna, officials confirmed several structures were lost in the fire, including many homes. However, officials said there were no reports of loss of life despite descriptions of harrowing rescues.

    The Canadian Armed Forces are assisting with firefighting and airlifting efforts in the Northwest Territories. The Royal Canadian Air Force has deployed several planes and helicopters to support regional emergency crews.

    The first CAF aircraft, a CC-130 J Hercules, conducted an evacuation flight Thursday and transported 79 passengers to Edmonton, the CAF said. Additional flights are scheduled for Friday.

    Incoming and outgoing commercial flights at airports in the Northwest Territories have been canceled because of the wildfires. Commercial flights in and out of Yellowknife Airport will stop after the last flight departs on Friday evening, according to an update on the government website.

    Evacuation flights will still be able to operate out of the airport as well as medical evacuations, firefighting and military-related flights, the government site said.

    More than 1,000 people were flown out of Yellowknife on emergency flights Thursday, and close to an additional 2,000 seats were available Friday, territory officials said in an online update. Many hoping to fly out Thursday stood for hours in a winding, slow-moving line only to be told they would need to try again on Friday, CNN partner CBC reports.

    People line up in Yellowknife to register for an evactuation flight on August 17.

    “We understand that this is deeply frustrating for those who have been in line for several hours and who will need to line up again tomorrow,” the territory update said. It added people who are immunocompromised, have mobility issues or have other high-risk conditions were moved up in the line.

    Officials are encouraging people to leave by car, if possible, and carpool to reduce traffic and assist those without vehicles.

    “Evacuation flights should be used as a last resort for those who do not have the option to evacuate by road,” territory officials said.

    But some driving out of the area have faced thick smoke and roadways flanked with flames. Yellowknife resident Ruoy Pineda told CNN he and his family struggled to navigate through the heavy haze after the evacuation order was announced Wednesday.

    “We were not actually fully prepared,” Pineda said. “On the road, we were all scared of what we saw ahead of us, but we keep reminding ourselves it is better to be out than stranded.”

    Pineda described the dangerous road conditions as he and others tried to flee the capital.

    “On the road you could see the fire and we were struggling because of the smoke,” he said. “The visibility on the road was very bad. We couldn’t even see if someone was ahead of us.”

    He and his family were still on the road Thursday morning and were headed to seek shelter in Edmonton, about 900 miles to the south.

    “We are very exhausted right now. We’ve barely slept and are very worried about our house in Yellowknife and if we’ll still have a home,” Pineda said.

    People line up outside a school to be evacuated in Yellowknife.

    Fires in Canada have burned more than six times more land this year when compared to the 10-year annual average, according to data from the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System.

    There have been more fires in Canada this year than compared to the 10-year average, with a 128% difference. Yet the fires appear to be spreading much wider than before, and so far this year, more than 13 million hectares have been burned – an area larger than Pennsylvania.

    The data, current as of August 9, show the 10-year average of area burned to date sits at just over 2 million hectares.

    British Columbia evacuates thousands

    Approximately 4,500 people are under evacuation orders in British Columbia due to threats from wildfires, Canadian officials said in a press conference Friday.

    “People who choose to ignore evacuation orders put themselves and emergency personnel at risk,” said Bowinn Ma, the province’s Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness.

    Another 23,500 people in British Columbia are under evacuation alerts, which means they must be prepared to evacuate immediately if an order is issued, Ma said.

    Some fires have reached over 400 feet tall and are moving “faster than we can effectively put firefighting resources on them,” said Cliff Chapman, director of provincial operations for BC Wildfire Service.

    “There is very little that response tactics can do with these winds and that type of fire behavior,” Chapman said.

    The McDougall Creek fire near West Kelowna has experienced “significant growth” in the past 12 hours and currently spans more than 6,000 hectares, he said.

    Kelowna International Airport closed to commercial flights to allow space for fire fighting activity to take place, according to a news release from the airport.

    British Columbia has more than 360 active fires – more than any other Canadian province, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. The forecast winds and lightning may cause fires to move and grow quickly, officials have warned. Chapman said that lightning has been the primary cause of new fires.

    Nearly 60 evacuation orders were in effect across the province Thursday, the British Columbia Wildfire Service said.

    Among the displaced are residents of at least 4,800 properties who were ordered to evacuate in the province’s West Kelowna area on Wednesday and Thursday as the McDougall Creek fire advanced, local emergency officials announced.

    A state of emergency has been declared in Kelowna, as crews are combating spot fires coming from across the Central Okanagan Lake, stemming from the McDougall Creek fire, according to a news release Friday.

    Video taken by resident Todd Ramsay shows a lake rimmed by large hills engulfed in a wall of fire.

    “Absolutely devastating,” Ramsay said of the devastation in a Facebook post. “The fire jumped the lake and was right behind our house.”

    Ramsay said he was eventually able to evacuate to safety.

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  • Hurricane Hilary expected to strengthen to Category 4 before weakening, dumping rain over California and Southwest US this weekend | CNN

    Hurricane Hilary expected to strengthen to Category 4 before weakening, dumping rain over California and Southwest US this weekend | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Hurricane Hilary is expected to intensify into a lashing Category 4 storm as it nears Mexico’s Baja Peninsula on Friday and then weaken over the weekend, bringing rain and flooding to parts of the Southwest US.

    Hilary was churning about 430 miles south of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Thursday night with sustained winds of near 125 mph, the National Hurricane Center said in an overnight advisory.

    The storm strengthened to a Category 3 hurricane Thursday evening and is likely to build into a powerful Category 4 on Friday, the advisory said. It is then expected to begin weakening as it continues north on Saturday.

    Hilary’s center is on track to approach the Baja Peninsula on Friday and over the weekend, prompting Mexican officials to issue a hurricane watch and tropical storm watches and warnings for parts of Baja California Sur, the hurricane center said.

    There remains a wide range of outcomes for the heaviest rain and strongest winds in the US as the storm moves north over the next couple of days along Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. Small deviations in the hurricane’s track could change the forecast for the most intense rain and wind.

    The storm is expected to substantially weaken before reaching Southern California and parts of the Southwest but there’s an increasing chance the regions will be significantly impacted by heavy rain and flooding.

    Heavy rainfall is expected to begin impacting the Southwest on Friday and through early next week, with the most intense downpours likely on Sunday and Monday, according to forecasters.

    Southern swaths of California and Nevada could see 3 to 5 inches of rain with isolated amounts of up to 10 inches. Smaller amounts of 1 to 3 inches are expected across central parts of those states as well as across western Arizona and southwest Utah.

    If Hilary makes landfall in California as a tropical storm, it will be a rare occurrence – the first such storm there in nearly 84 years and would be only the third tropical storm or stronger to do so on record, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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  • Maui wildfires areas include $1.3 billion in residential reconstruction values, according to a preliminary estimate | CNN Business

    Maui wildfires areas include $1.3 billion in residential reconstruction values, according to a preliminary estimate | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    The early estimate of the areas encompassed by the devastating Maui wildfires includes about $1.3 billion of residencies, according to a recent preliminary estimate from CoreLogic.

    That figure tallies the “combined reconstruction value,” or how much it would cost to rebuild the structures in those preliminary areas. That doesn’t mean every building within those preliminary boundaries will need reconstruction, nor does it include the contents of those residences.

    In preliminary perimeters drawn by CoreLogic, the company found 2,808 Lahaina homes that have a reconstruction cost value of $1.1 billion. Pulehu has 275 homes with about $147 million in costs, and Pukalani has a reconstruction cost value of $4.2 million for its five homes.

