August 11, 2023 Maui wildfire news

Th US Coast Guard rescued 17 people who fled into the Pacific Ocean to escape the wildfire flames that destroyed the town of Lahaina in Maui, a top officer said Friday.

“They encountered victims that were in the water and also on the seawall,” said Capt. Aja Kirksey, the commander of Section Honolulu. There have been no additional rescues since early Wednesday, she said.

Coast Guard resources — including three cutters and two small boat crews — patrolled the harbor searching for survivors for more than 15 hours covering about 500 square miles, Kirksey said.

“Coast Guard Sector Honolulu command center issued an urgent marine information broadcast to all mariners indicating what we thought would be a mass rescue, which resulted in a response by eight Good Samaritan vessels,” Kirksey said. 

All of the survivors rescued by the Coast Guard were reported to be a stable condition, according to Kirksey. At least one victim was unable to be saved, the commander said, noting they were seen unresponsive by a Coast Guard helicopter.

“Our crews responded really heroically,” she said.

A public health emergency has been declared for the state of Hawaii “to address the health impacts of the wildfires," US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra announced.

The move gives healthcare providers and suppliers more flexibility in caring for people on Medicare and Medicaid.

The agency’s Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response “deployed an initial team of 13 responders to support emergency response efforts in Hawaii,” according to an HHS announcement Friday.

This includes an assessment team from the National Disaster Medical System’s Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team. The team will coordinate with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and local authorities to determine whether additional federal public health or medical resources are needed in Hawaii.

ASPR and other HHS offices such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration are also offering specialized support, the announcement said.

Hawaiian authorities began allowing access to parts of West Maui’s Lahaina area Friday despite limited power, water and cell service.

Residents with identification showing proof of residency, and visitors with proof of hotel reservations, trickled back into the hard-hit area.

Access to historic Lahaina town remains restricted. 

“The area will be protected so that search crews looking for victims can continue to work in the area, and because the fire has caused unsafe conditions,” Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said in a radio broadcast.

Officials said Friday that the current official death toll of 67 only accounts for people found outside buildings.

Officials have opened six emergency shelters around Maui, with authorities collecting donations of nonperishable food, water, blankets and hygiene items.   

Water, supply items and clothing are being distributed to residents from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. local time (4 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET) at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Kapalua, on the far northwestern tip of the island. 

Authorities say the Lahaina brush fire is roughly 80% contained and the Pulehu brush fire — burning to the southeast near Kihei — is between 70 and 80% contained.

Firefighters were still not able to provide a figure for the fire in the island's Upcountry area, which makes up the center of the island and is full of hills and ravines that have made access difficult for firefighters.

The devastating Maui wildfires, which have killed dozens of people and displaced thousands more, have cost at least $1.3 billion in damage to at least 3,088 residences, according to a recent preliminary estimate from a research firm.

CoreLogic, which assesses property data, found that most property damage is in Lahaina, a tourist and economic hub where at least 9,000 people live. The company expects more than 2,808 homes will need to be reconstructed, costing $1.1 billion in reconstruction cost value.

Other areas have millions in damage as well. Pulehu has about $147 million in damage and Pukalani has about $4.2 million in damage, CoreLogic forecasts. 

The fires also destroyed countless businesses on Maui, which the estimate from CoreLogic didn’t include. 

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.

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

Hundreds of displaced Maui residents have taken shelter at the War Memorial Gymnasium, where the Red Cross, Maui County and other organizations are providing aid and supplies.

The fires have killed at least 67 people on Maui and left many more displaced. 

Many of the residents at the War Memorial Gymnasium came from the historic town of Lahaina and fled with only the clothes on their backs. Some say they have been unable to locate their loved ones.

A grassroots effort to reconnect families has launched in front of the gymnasium, where Post-It notes containing contact information and names are pinned to a board.

Inside the shelter, scores of people have camped out on mattresses on the ground. 

Kathleen Dukes, 46, was born and raised in Lahaina and said it was surreal to see her community in flames.

Dukes had to leave her elderly mother behind when she fled the fire. She said was first able to speak to her mother on Friday. The home they share is still standing, though an aunt and sister's home was burnt down, Dukes said.

Lynn Robison, 66, lived in the heart of Lahaina, next to the Wharf Cinema Center.

After hearing about the fire, Robison and her friends went to the shoreline near the ocean, in case they needed to jump into the water. The group spent the night sleeping in a grassy patch next to the beach. 

Robison returned to her apartment complex to find it burned to the ground. 

Nelen Cesar, 58, with her husband and three kids, told CNN they arrived at the shelter on Thursday after fleeing their home in Lahaina, where she had lived for more than 30 years. 

Cesar and her family grabbed what they could as they evacuated but were distraught to lose family photographs and mementos from her childhood in the Philippines.

Her daughter returned to the location of the house and sent her pictures showing that it had been razed to the ground. Cesar said the loss is difficult to comprehend. 

"I just want to see the evidence. I'm still hoping and praying it's still there," Cesar said.

There are now 67 confirmed deaths from the wildfires in Hawaii, the Maui County government announced Friday afternoon.

This officially makes the Lahaina fire Hawaii’s deadliest natural disaster in state history, surpassing the 61 confirmed deaths from a tsunami in Hilo in 1960.

“The Lahaina fire is not yet contained,” the government added in a statement.

Some context: Hawaii became a state in 1959, but in 1946 the islands experienced a devastating tsunami that killed 158 people.

Hawaii's governor has ordered a comprehensive review of the state's actions in the hours after devastating wildfires broke out on the islands earlier this week, including why warning sirens were not used to alert residents on Maui.

Green said emergency officials were particularly challenged by the fact that the flames burning near Lahaina — which ultimately built into a firestorm that razed nearly all of the historic town — had died down for a period of time before suddenly reigniting, and firefighters had shifted their focus to other areas on the island.

"The telecommunications were destroyed very rapidly" at that point, Green said, meaning that the tight-knit community was unable to alert one another by phone, as they typically do when there is an emergency. "That communication was cut off," the governor said.

Green said he isn't going to "make any excuse for anyone," but that multiple fires burning at once had created a "very fluid situation across the islands."

Despite those challenges, "we will do all that we can to find out how to protect our people more going forward," Green said.

Some context: Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said Friday that Maui’s warning sirens were not activated.

The statewide public safety warning system has about 400 sirens to alert residents to tsunamis and other natural disasters, according to an agency spokesperson, but "nobody at the state and nobody at the county attempted to activate those sirens based on our records," he said.  

Other layers of the emergency warning system were triggered, however, including mobile phone alerts and messages on televisions and radio stations.

A CNN review of state and local emergency planning documents has also revealed that Hawaii officials had underestimated the deadly threat of wildfires, as recent reports warned officials that funding and preparation for the natural disaster was insufficient.

There are now 59 confirmed deaths from the devastating wildfires in Maui, according to Hawaii Gov. Josh Green.

The new number is up from the previous confirmed toll of 55 deaths.

All of those deaths occurred out in the open, not inside buildings, "as people were trying to escape the fire," Green told CNN on Friday.

He said that number is expected to climb as search efforts are being conducted. 

The federal government has gone into disaster response mode after wildfires destroyed Lahaina on the island of Maui in Hawaii earlier this week.

President Joe Biden issued a federal disaster declaration on Thursday and promised to send whatever is needed to help the recovery.

"We're working as quickly as possible to fight those fires and evacuate residents and tourists. In the meantime, our prayers are with the people of Hawaii, but not just our prayers: every asset that we have will be available to them," Biden said as he began remarks at a Veterans Affairs medical center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Here’s what we know the federal government has deployed to Hawaii in response to the wildfires so far: