State of emergency, Maui ablaze | Nightline

right I'm still in a little bit of shock everything happens so quickly and out of nowhere you know we never thought it would grow to what it had grown into [Music] as wildfires burned around him Bosco Bay Jr just escaped with his life he spoke to us from the Walmart in Central Maui I mean we were face to face with fire I could feel the heat burning you know the hairs on my skin I lost the bottom of my eyelashes every single thing around us was on fire except our building at all my possessions and everything I basically you know have in the world at this point might be gone for two days now these deadly massive wildfires have ravaged the island bird on by Hurricane winds this was a home forcing thousands to evacuate I've been here 48 years and I've never seen anything like this in my entire life and it's the deadliest Wildfire to strike Hawaii killing at least 53 people authorities estimate around a thousand people are missing and fear the death toll will continue to rise this place has felt like home from the second I got here and I feel like my childhood home in town has been burnt down to the ground Costco Bay junior and Air Force vet who moved to Lahaina two months ago was desperately fighting The Inferno for an hour and a half he says he was one of the last people to escape from the area it was nobody on the road nothing but Darkness every building left and right seemed like it was on fire navigated around down power cords all kinds of things and slowly we're able to make it basically the safety after a couple miles National Guard helicopters have been working around the clock dropping about 150 000 gallons of water to quench the Flames the Island's largest fire now 80 percent contained but the humanitarian crisis is just beginning thousands displaced shelters overflowing the wildfire's destruction centered here in Lahaina where my colleague Gio Benitez got a first-hand look at the aftermath block after block just homes these were once homes amazing homes right here on Front Street over here we have the famous Front Street apartments and these are just totally burned down anchor David Ono of our Los Angeles station KABC on the ground here too right here behind me is a classic Lahaina neighborhood and as you can see the devastation is vast many many homes on this one city block have gone up in Flames the Beloved National Historic Landmark decimated Rubble covered in soot and Ash is all that's left this once bustling District now a ghost town had to give perspective it is going to take many years to rebuild Lahaina aerial photos showing the Lush landscape of what Lahaina looked like before and the catastrophic aftermath smoke choking the town now Ray is to the ground when I see the aerial views of everything gone you know I literally see all my friends and communities and neighbors homes like completely gone 18-year resident Kelly Chapman's business and home also one of those heaps of charred Earth seen from above I have moments of deep gratitude and moments of just absolute despair we're working as quickly as possible to fight these fires and evacuate residents and tourists President Biden today declaring Maui a major disaster area and mobilizing the military to fight any fires still raging anyone who's lost a loved one whose home has been damaged or destroyed is going to get help immediately people who live near the road out of Lahaina like Kayla Shaw and her family helping their neighbors a lot of them left Lahaina with nothing they had absolutely nothing they just had to run from the Flames all we can do is hold them and offer them everything that we possibly have as they transition through through and figure out what's next Shaw providing for more than 10 families now staying at her home the Hawaiian thinking is you come from the heart and you come from the all which is your instinct in your gut and when we feel moved to help people we don't ignore those feelings here they have access to the basics they lost food water clothing and in local fashion with the Aloha Spirit they're treated like family everyone's still in shock nobody Revisited their homes yet so everyone's kind of just still processing how they survive that that experience Shaw runs the Maui Museum and she says what Lahaina has lost is irreplaceable Lahaina was a huge place for our identity and and we think about our children and and being able to take them back to places where where their ancestry comes from the things that we've lost in Lahaina is is so emotional um because it's personal among the evacuees who jumped into the ocean to escape the blaze a seven year resident of the island Sean Doherty and his girlfriend one point it seemed like it might drown a little bit I inhaled a lot of water he attempted to get out of the water but the hot pavement burned his feet leaving him with second-degree burns Sean was rescued and taken to a shelter separated from his girlfriend amidst the chaos he doesn't know if she survived and has no way of contacting her family concerned about them Sean is just one of so many trying to find their missing loved ones my colleague Gio Benitez spoke to Steven Scott a Maui resident yesterday who was desperately searching for his wife Patricia I know she's