    Wildfires have raged across the Hawaiian island of Maui, killing at least 80 people. Officials expect the death toll to rise and say it could take years to fully recover. The catastrophic firestorm also destroyed countless businesses on the island, which the estimate from CoreLogic didn’t include.

    According to a damage assessment from the Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) and FEMA on Saturday, Maui County experienced $5.52 billion in “capital exposure,” which is the estimated cost to rebuild following damage by the Lahaina Fire. Maui County has a population of about 165,000.

    FEMA issued a statement later Saturday saying the figure is not accurate and that it is still too early to determine the cost of rebuilding.

    “The $5.5 (billion) figure being reported by some media outlets, and cited to the Pacific Disaster Center, is not a dollar amount from FEMA and does not reflect any damage estimations from our agency,” a FEMA spokesperson said in a statement.

    The statement said the figure was listed as “capital exposed,” which FEMA said is not a measure of building costs. The federal agency said it has not yet done any cost estimates.

    “We are still in active response and initial recovery phases, and it is too early to do so. Once all life saving and life sustaining needs are met, we will begin to assess the damage and formulate preliminary estimates,” the statement read.

    CNN has reached out to the Pacific Disaster Center for clarification.

    More than 2,200 structures were damaged or destroyed and 2,170 acres have burned as a result of the Lahaina Fire, according to the PDC and FEMA.

    The structure of the Lahaina properties, combined with the hurricane-force winds and deadly gusts, allowed the firestorm to decimate many of the area’s buildings.

    “Many of the residential properties in Lahaina appear to have wood siding, and a number of them have elevated porches with a lattice underneath,” Thomas Jeffery, CoreLogic principal wildfire scientist, said in the findings. “Both are characteristics that make the residence very vulnerable to either ember or direct flame ignition.”

    However, the full extent of the damage is still unknown. It will take “some time” to figure that out, CoreLogic emphasized. CoreLogic created preliminary wildfire perimeters for its study that could change, it said.

    Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated CoreLogic’s estimate. It is for reconstruction costs of the total homes within the wildfire areas.

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  • 16 people were injured when a boat exploded at Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks | CNN

    16 people were injured when a boat exploded at Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Sixteen people were injured in a boat explosion at a marina in the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, authorities said.

    The explosion, which took place at the Millstone Marina, was set off by a spark and gas fumes that “built up in the engine area,” the Missouri State Highway Patrol said in an online post on Friday.

    Photos posted online by authorities showed shattered glass on the boat and other damage that appears to have been caused by the explosion.

    Most of those injured were on the boat, authorities said.

    In an incident information report, the highway patrol said the vessel was fueling at the marina’s gas docks, and when its operator started the boat, it caused “an explosion in the engine compartment.”

    At least three passengers were ejected from the boat, the report said.

    The injuries range from minor to moderate, the highway patrol said in its post.

    Eleven people, including a 6-year-old girl, were treated on the scene and released, according to the report, while five others were taken to a hospital.

    An investigation into the incident is ongoing.

    Lake of the Ozarks, a popular summer vacation spot in the Midwest, boasts more than 1,100 miles of shoreline.

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  • Crews work to identify many of the 93 victims found so far in Maui wildfires, now the deadliest US fire in over a century | CNN

    Crews work to identify many of the 93 victims found so far in Maui wildfires, now the deadliest US fire in over a century | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The death toll from the Maui wildfires climbed to at least 93 Saturday as authorities work to identify the victims and sift through the burned communities of western Maui.

    The fire is now the deadliest US wildfire in more than 100 years, according to research from the National Fire Protection Association.

    “This is the largest natural disaster we’ve ever experienced,” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said at a Saturday night news conference. “It’s going to also be a natural disaster that’s going to take an incredible amount of time to recover from.”

    Whipped by winds from Hurricane Dora hundreds of miles offshore, fast-moving wildfires wiped out entire neighborhoods, burned historic landmarks to the ground and displaced thousands. As searches of the burned ruins continue, officials warn they do not know exactly how many people are still missing in the torched areas.

    Only about 3% of the fire zone has been searched with cadaver dogs, Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said, and authorities expect the already staggering death toll to rise.

    “None of us really know the size of it yet,” Pelletier said at Saturday night’s news conference.

    Only two of the people whose remains have been found have been identified, according to an update from Maui County.

    “We need to find your loved ones,” Pelletier said, urging those with missing family members to coordinate with authorities to do a DNA test.

    “The remains we’re finding is through a fire that melted metal.”

    Meanwhile, firefighters who continue to battle the flames – practically nonstop in some instances – have made some progress in containing the blazes. Of the three largest wildfires that crews have been combating, the deadly fire in hard-hit Lahaina has not grown, but is still not fully under control, Maui County Fire Chief Brad Ventura said.

    The Pulehu fire – located farther east in Kihei – was declared 100% contained Saturday, according to Maui County. A third inferno in the hills of Maui’s central Upcountry was 50% contained on Friday, officials said.

    As firefighting efforts continue, the state is surveying the immense destruction in once vibrant, beloved communities.

    Around 2,200 structures have been destroyed or damaged by the fires in West Maui, about 86% of them residential, Green said Saturday.

    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 “the losses approach $6 billion.”

    “The devastation is so complete, that you see metals twisted in ways that you can’t imagine,” Green said. “And you see nothing from organic structures left whatsoever.”

    “We’ve gone through tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, but this event was much more catastrophic than any of those here,” Green said.

    Here’s the latest as of Saturday evening:

    • Police are restricting access into West Maui: The one highway into the hard-hit Lahaina area remains highly restricted. Residents slept in a mile-long line of cars overnight Saturday, hoping to enter.
    • Thousands displaced: The fires have displaced thousands of people, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told CNN on Thursday. A total of 1,418 people are at emergency evacuation shelters, according to Maui County officials.
    • Hotel rooms for evacuees: Around 1,000 hotel rooms were secured for evacuees and first responders, Green said, but it’s a challenge to get people into hotel rooms that have enough electricity. Long term housing solutions were also being sought.
    • Cellphone services coming back: While the fires initially knocked down communications and made it hard for residents to call 911 or update loved ones, county officials said Friday that cellphone services are becoming available. People are still advised to limit calls.
    • Maui’s warning sirens were not activated: State records show Maui’s warning sirens were not activated, and the emergency communications with residents was largely limited to mobile phones and broadcasters at a time when most power and cell service was already cut.
    • Disaster response under review: Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez will lead a comprehensive review of officials’ response to the catastrophic wildfires, her office said Friday. “My Department is committed to understanding the decisions that were made before and during the wildfires and to sharing with the public the results of this review,” Lopez said in a statement.

    More than a dozen federal agencies have been deployed to Hawaii to assist in the recovery efforts, including the National Guard, FEMA and the Department of Health and Human Services.

    Local sites and attractions meant for summer revelers are now being turned into relief beacons.

    Pacific Whale Foundation, which typically operates eco-tours across Maui, is instead using its ship to transport supplies like batteries, flashlights, water, food and diapers to people in need.

    And at the Lahaina Gateway and the Ritz-Carlton in Kapalua, food and water distribution sites have been set up, according to Green.

    Thousands of pounds of food have been donated and are on the way, the governor said Saturday.

    “We come at this like an ohana because it’s going to be, in the short term, heartbreaking. In the long term, people are going to need mental health care services. In the very long term, we’ll rebuild together,” Green said.

    The Hawaii Department of Transportation will set aside a runway at Kahului Airport – the primary airport on the island of Maui – to accommodate incoming relief supplies, officials announced Saturday.

