The President of the United States, Joe Biden, declared, this Thursday, August 10, the state of disaster in Hawaii and released federal aid after the violent fires which affected the island of Maui, located in the center of the Hawaiian archipelago, since Tuesday. This financial aid should contribute to emergency measures, but also to reconstruction efforts. The tourist town of Lahaina, the former capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii, was almost razed to the ground. Another focus concerns the island of Oahu where the state capital, Honolulu, is located, and the big island of Hawaii is also in the grip of flames. In some areas, the hearths of the fire are still active, the flames fanned by the winds of Hurricane Dora whose eye passed 1,200 kilometers south of the archipelago overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday.
“The flight from the flames of Maui”. (Video shot by passengers in a car driving through the fires in Maui, picked up by Al Jazeera English)
What is the provisional balance sheet?
On the human level, the provisional toll already shows 36 dead. The bodies were discovered in the rubble as efforts to fight the flames still continue in several localities. A previous report announced by the county mayor, Richard Bissen, reported six dead. In Lahaina, a tourist town on the west coast of Maui, the fire engulfed almost everything. This locality of 12,000 inhabitants was razed in a few hours by the devouring fires.
“A fire engulfed businesses on Front Street in downtown Lahaina, west Maui, home to 12,000 people.” (Video by Lahaina resident Alan Dickar)
Pinned down by the flames, some townspeople were forced to throw themselves into the sea to escape the fire. Fourteen people were rescued from the waters off Lahaina, authorities said. “My house was destroyed. So many people lost their homes,” Maui resident @caroarreguin shares on TikTok, commenting on a video taken from the surface of the water.
“Much of Lahaina […] was destroyed and hundreds of local families were displaced,” Hawaii Governor Josh Green confirmed in a statement. They were accommodated at Kahului airport while they waited to be evacuated.Some tourists, like Laura Holliday, spoke of the difficulty of finding refuge after escaping the flames.
“Narrowly exited @LahainaShores complex. Thousands of people have been displaced. There are no hotels available and many are trying to find shelter. Frustrated that the @Marriott Maui Kahului Airport hotel kicked everyone out from its hall and locked its doors!”
On the material level, more than 271 structures have already been damaged, estimated Maui County after several flyovers of the city. The gusts of Hurricane Dora, sometimes reaching 130 km/h, caused a lot of damage. In addition to homes and buildings with torn roofs, many power poles were damaged. Power cuts add to the problems encountered, with 11,000 homes and businesses left without power on Thursday, according to the PowerOutage site.
What is the origin of these devastating fires?
The trigger for the fires is still unknown at this time. The archipelago experiences brush fires every year during hoiloo, the dry season, from April to October – but the extent of the current phenomenon raises questions. According to the National Weather Service, a combination of conditions could have favored such a dramatic spread: dry vegetation, strong winds and low humidity. For months, the Pacific islands have indeed been suffering from a severe drought and the authorities had warned the inhabitants of a possible “imminent disaster due to material and/or bodily damage”, report it washington post.
“Another before and after of Lahaina, Maui (‘before’ shot is from Google Maps, ‘after’ shot is from Richard Olsten on Facebook)”
However, it appears that the squalls from Hurricane Dora had an unprecedented impact, fanning the flames without bringing rain. So far, these powerful storms have always rhymed with intense precipitation in the archipelago. Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii since 2002, Sylvia Luke explained that the authorities are not used to this kind of threat, which is deeply unusual for the ecosystem of this Pacific archipelago: “We expected rain, we expected to flooding.”
“Devastating scenes from Lahaina Harbor as wildfires rage through Maui. Wind gusts over 70 mph (110 kph) helped fan the flames.” (Images and videos made and posted in story by the Instagram user @brantinsan inhabitant of the archipelago)
According to the science popularization website Futura Sciencesinvasive and highly flammable plants introduced by locals, such as Guinea grass and Pennisetum, could also have worsened the spread of the flames: “A quarter of the archipelago is now covered”, reports journalist Karine Durand, extreme weather and environment specialist.
“This fire was fueled by alien plants that cover much of the island of Hawaii, associated with drought and low humidity. […]”
The prevention plan of the State of Hawaii had thus failed to anticipate such events. Droughts and the frequency and strength of natural disasters such as hurricanes are increasing. Millions of people have been hit by such extreme weather events around the world in recent weeks, events that scientists say are exacerbated by climate change.
Where are the relief operations?
Hurricane Dora having damaged power lines and communication in several places, the networks are thus cut on a whole part of Maui. A real obstacle for the emergency services since the American emergency call number “911” no longer even works in several localities on the island.
Maui hospitals are also overwhelmed by the influx of emergency patients. Severe burns and poisoning from the smoke add to the injuries caused by Hurricane Dora’s strong winds. Deputy Governor Sylvia Luke announced that patients would begin to be transferred to the other islands, to cope with the saturation of the hospital network at the center of the devastation. The after-effects caused by the fire, in particular people who inhaled too much smoke and serious burns, raise fears of an increase in the human toll in the coming days.
In Lahaina, the beach town engulfed in flames, official searches have yet to begin as the fires are still active. A law enforcement officer, on condition of anonymity, told AFP that he did not expect help to find people. “(The area) has not been excavated or cleared at all […] Given the amount of charred material, I don’t think there’s much life in there,” he said.
“The terrible images of the devastation caused by the fires on Front Street, Lahaina, Hawaii.” (Video made and posted by a resident of Maui, the Instagram user @lei_dubzzon his story)
Images shared by Twitter user Judi Riley on Thursday, however, show the arrival of water bombing helicopters, allowed by the lull in weather conditions as the hurricane moves away from the archipelago.
“The wind has died down enough for helicopters to help put out the Maui fires. It’s next to Kahului Airport in Kanahā.”
On social media, posts abound, begging to help search for unresponsive relatives from the fires and showing their photos and personal information. New bus evacuations for residents and tourists have been underway since Thursday morning. Tourists should be taken to Kahului airport and residents to shelters. Tourists are encouraged by the Hawaiian authorities to postpone their stays to allow hotels and Airbnb to be requisitioned to accommodate the victims.