Like the passage of a huge "very fast torch" they are described by eyewitnesses. The Hawaiian island of Maui fights on Thursday the embers of fires that have left at least 36 dead, are already among the deadliest in recent U.S. history and have sown chaos in their wake. Thousands of people have lost their homes, thousands more are without power and its historic capital, Lahaina, has been reduced to ashes in the disaster, fanned by the winds of a distant hurricane and another example of the violent fires that increasingly ravage the western United States as a result of climate change.
It is "a tragic moment for the entire state" of Hawaii, said the lieutenant governor, Sylvia Luke, in an appearance before the media. Lahaina, an enclave of 12,000 people and a popular tourist resort, has been "decimated," he said. It will take "years" to recover what until Tuesday was promoted as a tropical paradise, where billionaires such as Jeff Bezos or television star Oprah Winfrey maintain residences.
Satellite images, and videos taken by residents, show the level of damage. Official data speak of 271 structures destroyed in the city. On the ground, charred vehicles, ashes where there were streets full of people and piles of rubble instead of buildings. There is hardly anything left standing. The old town of Lahaina, until Tuesday a picturesque town of colorful wooden buildings, some up to two centuries old and abundant vegetation, has gone up in smoke, after burning at full speed. Its Front Street, the boardwalk full of shops and restaurants crowded with tourists, no longer exists. Its great symbol, the oldest tree on the island, a gigantic 150-year-old banyan tree that shaded an entire garden, has burned. It is feared that the rich historical heritage of what was the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii in the nineteenth century—and a thriving whaling center that Herman Melville passed through before writing his "Moby Dick"—has gone up in flames.
The effects of the fire in Lahaina, on the island of Maui, on Thursday. Rick Bowmer (AP)
Wildfires, fanned by the winds of Hurricane Dora, that ravage several towns in Hawaii have left at least 36 dead, local authorities said Thursday. Plume of smoke in Lahaina City, Hawaii.DUSTIN JOHNSON (REUTERS)
Hawaii Army National Guard helicopters try to put out flames on the island of Maui on Wednesday. Hawaii National Guard (via REUTERS)
Search and rescue efforts continue, with the extent of the damage not fully known so far: mobile phone services are disrupted, hampering communications and emergency warnings. Buildings are charred in the island of Maui city of Lahaina on Wednesday. MASON JARVI (via REUTERS)
"The local people have lost everything," Maui's director of economic development and tourism, James Kunane Tokioka, told a news conference. In the picture, fire of the historic Waiola church of Lahaina, in an image of Tuesday. Matthew Thayer (AP)
The fire has consumed homes and businesses on the Big Island, the largest in the archipelago, and on Maui. In the image, combination of two images of the city of Lahaina, on the island of Maui, on June 25 and August 9 after the fire. AP
The fire on the island of Maui was not limited to Lahaina. The emergency services were also fighting other outbreaks in Kula, on the slope of the Haleakala volcano - the mountain of more than 3,000 meters high that dominates the south of the island - and had organized shelters to accommodate evacuees from the towns in the affected area. Pictured, a charred boat on the boardwalk scorched by wildfires in Lahaina, on Wednesday. MASON JARVI (via REUTERS)
On the island of Maui, visited every year by hundreds of thousands of tourists, the flames have closed roads and schools and forced the mobilization of the National Guard to assist in rescue and firefighting efforts. In the picture, fire and flames on a street in Lahaina, on Tuesday. Alan Dickar (AP)
Satellite images of the city of Lahaina, on the island of Maui, on June 25 and August 9 after the fire. AP
In Lahaina, at least a dozen people took to the sea to escape the fire and had to be rescued by the Coast Guard. In the picture, general view of the burned area of Lahaina, on Wednesday. HANDOUT (AFP)
Authorities fear the death toll will rise. "These have been very large fires that were moving very quickly, and we have only recently been able to start containing them. We wish for the best, but we are prepared for the worst," Hawaii Emergency Management Agency spokesman Adam Weintraub said on ABC television. The island "has been tested like never before in our lifetimes," Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said.
