2023-08-13 13:07:30
He Forest fire that devastates the island of Maui, in Hawaiihe left a balance of at least 89 dead and thousands of people left homelesswhile the firefighters continued working on the last Saturday to extinguish the flames that were intensified by the passage of Hurricane Dora, in what is already one of the worst catastrophes in the US archipelago.
The death toll makes the fires that have ravaged the Hawaiian island of Maui since last Tuesday the deadliest in the last century in the United Statessaid the governor of Hawaii, Josh Green, during a tour of one of the areas affected by the flames.
“There have been 89 deaths. It’s going to continue to rise. We want to prepare people for that,” Green said in a video posted on his X (formerly Twitter) social network account.
Last Friday night, a new fire caused the evacuation of Kaanapali, an area north of Lahaina, the city devastated by fires earlier in the week. According to the Pacific Disaster Center, in this last town the flames damaged more than 2,200 structures.
The fire got out of control in the middle of the dry conditions and strong hurricane windswhich is located south of the archipelago, although it is not expected to make landfall.
Scenes showing the followingmath of the recent Hawaii fires
It’s quite convenient that those older buildings and the park were all destroyed.. who knows it might transform into another unfortunate corporate or resort zone
The real question is what type of “forest fires” can leave… pic.twitter.com/IHRKF3Isxf
— MAVERICK X (@MAVERIC68078049)
August 12, 2023
Upon returning to their neighborhoods, Maui residents found their homes and cars completely burned by the flameswhich during the last hours were still active in different parts of the island.
These wildfires became the deadliest natural disaster in decades. In 1960 there was a tsunami that killed 61 people and in 1946 an even bigger one, in which 150 lost their lives.
Local authorities confirmed that more than 14,000 people were evacuated from the island of Maui and another 14,500 had to be transferred to other nearby areas.
Also on Maui, some 4,500 people lost power early Saturday, according to Poweroutage.us, which collects data from power companies. In the heart of Lahaina and the island’s economic center, nearly every building on Front Street was destroyed.
Efforts to extinguish the flames were being hampered by understaffing, said Bobby Lee, president of the Hawaii Firefighters Association. There are 65 elements working at the moment, responsible for three islands: Maui, Molokai and Lanai.
The fire ripped through buildings in the Lahaina area.
Maui authorities also warned residents of Kula and Lahaina that the water may be contaminated and should not be consumed. According to calculations by Karen Clark & Company, which does catastrophe and risk modeling, this fire would be the second costliest event in Hawaiian history, behind only Hurricane Iniki in 1992.
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