    Volunteers unload supplies to be transported to people in need at Kahului Harbor in Maui, Hawaii, on Saturday.

    For those who’ve lost their homes, at least 1,000 rooms have been secured for them as well as support staff, the governor said.

    “Then coming after that, in the days that follow, we’ll have long term rentals. Those are the short term rentals turned long term now,” Green said.

    Meanwhile, tourism authorities are focused on helping visitors get out of Maui, alleviating the pressure on residents and traffic, so that “attention and resources” can be focused on the island’s recovery, Hawaii Tourism Authority spokesperson Ilihia Gionson said Saturday.

    Gionson, who is a native Hawaiian, said residents will draw strength from the deep history of Lahaina — a former capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom — and “the very powerful spirits of Maui.”

    “It’s really in the families and in the hearts of the Kama’aina, the residents of those places, that those kinds of stories, those kinds of histories live,” he told CNN. “So our hearts, our prayers, all of our Aloha is with those families who have lost loved ones, who have lost their homes, who have lost businesses, livelihoods, lifestyles — it’s just devastating.”

    In pictures: The deadly Maui wildfires

    Maui police have been restricting residents on-and-off from taking the Honoapi’ilani Highway – the main roadway into devastated Lahaina.

    Some residents slept in a mile-long line of cars overnight Saturday, hoping to enter by morning. But police told drivers that traffic is jammed on the main road and that conditions are too dangerous.

    Steven and Giulietta Daiker said they were nearly up to the main checkpoint after hours of waiting when they learned they were only going to be turned around. “They couldn’t have told us that three miles back, or couldn’t have been on a bullhorn or on the radio?” Steven asked.

    “It’s not just frustration. It feels sickening,” Giulietta added.

    Officials say they have to limit access as conditions remain hazardous where homes were leveled by the fires.

    “We’re not doing anybody any favors by letting them back in there quickly, just so they can go get sick,” Mayor Richard Bissen Jr. said at Saturday’s news conference.

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  • 1 dead, several unaccounted for after Pennsylvania house explosion destroys 3 homes and damages at least a dozen more, officials say | CNN

    1 dead, several unaccounted for after Pennsylvania house explosion destroys 3 homes and damages at least a dozen more, officials say | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    At least one person has died and several others are unaccounted for after an explosion destroyed three houses and damaged at least a dozen more on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Saturday morning, authorities said.

    First responders who rushed to Plum, a borough in Allegheny County, arrived to find people trapped under debris and took three people to a hospital, one of them in critical condition, Allegheny County officials said.

    Another person, who has not been identified, was pronounced dead at the scene, said Steve Imbarlina, assistant chief for Allegheny County Emergency Services.

    It appears the incident started when one house exploded, engulfing two neighboring homes in flames as well, according to the county. Multiple other homes were damaged with windows blown out.

    Crews from 18 different fire departments converged on the scene to put out the flames and sift through the rubble as “several” people remained unaccounted for Saturday afternoon.

    It’s unclear what triggered the explosion. Authorities say the cause is still under investigation.

    Ring doorbell video obtained by CNN affiliate WTAE appears to show one of the homes exploding in a ball of fire, shooting up a thick plume of smoke and scattering debris in the area.

    The aftermath of the blast and blaze can be seen in aerial footage of the neighborhood, which shows three structures completely burned to the ground, surrounded by heavy debris that covered surrounding lawns and homes. Several cars near the scorched area could also be seen charred black and smoking.

    “I heard this ‘boom.’ It was so loud that it woke me up. I thought it was thunder from the storms last night,” neighbor Alexis Typanski told WTAE. “My water bottle fell on me instantaneously. I was shaking. It scared me so bad.”

    By 4:30 p.m. local time, the area was still considered an “active scene” and first responders were expected to remain there for hours, according to the county. Plum is about 15 miles northeast Pittsburgh.

    Gas was turned off in the area while emergency crews worked at the scene, authorities said at a news conference, adding multiple representatives from different gas companies were at the scene.

    The Red Cross and Salvation Army are assisting residents impacted by the explosion, the county said.

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  • Maui wildfires kill at least 80 people, and the race to find survivors is grim as countless residents in torched areas remain missing | CNN

    Maui wildfires kill at least 80 people, and the race to find survivors is grim as countless residents in torched areas remain missing | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    At least 80 people have been killed in Maui’s wildfires, officials said late Friday, as search efforts for survivors are ongoing and many remain missing.

    The death toll rose from an announced 67 earlier Friday, making the fires the largest natural disaster in the state’s history. The death toll continued to climb Friday, surpassing the state’s record natural disaster death toll of 61 from a 1960 tsunami that hit Hilo Bay.

    On Friday evening, residents in Kaanapali were being evacuated after police said there was a fire in western Maui.

    “At this time, there are no restrictions to exit the west side. Our priority is to ensure the safety of the community and first responders. We will allow entrance once it is safe to do so,” police said in a Facebook post.

    Gov. Josh Green told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Friday that none of the human remains discovered in nearby Lahaina were found inside structures yet, but the confirmed fatalities “did occur out in the open as people tried to escape the fire.”

    Green said that within days officials expect to have a more comprehensive idea of how many lives were lost.

    “We will continue to see loss of life,” Green said during a news conference late Thursday. “We also have many hundreds of homes destroyed, and that’s going to take a great deal of time to recover from.”

    Now, families wait in agony to learn what happened to their missing loved ones.

    Live updates: Deadly wildfires burn across Maui

    Timm Williams Sr., a 66-year-old disabled veteran who uses a wheelchair, last spoke with his family Wednesday as he was trying to flee Kaanapali, just north of the obliterated town of Lahaina.

    Shortly before he went missing, Williams sent a photo of flames shooting toward the sky, his granddaughter Brittany Talley told CNN.

    This August 9 photo of a wildfire in Maui was the last image Timm

    While he fled, Williams said he couldn’t tell exactly where he was due to the intense smoke in the air, Talley recalled. “He was attempting to make it to a shelter, but all of the roads were blocked,” she said.

    The family has tried every means possible to find the missing grandfather, but to no avail.

    “It has been difficult,” Talley said. “Every minute that goes by is another minute that he could be hurt or in danger.”

    Satellite images taken on June 25 and August 9 show an overview of southern Lahaina, Hawaii, before and after the recent wildfires.

    Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies

    While rescue crews scramble to find survivors, here’s the latest on the ongoing catastrophe:

    • Cadaver dogs are looking for victims: Search-and-rescue teams with cadaver dogs from California and Washington are in Maui to help with recovery efforts, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said.

    • Thousands are displaced: About 1,400 people slept at an airport Wednesday night and more than 1,300 stayed in emergency shelters before many of them were taken to the airport to leave the island, Maui County officials said. Thousands of people are believed to have been displaced, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told CNN on Thursday.

    • Billions of dollars in losses: Determining the full scope of the fires’ impacts on the island will take time, “but it will be in the billions of dollars without a doubt,” the governor said Thursday.

    It will take many years to rebuild Lahaina, where “upwards of 1,700 buildings” may have been destroyed, Green told CNN. He said it appears about 80% of the town is “gone.”

    • Housing appeal: With many having nowhere to stay, the governor asked residents to open up their homes and hotels to help those in need. “If you have additional space in your home, if you have the capacity to take someone in from west Maui, please do,” Green said.

    “Please consider bringing those people into your lives.”

    • Fires have burned for days: As of Thursday, the four largest fires still were active in Maui County, Fire Chief Bradford Ventura said. “Additionally, we’ve had many small fires in between these large fires,” the chief said.

