2023-08-11 08:52:19
“This is the biggest natural disaster in the history of the State of Hawaii”, according to Governor Josh Green. The death toll from the devastating fires that almost razed a tourist town in the Hawaiian archipelago has reached at least 53 dead and will probably increase further, he warns. This drama comes in the middle of a summer marked by a series of extreme weather events, all over the planet.
All of the victims found so far died in a fire that nearly burned Lahaina, Maui’s tourist hotspot, to ashes, authorities confirmed. The island of Hawaii was also affected by smaller fires, which are now under control. An AFP photographer was able to fly over Lahaina on Thursday: his images show thousands of completely charred buildings by the ocean. Often no walls have survived, their former location is simply covered with a pile of grayish ash.
“As if someone had bombed the whole city”
This historic city, former capital of the kingdom of Hawaii in the 19th century, is “80%” destroyed, estimated the governor. Fueled by strong winds, fed by the force of Hurricane Dora which is currently passing through the Pacific Ocean, the fires spread so quickly that the population was taken by surprise: a hundred inhabitants threw themselves into the sea to escape the flames, according to the coast guard.
“It looks like a war zone there,” said Brandon Wilson, a tourist evacuating Maui. “It’s really as if someone had come and bombed the whole city, everything is completely devastated, completely charred. The fire that surprised the city is now 80% contained, according to authorities, and two other fires are still ongoing on the island of Maui.
“Corpses floating in the water and on the dikes”
On the spot, the locals count the inanimate bodies and grow impatient. “We’re trying to save lives and I don’t feel like we’re getting the help we need,” Lahaina resident Kekoa Lansford said. “We still see corpses floating in the water and on the dikes,” he added.
President Joe Biden has signed a natural disaster declaration, which will unlock significant federal aid to fund relief, emergency shelter and reconstruction efforts. Thousands of people were evacuated from the disaster areas to emergency centers or Maui’s main airport. “We are going to need to house thousands of people”, insisted the governor, explaining that the authorities are currently contacting the hotels of the archipelago and appealing to the generosity of the inhabitants capable of housing displaced people in their homes.
“Particularly dried out” vegetation
Tourists are asked to leave the island, buses are organized to exfiltrate them. According to the PowerOutage site, around 11,000 homes and businesses remained without electricity Thursday afternoon in the archipelago. The fires have spread rapidly thanks to “particularly parched” vegetation on Maui, which has seen below-average rainfall this spring and higher-than-usual temperatures, according to Thomas Smith, professor of environmental geography at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
This disaster comes after a series of extreme weather events all over the world this summer. Massive fires have ravaged Canada, a record-long heat wave has scoured the southern United States, and heat waves have also hit Europe and parts of Asia.
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