On Thursday, President Joe Biden declared a “major disaster” as at least 36 people are dead due to continued wildfires ravaging Hawaii’s Maui County. As of Thursday afternoon, high winds connected to Hurricane Dora continue to stifle efforts to control the fires. Pentagon officials told news outlets that they are sending more than 100 National Guard members as well as helicopters to help local authorities in search, recovery, and containment operations.
Almost 11,000 people remain without power on the island. The historic town of Lahaina, a major tourist destination, has been razed to the ground by the fires. Survivors told reporters that there was next to no time to evacuate as the fires overtook the town.
The Washington Post reports that a confluence of events—stronger tropical storms and potentially drier foliage due to climate change mixed with “the spread of flammable nonnative grasses across abandoned farm fields and a failure to manage the vegetation and harden communities against fire”—contributed to how fast and devastating these fires have been.
Images coming out of Hawaii tell the story more powerfully than words.
This is an overhead of Lahaina taken in 2023, well before the wildfires.
This is Lahaina Thursday morning.
Here it is before the smoke cleared.
The Federal Aviation Administration has restricted airspace around the island. Meanwhile, vacationers as well as citizens hole up, caught in between.
Before those flight restrictions kicked in, images coming from fly-over traffic painted a picture of how widespread the fire was.
Something about the person being there highlights to the stark devastation of what has happened.
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