Hawaii’s ‘greatest natural disaster in history’: At least 55 people died in devastating fires that almost leveled a tourist town in this American state, where the death toll is expected to continue to rise.
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Local Maui County officials reported 55 dead as of 9 p.m. local time Thursday (2 a.m. EST Friday), adding that firefighters were still battling the blaze in the devastated resort town of Lahaina.
Thousands of residents and tourists have already been evacuated from the archipelago’s disaster areas. The death toll could well be more than 60, said Gov. Josh Green, who said that on the island of Maui, Lahaina, the former 19th-century capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii, is “80%” destroyed.
Stunning images by an AFP photographer who was able to fly over Lahaina on Thursday show thousands of buildings completely charred by the sea. Often no walls are preserved, their former location is only covered with a heap of greyish ash.
“This is the worst natural disaster in the history of the state of Hawaii,” the governor told press on Thursday, estimating that the death toll is likely to exceed that of the disaster that took place a year before Hawaii became the 50th state .
“In 1960 there were 61 deaths when a huge wave swept across the Big Island,” he explained.
These devastating fires come in the middle of a summer marked by a series of extreme weather events around the world.
“It looks like a war zone over there,” Brandon Wilson, a tourist who came with his wife to celebrate his 25th wedding anniversary, told AFP while queuing at the airport to leave. maui “It’s really like someone came and bombed the whole city, everything is completely devastated, completely charred,” he says through tears.
Driven by strong winds, fueled by the force of Hurricane Dora, which is currently sweeping the Pacific Ocean, the fires spread so quickly that the population was stunned: Hundreds of residents threw themselves into the sea to escape the flames, they say the Coast Guard.
President Joe Biden has signed a natural disaster declaration unblocking significant federal aid to fund relief efforts, shelter and recovery efforts.
But on site, the locals count the lifeless bodies and get impatient.
“We’re trying to save lives and I don’t feel like we’re getting the help that we need,” said Kekoa Lansford of Lahaina.
“We still see bodies floating in the water and on the dikes,” he added.
About 100 people jumped into the water to escape the blaze, US Coast Guard staffer Aja Kirksey told CNN.
Thousands of people were evacuated from the disaster areas to emergency centers or Maui’s main airport.
“We will have to accommodate thousands of people,” the governor stressed, explaining that the authorities are currently contacting the hotels on the archipelago and appealing to the generosity of residents who can accommodate displaced people in their homes.
Tourists are asked to leave the island, buses are organized to exfiltrate them.
Like Lorraina Peterson, who spent three days in her hotel room during her honeymoon.
Without power and internet, “we were completely helpless,” she told AFP at the airport before boarding.
“Even at the hotel, they didn’t know what was going on,” she added, saying she was “sad for the people who lost their homes.”
Around 11,000 homes and businesses in the archipelago were left without power as of Thursday afternoon, according to website PowerOutage.
According to Thomas Smith, a professor of environmental geography at the London School of Economics and Political Science, the fires have spread quickly across “particularly parched” vegetation on Maui, which has seen below-average rainfall and higher-than-usual temperatures this spring.
While it is always difficult to attribute a specific event to climate change, scientists regularly point out that global warming is increasing the frequency of extreme events. The more intense and frequent the periods of drought, the greater the risk of fires, which spread more quickly.
Massive fires have devastated Canada, a record-breaking heatwave has swept the southern United States, and heatwaves have also swept Europe and parts of Asia.