INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The death toll from the Maui wildfires rose 67 on Friday as search teams combed through the smoldering ruins of Lahaina and Hawaiian
officials sought determine to how the inferno spread so rapidly through the historic resort town with little warning.The fires became the
year after Hawaii joined the United States.Officials have warned that search teams with cadaver dogs could still find more dead from the
fire that torched 1,000 buildings and left thousands homeless, likely requiring many years and billions of dollars to rebuild.Three days
after the disaster, it remained unclear whether some residents had received any warning before the fire engulfed their homes.The island
includes emergency sirens intended to warn of natural disasters and other threats, but they did not appear to have sounded during the
told CNN, referring the warning sirens.Officials have not offered a detailed picture of precisely what notifications were sent out, and
whether they were done via text message, email or phone calls.Green described multiple, simultaneous challenges, with telecommunications
disaster began unfolding just after midnight on Tuesday when a brush fire was reported in the town of Kula, roughly 35 miles (56 km) from
About five hours later that morning, power was knocked out in Lahaina, according to residents.In updates posted on Facebook that morning,
Maui County said the Kula fire had consumed hundreds of acres of pastureland, but that a small three-acre (1.2-hecatre) brush fire that
cropped up in Lahaina had been contained.By that afternoon, however, the situation had turned more dire
ensuing hours, the county posted a series of evacuation orders on Facebook as the fire spread through the town.Some witnesses said they had
little advance notice, describing their terror when the blaze consumed Lahaina in what seemed a matter of minutes
Several people were forced to leap into the Pacific Ocean to save themselves.The Lahaina evacuation was complicated by its coastal location
next to hills, meaning there were only two ways out, at best, said Andrew Rumbach, a specialist in climate and communities at the Urban
remained without power and water
But the long traffic jam on the Kuihelani Highway crawled to a halt after an accident killed a pedestrian and led officials to close the
highway in both directions.Volunteers formed human chains on Friday afternoon at Maalaea Harbor to transfer infant formula, diapers,
clothes, fuel and other supplies onto boats.Boat captains planned to sail around to the fire-affected areas and bring the supplies to the
blazes are the latest wildfires that have struck this summer around the globe
Fires forced tens of thousands of people in Greece, Spain, Portugal and other parts of Europe to evacuate, while in western Canada smoke
from a series of severe fires blanketed a vast swath of the U.S
Midwest and East Coast.Source: Reuters
-Agencies
