So far, at least 96 deaths have been confirmed from the fires and people are still missing as search teams with cadaver dogs search decimated neighborhoods for remains.
The devastation is what remains after several simultaneous wildfires began to spread erratically last Tuesday, suddenly leaping onto and engulfing homes, forcing harrowing escapes and displacing thousands of people.
“This is the largest natural disaster we have ever experienced,” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said at a news conference Saturday night. “It will also be a natural disaster that will take an incredible amount of time to recover from.”
While the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said Saturday that it was premature to allocate even an approximate dollar amount for damage to Maui, the governor estimated that “losses are approaching $6 billion.”
Despite authorities taking stock of the losses and work continuing to identify lost loved ones, the tragedy has not stopped.
While firefighters have made progress fighting the three largest wildfires, the deadly fire in hard-hit Lahaina is still not fully under control, Maui County Fire Chief Brad Ventura said Saturday.
Here’s what we know about the fires, their toll on the island, and the mountain of work ahead:
Lahaina wildfire traveled 1 mile every minute
The most destructive and deadly of the fires, the Lahaina wildfire, spread with extraordinary speed, the governor said in a video update Sunday afternoon.
“When the winds picked up, winds gusting up to 130 km/h, the fires spread rapidly,” Green said. “We think 60 to 80 mph on that part of the island, and that means the fire traveled 1 mile per minute.”
The weather service had issued a “red flag warning” on Monday as dry land, gusty winds and low humidity combined to set the stage for critical fire weather conditions.
On Tuesday afternoon of last week, winds associated with powerful Hurricane Dora that passed hundreds of miles south of Hawaii were fanning the flames of already smoldering wildfires, and multiple evacuations were announced for the Lahaina and Upcountry fires. Maui.
The flames jumped across the roads and suddenly appeared in people’s yards and houses.
“It was a very fast-moving fire,” US Fire Administrator Lori Moore-Merrell said at Saturday’s news conference.
The fire was moving “low to the ground and from structure to structure, incredibly fast so it surpassed anything the firefighters could have done in the first few hours,” he added.
As of 3 pm local time this Sunday, the Lahaina fire, which spanned 878.2 hectares, was 85% contained. Meanwhile, the Upcountry or Kula fire was 60% contained and estimated at 274.4 hectares.
Lahaina is the hardest hit area
About 2,200 structures have been destroyed or damaged due to the fires in West Maui, where the historic town of Lahaina is located, according to Green. About 86% of the structures were residential, she added.
The “older neighborhood” of Lahaina, an economic center in West Maui that attracts millions of tourists each year, is destroyed, Maui County Mayor Richard T. Bissen Jr. previously said.
Historic and cultural sites in Lahaina have also been engulfed by fires, a CNN analysis of new satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies shows.
Fires swept through entire neighborhoods, burning everything in their path.
“It will take many years to rebuild Lahaina. When you see the full extent of the destruction of Lahaina, it will shock you,” Green said last week.
The devastation has displaced thousands of people, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell estimated. As of last Friday night, a total of 1,418 people were in emergency evacuation shelters, according to Maui county officials.
The governor said Sunday that work is intensifying to move displaced Lahaina residents into temporary homes, with more than 500 hotel rooms already secured with government subsidies.
“Airbnb will offer us hundreds of typically short-term rentals in a long-term capacity, so we can put people in one place for months on end,” Green said.
While most Maui schools will reopen this week, with students returning Wednesday, the hardest-hit West Maui schools remain closed, including King Kamehameha III Elementary, which was damaged beyond repair, according to Superintendent Keith Hayashi.
“Our hearts are heavy and the road to recovery will be long, but I have faith in our collective strength to support each other and our students. Together we will heal, we will rebuild and Lāhainā and Maui will prosper once again,” Hayashi continued.
Identifying all the victims will not be easy
Of the dozens found dead in the burned area, only two people had been identified as of Saturday, according to Maui County. Identifying everyone will not be an easy task, authorities say.
“The remains we are finding are from a fire that melted metal. We have to do a quick DNA to identify everyone,” Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said Saturday.
He urged people with missing family members to contact authorities to arrange a DNA test to help in the identification process, saying: “We need to identify your loved ones.”
As the death toll mounted, the Maui wildfires became the deadliest in the US in more than a century, surpassing the 2018 California Camp Fire, according to research by the National Fire Protection Association. fires.
