Maui wildfires leave trail of death and destruction

A view of a War Memorial Gym turned into donation and medical shelter to aid victims of the Maui wildfires in Kahului, Hawaii, on August 11.

Nearly 2,000 housing units have been secured as Maui officials scramble to house thousands of residents whose homes were decimated by wildfires, officials announced Monday.

Officials have secured 402 hotel rooms and an additional 1,400 Airbnb units will be available on Tuesday, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said in a news conference on Monday. Another 160 residents have also stepped up to volunteer to shelter displaced people in their homes.

About 222 displaced families have already been placed in housing, Green said.

A total of 1,418 people were staying at emergency evacuation shelters as of Friday night, officials said previously.

More than 2,200 structures have been destroyed on the fires, 86% of them residential, Green said.

About 222 displaced families have already been placed in housing, Green said. People will likely require at least 36 weeks of housing assistance.

County authorities signed a contract with the Red Cross on Monday and will be partnering with Federal Emergency Management Agency to make sure “everyone gets housed,” Green said.

An emergency proclamation that will assist residents with getting medications and medical care has also been signed, the governor said.

“We will be bringing hundreds and hundreds of mental health care workers into the state,” he added. 

Maui County Police Chief John Pelletier speaks during a news conference on August 14, 2023.

Maui County authorities will begin releasing the identities of those killed in the wildfires that swept across the island, police announced during a news conference Monday.

At least 99 people have been confirmed dead so far.

Police and county officials will release the names of people whose families have been notified, Maui County Police Chief John Pelletier said during a Monday news conference.

State law requires authorities to notify a victim’s family before releasing their name, he explained.

Meantime, crews continue to search areas impacted by the fires, he said.

Jason Momoa seen on May 13.

Actor Jason Momoa issued a statement Monday about the wildfires that ravaged Maui, saying “the destruction caused by these fires is heartbreaking, but our community’s resilience and strength will shine through.”

Momoa, who was born in in Honolulu, had been actively posting on his social media in the aftermath of the fire that has left at least 99 people dead.

Read Momoa’s latest statement below:

The US Coast Guard said its first responders will shift resources to the maritime environmental fallout from the wildfires.

The US Coast Guard in Maui has shifted its focus from search and rescue to containing potentially hazardous materials left behind by the fires.

The agency said its first responders will shift resources to the fires’ maritime environmental fallout but will remain ready to respond to any new reports of individuals in the water. 

The Coast Guard’s National Strike Force arrived on Maui last Friday to aid in the environmental response. The team includes highly-trained personnel and specialized equipment “to facilitate hazardous substance pollution incidents in order to protect health and the environment,” the release said.

The equipment being used in the new response includes sonar technology and a 100-foot boom placed at the mouth of the Lahaina Harbor, the agency said.  

The shift in resources comes after the Coast Guard rescued at least 17 people last week who had fled into the ocean to escape the inferno that destroyed Maui’s Lahaina community. 

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green appears on CNN on Monday, August 14.

Officials believe that emergency sirens on Maui were “essentially immobilized” by the extreme heat of the wildfires that ripped through the island, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Monday.

“Now, typically we use sirens here for hurricanes and or tsunamis, but we are assessing that,” Green told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

The governor said it is going to take time to figure out what happened and that he asked those investigating to work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and NASA in their assessment.

“So, we will get a lot of data. Data not just for the people of Hawaii but for the world,” he said.

Blitzer asked about power lines that were reportedly not shut off when the fire broke out, warning sirens that were not sounded and fire hydrants that ran dry. 

Shane Treu showed the downed powerlne during a Facebook Live video.

As gale-force winds rushed down the slopes of Maui’s Mauna Kahālāwai mountains early Tuesday morning, Shane Treu stood outside his home with a garden hose — one of the first people in Lahaina to fight what would become America’s deadliest wildfire in more than a century. 

A power line on his street had been knocked down amid howling winds, Treu said in a Facebook Live video, which showed flames in the grassland across the street and thick smoke obscuring his sweeping ocean view. 

While the cause of the fire has not been determined, observers have pointed to downed power lines, sputtering fire hydrants, and emergency alarms that sat silent as factors that hampered the response to the deadly blaze. 

Now, amid the charred remnants of the disaster, residents and government officials are asking how the fire could have killed at least 99 people and sent others fleeing into the ocean — despite years of warnings that wildfires posed a serious threat to the island. 

Lawsuit alleges power lines a factor: As the fires grew last Tuesday, they were buffeted by extreme winds caused by Hurricane Dora, which was passing hundreds of miles south of Maui. Those winds also battered power lines on the island, and dramatic videos show lines swaying and being toppled in the gusts.  

Bulletins from the county reported downed power lines blocking roads around Lahaina, and some residents fleeing the area said that their escape routes were blocked.  

Now, some locals are casting blame on Hawaiian Electric, the state’s biggest utility, for not shutting off power to high-risk areas — and claiming that its power lines could have sparked the deadly fire. 

Jim Kelly, a spokesperson for Hawaiian Electric Company, said the company does not have a “formal power shutoff program” and that electricity powers the pumps that provide water for firefighting. 

Alarms and fire hydrants: As flames spread through Lahaina, critical systems for evacuating residents and fighting fires — the emergency alerts network and fire hydrants —appeared to break down, failures that are now getting more attention as residents try to figure out what went wrong. 

Officials have said that the speed of the fire through town made it “nearly impossible” to issue advance evacuation orders, as Bradford Ventura, the county fire chief, put it in a Thursday news conference.  

