The deἀth toll from the flames that ravaged parts of the Hawaiian island of Maui this week has increased to 80, according to officials in Hawaii on Friday 11 August 2023. The County of Maui announced at 9 p.m. that the number of confirmed fatalities had grown from the prior total of 67.
Gov. Josh Green had already warned that the deἀth toll would almost certainly grow as search and rescue efforts continued. Authorities have imposed a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Saturday 12 Aughust, 2023.
“The recovery’s going to be extraordinarily complicated, but we do want people to get back to their homes and just do what they can to assess safely, because it’s pretty dangerous,” Green told Hawaii News Now.
Maui Looks Before And After
Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen Jr. reported that cadaver-sniffing dogs had been sent to look for the deceased. Burned-out automobile hulks, the pavement stained with melted and then rehardened chrome. Block after block of homes and businesses destroyed. Telephone poles and elevator shafts have sprung from the ashy sites where apartment buildings formerly stood. The fierce heat twisted a truck bed full of glass bottles into strange forms.
Utter devastation left by the wildfires in Maui, Hawaï. It is far from hyperbole to say that Lahaina has been wiped off the map.
Credit: Vince Carter pic.twitter.com/dlwxTNY51R
— Nahel Belgherze (@WxNB_) August 9, 2023
Standing beneath Lahaina’s renowned banyan tree, now charred, Anthony Garcia brushed twisted limbs into orderly piles adjacent to another lot filled with dead animals: cats, roosters, and other birds killed by the smoke and fire. In a world turned upside down, it made sense.
“If I don’t do something, I’ll go nuts,” said Garcia, who lost everything he owned. “I’m losing my faith in God.”
Garcia and other neighbors faced widespread devastation Friday as they assessed their wrecked homes and livelihoods as a result of the flames that raged over areas of Maui this week and were still not fully contained. A fresh fire Friday evening forced the evacuation of Kaanapali in West Maui, a neighborhood northeast of the earlier burned area, according to the Maui Police Department on social media.
The fire, which was totally extinguished by 8:30 p.m., broke out in an area where a county fuelling station had been set up to deliver approximately 3,000 gallons (11,356 liters) of gasoline and 500 gallons (1,892 liters) of diesel fuel to about 400 waiting vehicles. The county said in a statement that fuel will not be delivered on Saturday.
Before and after photographs of the fire damage in Lahaina, Maui.
Absolutely devastating. pic.twitter.com/rYfLYN2bAg
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) August 10, 2023
Attorney General Anne Lopez announced preparations for a thorough assessment of decision-making and standing policies affecting the response to the catastrophic wildfires. “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.
The wildfires are the state’s biggest natural calamity in decades, exceeding a 61-person tsunami in 1960. A deadlier tsunami in 1946, which killed more than 150 people on the Big Island, sparked the construction of a territory-wide emergency system with monthly siren tests. Many fire survivors reported they didn’t hear any sirens or receive any warnings, only realizing they were in danger when they saw flames or heard explosions.
“There was no warning,” Lynn Robinson, who lost her home, explained.
According to 8 August,2023 to emergency management data in Hawaii, no warning sirens sounded before people had to flee for their lives. Officials issued alerts to mobile phones, televisions, and radio stations, but severe power failures and cellular interruptions may have limited their impact. At least three flames ignited on Maui, fueled by a dry summer and high winds from a passing cyclone, racing through parched foliage covering the island.
On Tuesday, the most catastrophic fire rushed into Lahaina, leaving a grid of gray rubble squeezed between the turquoise ocean and lush green slopes. Nearly every building on Front Street, the heart of old Lahaina and the commercial powerhouse of Maui was destroyed, according to Associated Press journalists. As surviving roosters strolled through the ashes, there was an unsettling traffic gridlock of burnt cars that didn’t make it out of the conflagration. Building skeletons bowed under roofs that pancaked in the fire. Torched palm palms, burned boats in the harbor, and the odour of burning persisted.
New video from Front Street shows virtually all of downtown Lahaina has been burned down. pic.twitter.com/i4ViDhz8K7
— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) August 9, 2023
“It hit so quick, it was incredible,” Kyle Scharnhorst said as he assessed his destroyed apartment complex.
Summer and Gilles Gerling attempted to save items from their home’s ashes. Summer Gerling’s father’s piggy bank, their daughter’s jade bracelet, and watches they gave each other for their wedding were all they could discover. Their wedding rings had vanished. They described their terror as the strong wind blew the smoke and flames closer, but they were relieved to have survived with their two children.
“The primary concern was safety.” “These are all material things,” stated Gilles Gerling.
According to catastrophe and risk modeling firm Karen Clark & Company, the wildfire is already estimated to be the second-costliest disaster in Hawaii history, trailing only Hurricane Iniki in 1992. The fire is the most deadly in the United States since the Camp Fire in California in 2018, which killed at least 85 people and devastated the town of Paradise.
On Maui, the hazard was well understood. Maui County’s amended 2020 hazard mitigation plan classified Lahaina and other West Maui villages as having regular wildfires and multiple properties at risk. West Maui also had the island’s second-highest number of households without a vehicle and the largest rate of non-English speakers, according to the research.
“This may limit the population’s ability to receive, understand, and take expedient action during hazard events,” the strategy warned. Limited staff and equipment may have hampered Maui’s firefighting efforts.
The Maui fire that tore through Lahaina is one of the worst wildfire disasters in US history.
The town of 12,000 people is virtually destroyed, with at least 53 dead and many more missing. More than 1,700 structures have been destroyed, including entire neighborhoods.
Maui is… pic.twitter.com/AoCUyAgVGp
— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) August 11, 2023
According to Bobby Lee, president of the Hawaii Firefighters Association, there are no more than 65 county firefighters on the job at any given time, with responsibility for three islands: Maui, Molokai, and Lanai. The agency has about 13 fire engines and two ladder trucks, but no off-road vehicles to tackle brush fires before they reach roadways or populated areas.
Maui water officials advised residents of Kula and Lahaina not to consume flowing water, which could be tainted even after boiling, and to take only short, tepid showers in well-ventilated rooms to avoid chemical vapor exposure. Showering in water potentially containing hazardous waste levels of benzene is not advisable, according to Andrew Whelton, a Purdue University engineering professor whose team assisted with the Camp Fire and Colorado’s 2021 Marshall Fire, and a do-not-use order would be appropriate until analysis is complete.
Here is an additional article about Maui:
- How Did The Maui Fire Start? What We Know About The Cause Of The Lahaina Blaze?
- People Flee For Safety As Hawaii Flames Burn At Least 36 ki!!ed In Maui Updates
Lana Vierra, a Lahaina resident who filled out FEMA assistance applications at a relative’s house on Friday, escaped Tuesday and was eager to return, although knowing the home where she raised five children and prized possessions such as baby photographs and yearbooks had been destroyed.
“To actually stand there on your burnt grounds and get your wheels turning on how to move forward — I think it will give families that peace,” she says. Riley Curran claimed he escaped his Front Street residence after climbing a neighboring structure for a better view. Due to the rapidity of the oncoming flames, he doubts county officials could have done more.
“It’s not that people didn’t try to do anything,” Curran explained. “The fire went from zero to 100.” Growing up in California, Curran had witnessed horrific wildfires, but “I’ve never seen one eat an entire town in four hours.” Stay tuned to The Current Online for more updates.