safe I I think she's safe but I haven't found her yet he's one of the lucky ones today finally reunited on the other side of the island in Kula about an hour away from Lahaina Devastation from a different fire tree fell over hit the power lines and that's what started to fire we got all out we got the cat that's the most important things like everyone's safe Sabrina Feldman's home was burned to its foundation everybody there eight years ago it was a complete fixer-upper spend every weekend fixing it up um yeah we're gonna start from scratch it's fine all that's left fits in this plastic bag that she and her husband Andre had lost their wedding rings too Andre digging with his bare hands trying to find them an hour later any luck with the ring yes you found it both oh can we see oh my gosh it doesn't look like much right now wow but it's here wow you can even see the Engravings we're good with authorities urging people to get off the island bus loads race to the airport only to be stranded as flights were delayed or canceled overnight many taking temporary Refuge inside the terminal authorities still don't know what sparked the Flames but experts say low humidity dry vegetation and gusts of up to 85 miles an hour fueled the spread of the deadly Inferno and that's why Maui County had such a hard time doing containment of the flyer and because the winds were so high we couldn't provide the helicopters to do the water bucket support for locals and people who grew up here like me Maui is simply Ohana family and home and a living Monument of the Island's Rich Noble Roots Lahaina was once the capital of the old Hawaiian Kingdom in the early 19th century Lahaina was the first seat of government for our Ali and the term Ali is in reference to Chiefs and chiefesses so the governing class and the ruling class of our people are Hawaiian people centuries of history and artifacts reduced to ashes like lahaina's most notable Landmark its 150 year old Banyan Tree it was the largest in the Nation we're talking historical documents books rare books we're talking about also the places that we consider historical in that town churches schools cemeteries it's hard for me to wrap my head around you know the tremendous loss we're talking you know people their their homes their their Traditions that they have passed down from generation to generation hallowed relics they can't get back everyone needs to understand our plight and we ask you if you have resource if you have a connection or a desire to Cocoa support us and help us this is the time in the face of tragedy and Devastation that now haunts the island the Maui Community resilient volunteers many of whom had lost their own homes taking care of one another as they wait to return to their neighborhoods it's still Paradise they won't rebuild and it'll become bigger and better like anything that Rises From the Ashes that's what I truly believe our thanks to Becky and joining me now is Richard Bisson mayor of Maui County mayor thanks for joining us oh thank you for having me on well I know that you and the governor got a first-hand look at the devastation he called it a heartbreaking day what did you see uh we saw what used to be a vibrant town full of residents full of visitors turned into a ghost town there are no more buildings cars are still in the road some with doors open indicating people had to run and what's left is very little of what it used to be indeed heartbreaking with the islands hospitals overwhelmed and so many residents displaced you said everything's gone in that one area what are your priorities tonight well our priorities is to continue to fight fires they're there are not completely contained next is to save lives if we can find people who may have sheltered somewhere if we find them if not recover those folks that may have perished so that we can bring closure to to their families then of course we are trying to assess the amount of damage and what it what it will take to clear the debris and to rebuild we absolutely will we we will rebuild that will become our Focus your fellow officials have said that 2 000 rooms are needed for housing how do you plan to get all those folks housed well we have a few options uh the one the governor talked about today was perhaps um with the help of either State funds or FEMA funds or any other federal funds that are opened up as a result of the president's Declaration of an emergency uh would be perhaps those hotel rooms if we could get power and water back onto them that were once uh used by visitors someone had a creative idea today of maybe short-term rentals or vacation rentals being used as longer-term rentals for our our residents well Marin thank you for joining us we know you haven't slept in days so we wish you and all the residents of Maui County well thank you thank you very much hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our Channel and don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching

Channel: ABC News

Views: 389,941

Keywords: Hawaii, Maui, abc, abcnews, drought, emergency, fire, heat, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-102190689, us, weather, wildfires

Id: 4E5DOjgyBAY

Length: 12min 1sec (721 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 11 2023