Important Takeaways:
- New satellite images show the scale of damage almost one year after deadly wildfires ripped through the historic West Maui town Lahaina — but also show signs of a community gradually recovering.
- The wildfires on Aug. 8, 2023, were the worst natural disaster in Hawaii’s history, destroying more than 3,900 properties and killing more than 100 people, according to Hawaii officials.
- A CBS News analysis of satellite imagery shows signs of recovery but widespread damage remains.
- The first truck full of residential debris left Lahaina in January and headed toward a temporary debris storage site in West Maui, according to Col. Eric Swenson, recovery field office commander with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Since then, 98% of debris from residential properties has been cleared.
- Around 12,000 Maui residents were displaced by the wildfires, according to Hawaii officials.
- Col. Eric Swenson, recovery field office commander with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said he thinks the rebuilding efforts are creating a “sense of hope and encouragement.”
- “Whenever we get a lot cleared and I meet the resident out there, the dynamic has changed,” Swenson said. “The sorrow, the hopelessness, sometimes it fades away. And what they see on that vacant lot is, they see an opportunity. They see their future in front of them.”
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Maui’s wildfire death toll officially 114, but locals running out of body bags reckon it’s closer to 500, with thousands still missing
- Maui Police Chief John Pelletier indicated early last week that rescuers accompanied by scores of cadaver dogs were working their way through the aftermath, over 85% of which had been covered by Sunday, according to Hawaii Gov. Josh Green.
- Locals, whose morgues have reportedly run out of body bags, indicated that the actual number of deaths is the neighborhood of 500.
- Allisen Medina told the Daily Mail, “I know there are at least 480 dead here in Maui, and I don’t understand why they’re [the authorities] not saying that. Maybe it’s to do with DNA or something.”
- The FBI announced Friday it would be opening a DNA matching site to speed up the process.
- “No one has ever seen this that is alive today. Not this size, not this number, not this volume — and we’re not done,” said the Maui police chief.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Total of 850 people are STILL missing in apocalyptic Maui wildfires, officials confirm
- Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen gave the update on a video posted to Facebook, saying the FBI, which is assisting with search efforts, combined various lists of missing people to arrive at the total number.
- ‘It is my sad duty to report that 114 individuals have been confirmed deceased,’ the mayor said on a video posted to Facebook. ‘There are currently 850 names on the list of missing persons.’
- The mayor’s update comes as Biden is set to visit the island following criticism that it took him too long to do so.
- Ella Sable Tacderan, who is currently sheltering 23 relatives at her home, said ‘the community has been a big part of my family’s survival’…She said families were being turned away for aid because applications have not been approved or are still pending.
- Meanwhile Maui resident Mike Cicchino told NewsNation the president’s response to the crisis leaves much to be desired.
- ‘We’re not very political people, we don’t really go one way or the other, but Biden has really failed us.
- ‘When one of the worst disasters in U.S. history happens, he hasn’t been out here and it’s been two weeks as of Tuesday – what kind of president does that?’
- ‘You give all this money and time and efforts to Ukraine but you won’t even do it for Americans? Come on.’
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Maui’s emergency management chief resigns, citing health reasons, a day after he defended sirens’ silence during deadly wildfires
- The resignation of Maui Emergency Management Agency Administrator Herman Andaya is effective immediately, the county said. His post will be filled “as quickly as possible,” Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said.
- The wildfires that ignited August 8 have killed at least 111 people – including children – mostly around Lahaina, an economic and cultural hub obliterated by the infernos.
- And the death toll is expected to rise as searchers – many grieving their own fire losses – keep digging through the charred remains of more than 2,000 burned homes and businesses and “probably still over 1,000” residents remain unaccounted for, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green told CNN on Wednesday.
- Elsewhere on the island, fires are still burning – though they’re mostly contained – as scrutiny mounts over the official wildfire preparations and response, including the role of the local electricity provider and the siren system.