    “And with the current weather pattern that we’re facing, we still have the potential for rapid fire behavior.” The wildfire that torched Lahaina was 80% contained by Thursday morning, Maui County officials said.

    • Communication and power outages: Officials have resorted to satellite phones to communicate with providers on the west side of Maui to restore power to the area, Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke said.

    About 11,000 homes and businesses were in the dark early Friday, according to the tracking site PowerOutage.us.

    • Resources sent to Maui: President Joe Biden approved a disaster declaration to provide federal funding for recovery costs in Maui County. California plans to send a search and rescue team to help support efforts on the ground in Maui. And more than 130 members from the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard have been assigned to provide assistance.

    No one knows how many people were still missing Friday after wildfires annihilated the historic town of Lahaina, where 13,000 people lived.

    “Here’s the challenge: There’s no power. There’s no internet. There’s no radio coverage,” Maui County Police Chief John Pelletier said Thursday.

    Lahaina – an economic hub that draws millions of tourists each year and the one-time capital of the kingdom of Hawaii – is “all gone,” said Maui County Mayor Richard T. Bissen Jr.

    Residents of west Maui will be allowed to access Lahaina starting Friday at noon local time, according to a news release from the county. Residents will need identification with proof of residency. Visitors will need proof of hotel reservations. Barricades have been set up to prevent access to the “heavily impacted area of historic Lahaina town” where search crews are continuing to look for victims of the fires.

    A curfew will also be in effect from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. local time “in historic Lahaina town and affected areas,” the news release says.

    “Now I want to caution everyone, Lahaina is a devastated zone,” Green warned Friday in an interview with local station KHON. Returning residents “will see destruction like they’ve not ever seen in their lives. Everyone, please brace themselves as they go back.”

    Green said a hotline will likely be established to connect displaced residents with available rooms in homes and hotels.

    Search dogs have not yet been able to access every burned building, Green said, cautioning residents not to enter any charred structure that appears unsafe.

    The governor said he plans to return to Maui on Saturday.

    In a Friday news release, the Department of Water Supply also asked Maui residents to conserve water, as first responders continue to fight the flames and intermittent power outages take place. The department asked residents island-wide to refrain from washing cars, washing sidewalks and driveways, and irrigating lawns.

    In pictures: The deadly Maui wildfires

    Most of Maui looked like its idyllic self on Tuesday morning before the flames spread out of control.

    Burned cars seen on Thursday after wildfires raged through Lahaina, Hawaii.

    At 9:55 a.m., Maui County posted a seemingly optimistic update on the Lahaina fire:

    “Maui Fire Department declared the Lahaina brush fire 100% contained shortly before 9 a.m. today,” the county said on Facebook Tuesday.

    About an hour later, the county updated residents on another wildfire burning:

    “Kula Fire Update No. 2 at 10:50 a.m.: Firefighter crews remain on scene of a brush fire that was reported at 12:22 a.m. today near Olinda Road in Kula and led to evacuations of residents in the Kula 200 and Hanamu Road areas,” the county said.

    By Tuesday afternoon, another wildfire became an increasing threat:

    “With the potential risk of escalating conditions from an Upcountry brush fire, the Fire Department is strongly advising residents of Piʻiholo and Olinda roads to proactively evacuate,” Maui County posted at 3:20 p.m. Less than an hour later, it said, “The Fire Department is calling for the immediate evacuation of residents of the subdivision including Kulalani Drive and Kulalani Circle due to an Upcountry brush fire.”

    Shortly later, the county said the Lahaina fire had resurged.

    “An apparent flareup of the Lahaina fire forced the closure of Lahaina Bypass around 3:30 p.m.,” Maui County posted at 4:45 p.m.

    And by 5:50 p.m. Tuesday, there were “Multiple evacuations in place for Lahaina and Upcountry Maui fires,” the county said.

    As the ferocious fires spread, some people jumped into the ocean to escape the flames. Rescuers plucked dozens of people from the water or the shore.

    Building wreckage seen Thursday in the aftermath of the fires that raged in Lahaina, Hawaii.

    Green said he has authorized a “comprehensive review” of the response to the fast-moving fires. Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez will spearhead that review, her office announced Friday.

    “My Department is committed to understanding the decisions that were made before and during the wildfires and to sharing with the public the results of this review,” Lopez said in a statement. “As we continue to support all aspects of the ongoing relief effort, now is the time to begin this process of understanding.”

    State records show that Maui’s warning sirens were not activated, and the emergency communications with residents was largely limited to mobile phones and broadcasters at a time when most power and cell service was already cut.

    “The telecommunications were destroyed very rapidly,” the governor said, blaming the rapid spread of the fires on “global warming, combined with drought, combined with a superstorm.”

    Green added that restoring utilities will likely to be a lengthy process because of Lahaina’s remote location, as workers and raw materials cannot simply be driven to Hawaii. “This is not to make an excuse. This is just to explain the realities of the island, especially in the post-Covid era,” he said.

    May Wedelin-Lee is one of countless residents who lost homes in Lahaina. She described the horror and desperation of those trying to escape and survive.

    “The apocalypse was happening,” she told CNN on Thursday.

    “People were crying on the side of the road and begging,” Wedelin-Lee said. “Some people had bicycles, people ran, people had skateboards, people had cats under their arm. They had a baby in tow, just sprinting down the street.”

    The fire moved so quickly that many left their homes immediately with little notice from authorities, Maui County’s fire chief said.

    “What we experienced was such a fast-moving fire through the neighborhood that the initial neighborhood that caught fire, they were basically self-evacuating with fairly little notice,” fire chief Brad Ventura said.

    The Coast Guard rescued 17 people who fled into the Pacific Ocean to escape the flames, the commander of Section Honolulu said Friday.

    Coast Guard resources – including three cutters and two small boat crews – patrolled about 500 square miles of the harbor searching for survivors for more than 15 hours, Captain Aja Kirksey said at a Friday news conference.

    One person was found dead and the survivors rescued are all in stable condition, according to Kirksey.

    An aerial image taken Thursday shows destroyed homes and buildings on the waterfront in Lahaina.

    The fires have damaged or destroyed hundreds of structures in Maui County, local officials estimate.

    “All of those buildings virtually are going to have to be rebuilt,” Green said Thursday. “It will be a new Lahaina that Maui builds in its own image with its own values.”

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  • Smoke rushed in, then they ran. How local Maui residents faced the fire that killed their neighbors and leveled their town | CNN

    Smoke rushed in, then they ran. How local Maui residents faced the fire that killed their neighbors and leveled their town | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The day began windier than usual in Lahaina, a Hawaiian sunrise painting the sky enchanting colors, a powerful breeze carrying the salty scent of the North Pacific Ocean inland.

    The fire that had started on the mountain early that morning had crept a little closer to their storied Maui neighborhood.

    But it still looked so far off.

    The winds were building, though, their erratic gusts heaving the fire’s smoke in great bursts toward their homes.

    Off Front Street at the ocean, near the oldest historic house on Maui and the beloved banyan tree, La Phena Davis watched the blaze Tuesday from the home where she, her great-grandparents, grandparents and grandchildren all lived.

    “Never in a million years did I think that fire would reach our home,” she would say later.

    Dustin Kaleiopu and his grandfather also felt the wind at home not far away. He knew, after Hurricane Lane in 2018 sparked wildfires on the island, how wind and flames could threaten and destroy. That time, the fire department had knocked at their door to warn them the danger was getting close.

