Hawaiians come together with donations for victims of the state's devastating wildfires
The scale of the damage came into sharper focus, four days after a fast-moving blaze leveled the historic resort town, obliterating buildings and melting cars.
Officials vowed to examine the state's emergency notification systems after some residents questioned whether more could have been done to warn them before the fire overtook their homes. Some were forced to wade into the Pacific Ocean to escape. Officials have described a nightmarish confluence of factors - including communications network failures, wind gusts of up to 80 miles per hour from an offshore hurricane and a separate wildfire dozens of miles away - that made it nearly impossible to coordinate in real time with the emergency management agency that would typically issue warnings and evacuation orders.
The latest figure exceeded the 85 people who perished in a 2018 fire in the town of Paradise, California, and was the highest toll from a wildfire since 1918, when the Cloquet fire in Minnesota and Wisconsin claimed 453 lives.The shells of burned houses and buildings are left after wildfires driven by high winds burned across most of the town in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, U.S. August 11, 2023.
"When I see Lahaina town itself, I cannot describe the feelings I get," said Lacuesta, who was headed to a church shelter next to continue his search. Subsequent updates were focused on the Kula fire, which had burned hundreds of acres and forced some local evacuations. But at around 3:30 p.m., according to the county's updates, the Lahaina fire flared up.
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