The speed of the fires caught residents off guard. Hurricane Dora, which was passing hundreds of kilometers, brought strong winds of 90 kilometers per hour. The missing ingredient for a lethal cocktail. The others were already there: air with hardly any humidity and very arid conditions due to drought conditions in the southwestern half of the island; a dry vegetation. The fire, which started on a hill above Lahaina, "took everything ahead at a surprising speed," resident Mauro Farinelli described to local media, "it was like a torch."
The speed was such that dozens of people threw themselves into the sea to escape the flames. The U.S. Coast Guard mobilized to rescue more than fifty people from the water. "On Tuesday night, when the fire spread rapidly and affected the urban area of Lahaina, the Coast Guard began receiving reports of people who had to flee the fire into the sea, and finally enter the water," according to Capt. Aja Kirksey, commander of the Honolulu sector. His service rescued 17 people and helped bring forty others to safety.
No light or sufficient accommodation
Authorities are working to restore electricity and mobile phone services, disrupted when communication towers and wiring were toppled by fire. The task ahead is enormous and exposes some of the great problems that the island suffers, usually hidden by its paradisiacal tourist image.
It is necessary to find accommodation for the thousands of people who have lost their homes. A huge problem on an island where housing shortages are endemic and priced among the highest in the United States. Where cases of homeless people already abounded. And where tourism and its demands – five-star hotels, golf courses – consume vital and scarce resources, such as water, something that causes constant friction among the native population.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority has asked the tens of thousands of visitors who were on the island to leave, and strongly recommends those who had planned to arrive to change their routes if their trip is not essential. "In the coming days and weeks our attention and resources must be focused on the recovery of residents and communities who were forced to evacuate their homes and businesses," it said in a statement. Although evacuees have been housed in schools and other venues for now, in the coming days plans are to resort to tourist residences and hotel rooms to rehouse those who have become homeless. In Honolulu, Hawaii's capital, the convention center was preparing to welcome the homeless.
Thousands of tourists had been trapped in their hotels in West Maui by the closure of roads around Lahaina, including the highway that connects that area with the rest of the island. Hawaiian authorities are organizing caravans of buses to take them to the airport in the capital, Kahului, far from the affected area. About 11,000 visitors have already departed since the fires began and another 1,500 are expected to join on Thursday.
Emotional blow
Another critical task will be dealing with the trauma of what some are already describing as the worst day in Maui's history. The number of victims is very high on an island of 170,000 inhabitants. The ancient culture of Hawaii considers the earth ('aina, in the Hawaiian language) a living being. Humans live in symbiosis with it and are its custodians. One of their mottos declares, "Take care of the earth, and the earth will take care of you." This week's destruction is a severe emotional blow, especially if you add the probable loss of historical heritage.
"People are worried about their loved ones, their homes, their businesses, their jobs," University of Minnesota history professor David Aiona Chang, a native Hawaiian, told NBC. "Many disasters that hit Hawaii hit Native Hawaiians especially hard. It's something we're going to have to manage for a long time."
A woman cries after learning that her house has been destroyed by flames on Wednesday in Kahului. MARCO GARCIA (REUTERS)
Fires on Maui and the rest of the Hawaiian Islands are not unusual in summer. The rains of the wet season trigger the growth of some non-native plants, such as guinea grass, which are exhausted during the dry season and can burn easily. But the effects of climate change exacerbate those circumstances. Temperatures rise. In the archipelago, the sequences of consecutive days without rain are getting longer. A third of the island suffers from drought conditions.
A drought that worsened this week in the archipelago. Moderate drought levels rose from 6% last week to 14% this week. In Maui County — which includes this island and its neighbors Molokai, Lana'i and the unpopulated Kahoolawe — the deterioration was especially pronounced: a 5% to 16% drop in severe drought conditions.
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