    “But this time, it was nothing,” he remembered. “No warning at all.”

    Soon, though, the fire sent its own message.

    “The smoke started getting thicker and blacker,” Kaleiopu recalled. “The smoke was filling our house, and we had no choice.

    “I told my grandpa we needed to go,” he said, to abandon their home to the worsening fumes and approaching flames.

    The “thick, black smoke” also reached Davis, she said.

    She grabbed her important papers, knowing she, too, had to get out – and leave to the fire’s whims a place that housed generations, plus decades of their cherished belongings and memories.

    Four miles away in Kaanapali, Bryan Aguiran was at work. An emergency alert soon reached him by phone, urging Lahaina residents to flee: The smoke had given way to flames.

    Their community of 12,000 was being eaten alive.

    Aguiran, of course, already was effectively evacuated. But this son of the one-time capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom couldn’t abide his own safety.

    “I started driving my truck to Lahaina, but they blocked the road, they didn’t let anyone in,” he said. “I ran out of gas, so I parked my truck at work and started walking.”

    He walked an hour before reaching a hilltop on upper Lahainaluna Road.

    That’s when he saw it.

    Bryan Aguiran poses on a beach in Lahaina before the wildfire tore apart his community.

    “It looked like doomsday Armageddon,” Aguiran recalled. “It looked like ‘The Simpsons’ episode when the dragons flew over the houses and blew fire.”

    Explosions like bombs erupted. Breathing was tough.

    “It looked,” he said, “like a war zone.”

    The flames arrived at the Tortoise and Bird Refuge in Lahaina with little notice beyond the day’s uptick in wind, Teri Lawrence recalled.

    “Around 3, 4 o’clock, we were starting to see flames everywhere,” the animal sanctuary keeper said. “We started taking water from the ocean and spraying it on the flowers and hedges.”

    “We saw houses all over us burn,” she said. “We kept trying to put the fires out, but there was no way we could keep up. My staff guy was jumping fences with the hose freaking out, then we heard explosions from propane tanks, and we watched the next street over become engulfed in flames.”

    Still, Lawrence thought they could save the animal sanctuary, she said.

    Then, her neighbor’s roof caught on fire.

    Lawrence grabbed important documents, a few photos of her parents, the ashes of her late brother and cats, and her late dog’s blanket. Even as she slashed through her emergency to-do list, though, “you don’t actually believe you’re not coming back,” she said.

    “I really, honestly, thought we were coming back.”

    Scared and hysterical, they gathered up all the animals – or so they thought – and sped away from the flames.

    Not far away on the ocean, boat captain Christina Lovitt soon found herself on a skiff, also trying to help.

    She and two other captains, including her wife, had watched around sunset as black smoke overtook the sky before the wildfire’s flames burned her boat – the one she’d put “every penny” into – right there on the water, she said.

    The scene was “toxic,” Lovitt said. Boats in the harbor had burned up, and others were on the brink of explosion.

    The trio had managed to get onto the small, flat-bottomed skiff and were ushering others to safety when a large wave flooded their motor, rendering it inoperable.

    Stymied from anchoring by 70- to 80-mph gusts, they drifted and eventually were pulled onto a 120-foot boat, Lovitt recalled. That boat had a generator, a radio and drinking water on board, but the wind had blown out the windows. So, the women started boarding them up to keep the smoke at bay.

    Then, the onboard radio crackled: The Coast Guard needed help finding wildfire survivors who’d had no choice but to jump into the ocean after getting boxed out by flames.

    Another passing boat lent them gas, Lovitt said. The women got back to the skiff, refueled and headed out into the night.

    Heavy smoke and the dark night meant the makeshift rescue crew could hardly see. But they managed to find a 5-year-old and a 6-year-old, plucking them from the water and handing them over to the Coast Guard, Lovitt said.

    As dawn approached, the life Lovitt had loved kept burning all around her, she said.

    “There were waves on fire.”

    Hawaii Army National Guard helicopters drop water from buckets on the wildfire Wednesday.

    Back in Lahaina, paramedics had texted Dr. Reza Danesh with the horror they’d witnessed.

    “‘Hey docs, there’s bodies on the ground, a lot and they’re around,’” recounted the emergency medicine doctor.

    Danesh headed in.

    “I didn’t realize what I was walking into” when he got there Wednesday, said the founder of MODO Mobile Doctor. “It reminded me a little bit of Covid and the pandemic, how you’d see images from New York, it was a ghost town.”

    “It was still fresh and hot,” Danesh told CNN, “like an atomic bomb had gone off.”

    The doctor found people who hadn’t eaten or drank water for hours, he said. He and his staff treated people in serious shock, with respiratory problems, with eye injuries.

    The survivors told him their stories, which he shared on Instagram: One man had used a rope to rappel three stories down from his apartment when he saw the flames. He’d felt how hot the walls were and knew not to open his door. The man said everyone else in his building died, according to the doctor.

    A woman in her Front Street apartment got surrounded by flames along with her neighbors, Danesh recalled her telling him. She left her pet bird, jumped the sea wall with her neighbors and fled with them into the ocean. Some paddled out on rafts and surfboards, she later told Danesh in a video. She watched one of her neighbors die from smoke inhalation, she said.

    A man walks Wednesday past wildfire wreckage in Lahaina.

    When he entered Armageddon from the hilltop, Aguiran also had seen the bodies, perhaps among at least 55 people confirmed dead through Thursday in the fire, with the tally expected to rise.

    Aguiran and other islanders had grabbed buckets of water to try to save homes yet untouched by the blaze, soaking the land around them to try to protect them from burning, said his cousin Ella Sable Tacderan.

    But the fire was too much. Aguiran watched his parents’ house burn down, one of five family homes destroyed, Tacderan said, and among more than 270 structures declared impacted so far by the fire in Lahaina.

    “He is scarred,” she said of Aguiran, who with 22 other relatives is taking refuge at Tacderan’s home in Wailuku Maui, taking stock of the terror, the trauma and the yet unknowable future.

    Lawrence, her sanctuary staffers and their animals ended up at a 12-floor hotel parking garage in Kaanapali only to meet a horrifying realization: “We forgot two tortoises and seven birds we accidentally left behind,” she said.

    “Everyone was like, ‘Yes, yes. I got them,’ but … we didn’t,” she said. “We actually left those animals to fry. It’s unbelievable. My heart is destroyed, knowing their fear, knowing I told them, ‘You’ll never have to worry when you’re with me, never.’

    “And I left them,” she said. “I can’t fathom their fear.”

    The survivors – human and animal – were stuck in the parking deck for 30 hours without food, water or sleep as the surviving creatures were dropped off at sanctuaries, Lawrence said.

    Their caretaker’s nightmare isn’t over.

    “I’m covered in soot, still wearing the clothes I had on from the day of the fire; that’s all I’ve got,” she said Thursday from a friend’s home in Huelo. “I lived there for 32 years, but it feels like I was never born. I’ve got nothing else.”

    Lovitt’s skiff arrived some 7 miles north at Kaanapali Beach late afternoon the day after the fire ordeal began, she said.

    “We looked like refugees or something,” Lovitt said. “It was like something out of a movie.”

    Finally ashore, they helped another boat unload humanitarian aid supplies, she said. And though the power is out, Lovitt’s house still stands – and is sheltering those whose homes are just debris.

    Kaleiopu and his grandpa also got out of Lahaina, as did his brother and their dad, who before spotting the other son in evacuation traffic had feared his whole family dead, he said.

    Still, “the home is lost,” Kaleiopu said.