- As the deadly fires spread, no one tried to activate Maui’s 80-alarm, all-hazard outdoor siren system, a spokesperson for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said last week. Andaya on Wednesday was asked whether he regretted not sounding the alarms, which are part of a larger statewide network.
- “I do not,” he told reporters, adding he’d worried their blares would have sent many residents inland “into the fire.”
- Hawaiian Electric – the major power company on Maui – also is facing scrutiny for not shutting down power lines when high winds created dangerous fire conditions.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Maui fire survivors describe nighttime looting and rerouted supply drops as they say local leadership botches emergency response
- Maui residents are becoming increasingly desperate for local leadership to take control of the emergency response to the catastrophic fires that leveled parts of the Hawaiian island and left at least 93 dead.
- While rescue crews made their way across the island with water, food, and first aid, locals told Insider supply drops were being rerouted and anguished residents were taking matters into their own hands.
- “There’s some police presence. There’s some small military presence, but at night, people are being robbed at gunpoint,” Matt Robb, a co-owner of a Lāhainā bar called The Dirty Monkey, told Insider. “People are raped and pillaged. I mean, they’re going through houses — and then by day, it’s hunky-dory. So where is the support? I don’t think our government and our leaders, at this point, know how to handle this or what to do.”
- Kami Irwin, a Maui resident helping to coordinate relief efforts “I had to deal with a situation that wasn’t even part of who I am or what I do,” Irwin said. “I had to talk to pilots that got grounded with our medical supplies who were stuck on the Big Island because the Department of Health stopped them from transporting insulin. And we have people all over the island that need insulin.”
- She said residents chose to take matters into their own hands after realizing they were repeatedly seeing the same local volunteers, not government officials, coordinating aid efforts.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- New video shows Lahaina residents bobbing in choppy ocean after jumping into water to escape Maui fire that killed 55 and counting
- The fire began on Tuesday, spreading quickly and ferociously. The exact cause of it remains unclear but high winds, dry conditions and low humidity exacerbated the flames.
- Fifty-five people have been confirmed dead already and 1,000 remain missing three days on from the blaze.
- In an interview this morning, the Mayor of Maui County said the bodies found so far have all been discovered in the street, outside properties. Search teams have not yet begun pulling bodies from homes and businesses.
- An unknown number of people are also thought to have perished in their cars while trying to escape the hellish flames.
- ‘I think that number could go up. According to those doing the recovery – our police, Coast Guard and National Guard, that was the number they found of people outside of the buildings. We have not yet searched the interior of the buildings. We’re waiting for FEMA to help with that search.
- ‘They are equipped to handle the hazmat conditions of the buildings that have been burned,’ Mayor Richard Bissen told the TODAY show.
- The West side of the island remains without power, water and communications.
- ‘They have no internet, no cell phone. That’s the challenge. We’ve been sending crews out with water…but our focus is on finding any missing persons. We want to give people information.’
- ‘This was an impossible situation. The winds that hit us on that side of the island, the gusts were up to 80mph. Some sustained up to 45 and 60 mph. Everything happened so quickly.
- ‘I can’t comment on whether or not the sirens sounded or not but the fires came up so quickly and spread so fast. ‘
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- At least 36 killed on Maui as fires burn through Hawaii and thousands race to escape
- Wildfires fueled by a dry summer and strong winds from a passing hurricane killed 36 people and destroyed hundreds of homes and other buildings on the Hawaiian island of Maui, in the deadliest blaze in the U.S. in years.
- Firefighters still battled blazes on the island, as local officials prepared to evacuate thousands of visitors and find shelter for residents in need.
- The flames left some people with mere minutes to act and led some to flee into the ocean.
- It is the deadliest fire since the 2018 Camp Fire in California, which killed at least 85 people and virtually razed the town of Paradise.
- Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen Jr. said the island had “been tested like never before in our lifetime.”
Read the original article by clicking here.
