LAST UPDATE | 11 Aug 2023
FIFTY FIVE PEOPLE have been killed in the devastating Maui wildfires, and the death toll will likely continue to rise.
Maui County officials said just after 9pm (7am Irish time today) that fatalities stood at 55.
One Irishman living in Maui has described the devastation wreaked by the wildfires, saying that many residents have “lost everything” from the disaster.
A search of the wildfire devastation on the Hawaiian island of Maui yesterday revealed a wasteland of obliterated neighbourhoods and landmarks charred beyond recognition.
A flyover of historic Lahaina showed entire neighbourhoods that had been a vibrant vision of colour and island life reduced to grey ash.
Block after block was nothing but rubble and blackened foundations, including along famous Front Street, where tourists shopped and dined just days ago.
Boats in the harbour were scorched, and smoke hovered over the town, which dates to the 1700s and is the biggest community on the island’s west side.
“Lahaina, with a few rare exceptions, has been burned down,” Hawaii Govern0or Josh Green told The Associated Press.
More than 1,000 structures were destroyed by fires that were still burning, he said.
The death toll will likely rise as search and rescue operations continue, Green added, and officials expect it will become the state’s deadliest natural disaster since a 1961 tsunami killed 61 people on the Big Island.
“We are heartsick,” he said.
Peter O’Riordan, an Irishman living in Maui, has posted on social media this evening describing the situation facing survivors.
He described on X, formerly known as Twitter, how he and others are “rallying” and using “boats as water taxis” to bring supplies to people who desperately need it.
“I like other people have lost absolutely everything,” O’Riordan said.
“We’ve lost everything but so has everybody else.”
Update : for media pic.twitter.com/ICgzXzxMxG
— Pete the Treat (@PeterORIordan1) August 11, 2023
He added: “I’m safe, my kids are safe, everything is gone, the town is gone. The most important thing is we’re alive.”
O’Riordan urged that anyone looking to donate should do “due diligence when you’re donating to a cause” in the area.
“The best thing you can do is help out the fire department and help out the police,” he said.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his partner Lauren Sanchez have declared they’re donating $100m to help Maui.
Fuelled by a dry summer and strong winds from a passing hurricane, the fire started on Tuesday and took Maui by surprise, racing through parched growth covering the island and then feasting on homes and anything else that lay in its path.
The official death toll of 55 makes this the deadliest US wildfire since the 2018 Camp Fire in California, which killed at least 85 people and laid waste to the town of Paradise.
The Hawaii toll could rise, though, as rescuers reach parts of the island that had been inaccessible due to the three ongoing fires, including the one in Lahaina that was 80% contained yesterday, according to a Maui County news release.
More than 270 structures have been damaged or destroyed, and dozens of people have been injured, including some critically.
“We are still in life preservation mode. Search and rescue is still a primary concern,” said Adam Weintraub, a spokesperson for Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.
Search and rescue teams still will not be able to access certain areas until the fire lines are secure and they are sure they will be able to get to those areas safely, Weintraub added.
Communications have been spotty on the island, with 911, landline and cellular service failing at times. Power was also out in parts of Maui.
Tourists were advised to stay away, and about 11,000 flew out of Maui on Wednesday with at least 1,500 more expected to leave yesterday, according to Ed Sniffen, state transportation director.
Officials prepared the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu to take in the thousands who have been displaced.
The fires were fanned by strong winds from Hurricane Dora passing far to the south.
It is the latest in a series of disasters caused by extreme weather around the globe this summer. Experts say climate change is increasing the likelihood of such events.
US President Joe Biden has declared a major disaster on Maui. Traveling in Utah yesterday, he pledged that the federal response will ensure that “anyone who’s lost a loved one, or whose home has been damaged or destroyed, is going to get help immediately”.
Biden promised to streamline requests for assistance and said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was “surging emergency personnel” on the island.
Additional reporting by Eoghan Dalton
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