    “Everything in Lahaina is completely gone,” he said, referencing aerial footage. It “was completely devastating to see when we woke up, seeing what our town had transformed into just overnight.

    “Everyone that I know and love, everyone that I’m related to, that I communicate with, my colleagues, friends, family – we’re all homeless.”

    Davis made it out alive, too, from her family’s generational home. She and her relatives now also are apart in temporary houses after “everything that we’ve owned, in all my 50 years of life, is completely burned to the ground,” she said.

    Front Street, known for its art galleries, stores, restaurants and historical sites, has been “completely impacted and leveled,” Davis said. “There’s absolutely nothing left of our neighborhood.”

    “It’s a loss of our entire community, our town that we’ve known it to be for generations,” she said.

    “We’re shook to our core.”

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  • These factors are making it hard to combat the deadly Maui wildfires | CNN

    These factors are making it hard to combat the deadly Maui wildfires | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The wind-whipped fires in Maui spread swiftly and created a deadly tinderbox, overwhelming residents and local officials in one of the nation’s deadliest wildfires.

    “It’s very strange to hear about severe wildfires in Hawaii – a wet, tropical island – but strange events are becoming more common with climate change,” Jennifer Marlon, a research scientist and lecturer at the Yale School of the Environment, told CNN.

    Fueled by a combination of strong winds and dry conditions – and complicated by the island’s geography – the fires have killed at least 36 people.

    “For those of us who’ve been working on this problem, it just makes us feel sick,” said Clay Trauernicht, an assistant specialist who studies tropical fire at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

    Maui’s wildfire appears to be one of the deadliest in modern US history. The fire already ranks as the second deadliest in the past 100 years, trailing California’s Camp fire, which killed 85 people in November 2018, according to CalFire.

    Trauernicht said it was by far the deadliest wildfire in Hawaii’s history.

    These are some factors making it difficult to combat the fires that have plunged a state known for its stunning natural beauty into an unprecedented crisis:

    Drought worsened in Hawaii over the past week, leading to fire spread, according to the US Drought Monitor released Thursday. Severe level drought conditions in Maui County ticked up to 16% from 5% last week, while statewide moderate drought levels jumped to 14% from 6%.

    Dried-out land and vegetation can provide fuel for wildfires, which then can swiftly turn deadly if strong winds help fan the flames toward communities.

    “It’s more a fuels problem than a climate problem – which means that it’s a problem we can tackle,” Trauernicht said in a phone interview.

    “There are tangible actions that we could be taking that would reduce the risk of something like this happening in the future,” he added, referring to measures such as the creation of fuelbreaks to reduce fire-prone vegetation and support for agricultural land use.

    “It’s a priority when the fires are burning. But at that point, it’s too late.”

    While scientists try to fully understand how the climate crisis will affect Hawaii, they have said drought will get worse as global temperatures rise: Warmer temperatures increase the amount of water the atmosphere can absorb – which then dries out the landscape.

    Drought conditions are becoming more extreme and common in Hawaii and other Pacific Islands, according to the Fourth US National Climate Assessment, released in 2018. Rainfall has generally been decreasing in Hawaii over time, with the number of consecutive dry days increasing, scientists noted in the report.

    And the climate crisis has caused droughts that previously may have occurred only once every decade to now happen 70% more frequently, global scientists reported in 2021.

    “Combining abundant fuels with heat, drought, and strong wind gusts is a perfect recipe for out-of-control fires,” Marlon said by email.

    “But this is what climate change is doing – it’s super-charging extreme weather. This is yet another example of what human-caused climate change increasingly looks like.”

    Evacuation orders in parts of Hawaii as wildfires grow

    Hurricane Dora, a fast-moving and powerful Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 140 mph, isn’t helping matters.

    As the storm roared south of Hawaii, a strong high-pressure system stayed in place to the north, with the two forces combining to produce “very strong and damaging winds,” according to the National Weather Service.

    “These strong winds coupled with low humidity levels are producing dangerous fire weather conditions” through Wednesday afternoon, the weather service said.

    The high winds, ongoing drought conditions and dry relative humidity are “ingredients to spark those fires and to fan the flames,” CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam said.

    “The problem is that this wind – similar to, let’s say, Santa Ana winds in Southern California – is that it dries out and it warms up as it (travels down) the mountains, and it creates these very dry, timber-like conditions,” he said.

    Hurricane Lane in 2018 was also associated with large fires on Maui and Oahu, noted Abby Frazier, a climatologist and geographer at Clark University in Massachusetts.

    “Wildfire is a bigger issue in Hawaii than many people may realize,” Frazier said via email from Hawaii, where she has been working on a research project in Oahu.

    “During the wet season, fuels are built up and then dry out over the dry season,” she added. “When you combine these dry fuels with the high winds and low humidity we have right now from Hurricane Dora, we have extremely dangerous fire weather.”

    Another compounding factor is El Niño, Frazier said. The climate pattern originates in the Pacific Ocean along the equator and impacts weather all over the world.

    “This means higher than usual hurricane activity in the central Pacific this summer,” she wrote.

    “While we tend to see wetter conditions during El Nino summers (which builds up fire fuels), Hawaii should expect drought conditions likely this winter, which will dry out the fuels and usually leads to an earlier start to our fire season for next year.”

    van dam hawaii vpx

    A hurricane is fueling wildfires in Hawaii. Meteorologist explains how

    Nonnative species now cover nearly a quarter of Hawaii’s total land area, and invasive grasses and shrubs become highly flammable in the dry season, Trauernicht said.

    Hawaii also has lost large plantations and ranches, with fire-prone grasses overtaking fallow lands, he said.

    “When plantations were active, firefighters would show up on scene … people would be there opening the gates, all the roads were maintained, there was water infrastructure and equipment. And they would have support from the people working on these plantations,” Trauernicht said.

    “As that has changed, and land use has changed. It’s all on the firefighters right now.”

    Hawaii also has suffered from dramatic shifts in rainfall patterns.

    The area burned each year in Hawaii is now about 1% of the state’s total land area – comparable to and often exceeding the 12 Western states on the mainland where fires are most common, according to Trauernicht and the Pacific Fire Exchange.

    The geography of Hawaii – an island chain in the Pacific – and limited firefighting resources also complicate efforts.

    Personnel at the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife are primarily natural resource managers, foresters, biologists and technicians – not full-time wildland firefighters, according to the agency website.

    “West Maui is kind of a perfect example – one highway through the whole place,” Trauernicht told CNN. “Our resources are limited to what’s on island. The resources … are going to be spread thin.”

    Fewer than 300 firefighting personnel responded to the state’s second-largest fire, on the Big Island in 2021, Trauernicht said.

    “If you compare that to the mainland, there would have been probably a couple of thousand firefighters,” he said.

    “That gives you a sense of the kind of … limitations that we have here. This fire right now, I guarantee it, anyone who’s available to respond is responding. We don’t really have the ability to definitely bring in resources from other states. That’s not happening.”

    By Thursday, meanwhile, the wildfires had killed at least 36 people on the island, compared to six deaths reported just a day earlier.

    “I think this is going to be far worse than anything we’ve ever seen, unfortunately,” Trauernicht said.

    Despite warnings it seems many were taken by surprise.

    “The National Weather Service issued a kind of heads up. We had a few days lead time about the weather conditions,” Trauernicht said.

    “We anticipated the high winds and dry conditions. But managing fuels at the scale in which we need to, those are actions that need to be taken at minimum months in advance of these fires and these conditions.”

    Longer-term planning and prevention efforts are needed to fight the growth of invasive grasses and shrubs, Trauernicht said.

    “This is something that we’ve been saying for decades,” he said. “We can create landscapes that are far less likely to burn, far less sensitive to these fluctuations in climate or in weather that create such dangerous conditions.

    “We sort of owe it to these guys that are fighting this thing right now.”

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  • 36 people have died from the wildfires in Hawaii, Maui County officials say | CNN

    36 people have died from the wildfires in Hawaii, Maui County officials say | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    [Breaking news update, published at 4:11 a.m. ET]   

    The death toll in Maui County is now 36, according to a press release from the county.

    “As the firefighting efforts continue, 36 total fatalities have been discovered today amid the active Lahaina fire. No other details are available at this time,” the release said.

    [Original story, published at 3:56 a.m. ET]   

    As deadly wildfires devastating parts of Maui approach their third day, residents and visitors are recalling harrowing escapes by car or boat, taking stock of the homes and landmarks they’ve lost and wondering what to do next.

    The fires have killed at least six people on the Hawaiian island and displaced hundreds if not thousands, officials say, and many have left not knowing whether anything but ashes will be left when they return.

    In the badly scorched western Maui community of Lahaina, Mark and Maureen Stefl have now lost their home to a wildfire for the second time in less than five years. On Tuesday they first saw flames under half a mile from their home, and when winds picked up, the fire suddenly was in their yard, Mark Stefl told CNN on Wednesday.

    “We just lost our house again. Twice in four years,” Mark Stefl said. “We just got our house back to where we wanted it, and this happened.”

    The first time their home burned to the ground, it was from a quick-moving fire fanned by winds from 2018’s Hurricane Lane. Now, the two-story yellow abode they rebuilt is gone, and so are their cat and dog.

    “The fire just engulfed our house,” he said.

    Fanned in part by fierce winds from Hurricane Dora passing hundreds of miles to the south, this week’s fires on Maui and to a lesser extent Hawaii’s Big Island ignited and spread Tuesday, jumping freeways, advancing into neighborhoods and destroying people’s homes and businesses.

    Thousands of people, especially on Maui’s western side, can’t call 911 or update loved ones about their status because power and communications were knocked out, authorities said. Hospitals are overwhelmed, several people are unaccounted for, and more than 2,000 people were in Maui shelters Tuesday night, officials said.

    Hawaii Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke called the situation “unprecedented.” Here’s the latest:

    • 6 deaths reported: The deaths were discovered Wednesday “amid the active Lahaina fire,” Maui County officials said. Names weren’t immediately released.

    • Several unaccounted for: Three helicopters from the US Coast Guard and US Navy were used in search and rescue efforts along the west Maui coastline, and a federal team arrived Wednesday to help search efforts in the Lahaina area, officials said.

    • Cell service out for thousands in Maui: It could take days or even weeks to fix networks. Officials have been using satellite phones to communicate with providers on the west side of Maui to restore power to the area, Luke said.

    • Among the most devastated areas: Much of the western Maui community of Lahaina, where about 12,000 people live, is destroyed and hundreds of families there have been displaced, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said. More than 270 structures have been impacted in Lahaina, county officials said.

    • Many in shelters: More than 2,100 people were in four emergency shelters in Maui on Tuesday night, the mayor’s office said. While there’s enough shelter for an emergency response for a few days, “there’s not enough shelter for long term living,” the governor told CNN.

    • Visitors urged to leave: Maui County officials are asking visitors to leave Lahaina and Maui as soon as possible, noting seats were available on outgoing flights. Nonessential travel to Maui is strongly discouraged, they said.

    • Hospitals overwhelmed: Hospitals on Maui were overwhelmed with burn patients and people suffering from smoke inhalation, Luke told CNN Wednesday. Some patients should be taken elsewhere because Maui hospitals aren’t equipped for extensive burn treatment, but transportation challenges have made that difficult, Luke said.

    Hawaii is asking President Joe Biden to declare an emergency, Green told CNN’s Sara Sidner Wednesday evening, adding that he expects “billions of dollars of structural damage.”

    Maui resident Daniel Sullivan said the scene was “apocalyptic” when an inferno surrounded his neighborhood Tuesday and inched closer.

    His children were sleeping downstairs in his home as he watched from the roof all night, preparing to go when flames got too close. He saw the fire get “closer and closer – and we had no way to get out because the roads were blocked.”

    His home survived, but many friends lost theirs, he said. “The island has been decimated,” he told CNN’s Kaitlin Collins.

    Braintin Stevens left a burning Lahaina Harbor by boat Tuesday, he told CNN, sharing a video of thick, black smoke rising from the harbor as he departed.

    The Coast Guard used a 45-foot boat to rescue 14 people who had fled into the water off Lahaina on Tuesday to escape advancing flames, the service said.

    More than 11,000 people were flown out of Maui on Wednesday, Hawaii Department of Transportation Director Ed Sniffen said in a news conference Wednesday evening. Airlines, including Alaska, Delta, United and American, all brought in larger planes to get more people off the island, while Southwest dropped its fares and increased service, Sniffen said.

    Helicopter footage shows scores of structures on Maui burned to the ground, many of them in the historic town of Lahaina, a touristic and economic hub on the west side of the island.

    “It looked like an area that had been bombed in the war,” Richie Olsten, a pilot who flew a helicopter over Maui Wednesday afternoon, told CNN’s Jake Tapper.

    Lahaina resident Alan Dickar watched one of his houses burn and the other engulfed in smoke as he evacuated.

    “There is a very good chance that they are not there anymore,” Dickar said Wednesday.

    Maui resident Jeff Melichar had to evacuate Tuesday evening as embers and smoke enveloped his home.

    “I am told my house is gone, but we are not yet allowed access to West Maui,” he said.

    Lt. Gov. Luke said she got to see the destruction in Lahaina firsthand during a flyover on Wednesday, calling it “shocking and devastating.” “The whole town was decimated,” Luke said.

    “We’re still trying to assess the amount of damage but the road to recovery will be long,” Luke said. “It’s going to take years.”

    The fires have destroyed important Hawaiian historical and cultural sites, according to a CNN analysis of new Maxar Technologies satellite imagery.

    A satellite image shows an overview of wildfire destruction in Lahaina on Wednesday.

    The satellite imagery, taken at 11:03 a.m. local time Wednesday, shows several buildings on historically significant Front Street have been destroyed. In central Lahaina, smoke is still seen rising from the Kohola Brewery building.

    The images also show that one of the largest banyan trees in the US – the size of an entire city block and was more than 60 feet high in in central Lahaina – has been burnt. It was imported from India in 1873, Hawaii’s Tourism Authority says.

    The Lahaina Heritage Museum, located just west of the tree, could be seen with its roof collapsed and only walls still standing. Just north of the tree, another important historical site, the Baldwin Home Museum, has been reduced to ash.

    Farther north, the Wo Hing Temple Museum has been destroyed.

    “We have no more Lahaina. It’s gone,” Stefl, the man who lost his home for a second time, told CNN Wednesday.

    Stefl, who was staying with his wife at a friend’s house on the other side of Maui on Wednesday, said he would “rebuild, like we did before.”

    “We love it here. We have a lot of friends here. We’ll get through this,” he said.

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  • At least 6 dead as Maui wildfires overwhelm hospitals, sever 911 services and force people to flee into the ocean | CNN

    At least 6 dead as Maui wildfires overwhelm hospitals, sever 911 services and force people to flee into the ocean | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    At least six people have died as a result of the fires that are continuing to ravage parts of Maui, the island’s mayor, Richard Bissen Jr., said at a Wednesday morning news conference.

    “I’m sad to report that just before coming on this, it was confirmed we’ve had six fatalities,” he said. “We are still in a search and rescue mode.” He did not offer further details about the deaths.

    More than a dozen people had to be rescued from the ocean, among them two young children, officials in Maui County said.

    Several people are also unaccounted for, Bissen added.

    “As a result of three fires that have occurred that are continuing here on our island we have had 13 evacuations from different neighborhoods and towns, we’ve had 16 road closures, we’ve opened five shelters,” Bissen said, noting more than 2,000 people were staying at shelters.

    “We’ve had many dwellings – businesses, structures – that have been burned, many of them to the ground,” the mayor said, adding most were in the western town of Lahaina.

    Bissen said helicopters that could not safely fly a day earlier due to high winds were in the sky Wednesday and using water drops to help suppress the flames. It will be impossible to estimate the extent of the damage until the blazes are put out, he added.

    The flames have torched hundreds of acres and are still not contained.

    “Local people have lost everything,” said James Kunane Tokioka, the state’s business, economic development and tourism director, at the news conference. “They’ve lost their house, they’ve lost their animals and it’s devastating.”

    Video footage shot by Air Maui Helicopter Tours over parts of the Lahaina area shows entire blocks were decimated by the flames, with little but ruins and ashes left, and everything still engulfed in a thick, hazy smoke.

    “We were not prepared for what we saw. It was heartbreaking, it looked like an area that had been bombed in the war,” Richie Olsten, the director of operations for the tour agency, told CNN’s Jake Tapper Wednesday. “It’s just destroyed.”

    “In my 52 years of flying on Maui, I’ve never seen anything like that in my life,” Olsten added.

    Hawaii’s governor, who was on a personal trip this week, said he was rushing back to the state Wednesday.

    The true scope of devastation on the idyllic Hawaiian island remains unknown.

    That’s because the infernos have knocked out cell service, hindered emergency communications and trapped residents and tourists on the island, which is home to about 117,000.

    The wildfires – fueled in part by Hurricane Dora churning some 800 miles away – have cut off 911 service and other communications in many parts of Maui.

    “911 is down. Cell service is down. Phone service is down,” Hawaii Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke told CNN on Wednesday.

    “Our hospital system on Maui, they are overburdened with burn patients, people suffering from inhalation,” she said. “The reality is that we need to fly people out of Maui to give them burn support because Maui hospital cannot do extensive burn treatment.”

    The disaster also has wiped out power to more than 12,000 homes and businesses in Maui, according to PowerOutage.us.

    Tourists are being discouraged from going to Maui, Luke told reporters Wednesday.

    “Today we signed another emergency proclamation which will discourage tourists from going to Maui,” she said. “Even as of this morning, planes were landing on Maui with tourists. This is not a safe place to be.”

    In certain parts of the island, there are shelters that are overrun, Luke added: “We have resources that are being taxed.”

    Hawaii isn’t the only US state grappling with devastating wildfires – a trend some experts had predicted for this season. Parts of Texas are under a critical fire risk Wednesday, a day after a brush fire engulfed an apartment building in the Austin area.

    But the crisis unfolding in Maui is extraordinary, Hawaii’s lieutenant governor said.

    “We never anticipated in this state that a hurricane which did not make impact on our islands, will cause this type of wildfires,” Luke told reporters at Wednesday’s news conference. “Wildfires that wiped out communities, wildfires that wiped out businesses, wildfires that destroyed homes.”

    Alan Dickar just learned one of his rental properties went up in flames when he saw Lahaina, an economic hub, get swallowed by wildfire.

    “Front Street exploded in flame,” Dickar told CNN Wednesday.

    Dickar, who has lived in the area for 24 years, said there was little time to flee.

    “I grabbed some people I saw on the street who didn’t seem to have a good plan. And I had told them, ‘Get your stuff, get in my truck,’” he said.

    “And there’s only one road that leads out of Lahaina, so obviously it was backed up,” Dickar said. “I dropped everybody else off and then I went to a place in another part of Maui that’s far away. And as soon as I got there, that whole area had to evacuate because of a totally different fire. … Just as I arrived, that whole area got evacuated.”

    Dickar eventually fled to a remote part of Maui. “I figured that was enough, and I’m safe here at least from a fire evacuation because it’s a rainforest,” he said.

    Clint Hansen took drone video Tuesday night that showed wildfires spreading just north of Kihei.

    Clint Hansen shot this footage of catastrophic blazes on the island of Maui.

    “Lahaina has been devastated,” Hansen told CNN. “People jumping in the ocean to escape the flames, being rescued by the Coast Guard. All boat owners are being asked to rescue people. It’s apocalyptic.”

    Live Updates: Wildfires burn in Maui, prompting rescues in Lahaina

    And it’s not clear where the disaster will head next.

    Maui fire officials warned that erratic wind, challenging terrain, steep slopes and dropping humidity, plus the direction and the location of the fire conditions make it difficult to predict path and speed of a wildfire, according to Maui County officials.

    “The fire can be a mile or more from your house, but in a minute or two, it can be at your house,” Maui County Fire Assistant Chief Jeff Giesea said. “Burning airborne materials can light fires a great distance away from the main body of fire.”

    State officials are working with hotels and a local airline to try to evacuate tourists to another island, Luke said. But severed communications have hindered efforts.

    “Resorts and visitors and commercial districts have lost communication due to downed cell towers and landlines that only work within very local areas. “As a result, 911 service is currently down,” said Mahina Martin, chief communications officer from Maui Emergency Management Agency.

    Maui County officials have not been able to communicate with many people on the west side – including those in the Lahaina area, Luke said.

    Satellite phones have been the only reliable way to get in touch with some areas, including hotels, the lieutenant governor said.

    The Kahului Airport was sheltering about 1,800 travelers from “canceled flights and flight arrivals,” the Hawaii Department of Transportation posted on social media.

    Members of a Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources wildland firefighting crew battle a fire Tuesday in Kula, Hawaii.

    Members of the Hawaii National Guard are assisting with the calamity in Maui – with more on the way.

    “Hawaii National Guardsmen have been activated and are currently on Maui assisting Maui Police Department at traffic control points,” Maj. Gen. Kenneth Hara, Hawaii’s adjutant general, posted on Facebook.

    The overnight deployment was hastened by the dynamic fire conditions, Hara wrote, adding more National Guard personnel would arrive in the counties of Maui and Hawaii later Wednesday.

    Dora, a powerful Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 130 mph, was about 795 miles southwest of Honolulu as of Wednesday morning, the National Hurricane Center said. No coastal watches or warnings were in effect.

    Smoke rises from a wildfire Tuesday in Lahaina, on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

    As Dora travels south of the islands, a strong high-pressure system remains in place to the north. The area of high pressure in combination with Dora is producing “very strong and damaging winds,” the National Weather Service said.

    Winds as high as 60 mph are expected through the overnight in Hawaii, then will begin to diminish through the day on Wednesday.

    “These strong winds coupled with low humidity levels are producing dangerous fire weather conditions that will last through Wednesday afternoon,” the weather service said.

    By Wednesday afternoon, the area of high pressure, as well as Dora, will both drift westward, allowing the winds to subside.

    Two brushfires were burning Tuesday on the Big Island, officials said in a news release, one in the North Kohala District and the other in the South Kohala District. Some residents were under mandatory evacuation orders as power outages were impacting communications, the release said.

    Plumes of smoke billow Tuesday from a fire in Lahaina, Maui County.

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