Even the state’s vaunted integrated outdoor siren warning system — the largest in the world, with about 400 alarms — was not activated during the fires, according to Hawaii Emergency Management Agency spokesperson Adam Weintraub. 

Land conditions and climate change: Even before the winds from Hurricane Dora fed the flames on Maui, a dangerous combination of drought and dry grasses set the stage for the disaster by transforming the island into a tinderbox.  

Like large swaths of the mainland United States, Hawaii is in the midst of a drought, with parts of Maui suffering from severe drought conditions. This has become more extreme and common across the archipelago and others like it in the Pacific, according to the US National Climate Assessment released in 2018. 

People have also introduced nonnative fire-prone grasses and shrubs that now cover nearly a quarter of Hawaii’s total land area.  

Dig deeper.

A member of the search and rescue team walks with her cadaver dog near Front Street on Saturday, Aug. 12, in Lahaina, Hawaii.

The death toll from the Maui fires has now risen to 99, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green told CNN.

“It will go up very significantly. We’re exploring all the numbers,” the governor said. He said in the next 10 days, the number of deaths could as much as double.

He said search efforts are continuing and cadaver dogs are looking for remains, but conditions are making progress slow. The dogs at some points could only work for about 15 minutes at a time because the area is still so hot, Green said.

About 85% of the fire in Lahaina is contained, but some embers are still burning.

The governor has authorized a comprehensive review “so we have every answer going forward.”

Green and other officials are expected to give an update at 9:30 p.m. ET.

CNN’s Raja Razek contributed reporting to this post.

More members of the Hawaii National Guard have been activated to respond to the wildfires on Maui, the Pentagon said, and Indo-Pacific Command remains poised to respond should a request for more aid come in. 

The Hawaii National Guard has now activated a total of approximately 250 guard members, Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said in a briefing Monday.

The National Guard are working with the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency and helping local law enforcement.

Meanwhile, Moody’s Analytics reported Monday that the wildfire damage is expected to have an “astronomical” economic impact on the island and cause a severe local recession.

The economic toll could run between $3 billion and $7.5 billion, according to initial estimates released Monday.

While those estimates are smaller than the effects of past major hurricanes, they’re higher than typical for wildfires, given the scale of the disaster and that it hit a fairly populated area with more “ferocity” than many events in California and other states, economists wrote.

Here are the latest developments:

Destroyed homes and cars are shown, Sunday, August 13, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii.

The devastating and deadly wildfires in Maui are expected to have an “astronomical” economic on the island and cause a severe local recession, Moody’s Analytics reported Monday.

The economic toll could run between $3 billion and $7.5 billion, according to initial estimates released Monday..

“The price tag is astronomical in the context of Maui’s size, as annual output is about $10 billion,” Adam Kamins and Katie Nied, Moody’s Analytics economists, wrote in the research report.

While those estimates are smaller than the effects of past major hurricanes, they’re higher than typical for wildfires, given the scale of the disaster and that it hit a fairly populated area with more “ferocity” than many events in California and other states, economists wrote.

The lion’s share of the economic impact for Maui is driven by property damage, with about $1 billion being attributed to lost output. Initial estimates suggest that more than 2,000 buildings were either destroyed or damaged, Kamins and Nied noted.

“With the median single-family house price in Maui just above $1 million, the effect on the housing stock alone pulls the estimate into the billions,” they wrote. “Combine this with the loss of a couple of hotels and numerous retail shops, most of which are more highly valued than the typical home on the island, and the number climbs considerably.”

They noted vehicle losses and infrastructure damage accounted for most of the rest of the total. The economic impact could have gone much higher had the fire spread to areas outside of Lahaina, where most of the major resorts are located, they added.

In the medium-term, however, the damage from the fires is expected to drive up house prices in what is already the nation’s second-least affordable metro area, according to the report.

In the near-term, the heavily relied-upon tourism income will be severely affected, they noted, adding that the approximately $20 million in daily visitors’ spending will be at risk for at least the next few weeks – if not longer. Job losses will be significant; local and state coffers will take hits from the lost revenue; and a “brief but severe local recession” is anticipated, they added.

The risks extend beyond the island of Maui.

“Many visitors to Hawaii are known to travel to more than one island, which means that the cancellation of entire itineraries will have ripple effects beyond Maui,” they wrote. “Some would-be travelers could also paint all of the Hawaiian Islands with the same broad brush and shy away from visiting, especially after volcanic eruptions on the Big Island in recent years.”

Carole Hartley

Carole Hartley, 60, originally from Grand Bay, Alabama, has been identified as one of the victims of the Lahaina fire, according to her sister Donna Gardner Hartley.

Hartley and her partner, Charles Paxton, were trying to evacuate when the smoke from the fire overwhelmed the couple and they got separated, Gardner Hartley told CNN.

Paxton was eventually found by his friends and organized a search party to look for Hartley after he was treated for his injuries, Hartley’s sister said. 

Over the weekend, the search group found Hartley’s remains on the couple’s property, Gardner Hartley told CNN.

Hartley was “smart and resourceful,” Gardner Hartley said.

Burned out homes are seen in Lahaina, Hawaii, on August 13.

The wildfires that tore through the island of Maui and killed 96 people so far, will be “heavily studied” by climate experts as well as US federal research agencies, scientists said.

“There will be lots of research that will come out of NOAA in understanding specifically what caused this and the events that we’ve seen,” Sarah Kapnick, chief scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in a call with reporters Monday.

Gavin Schmidt, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said there are locally specific precursors and long-term effects that have contributed to the fires, including an ongoing dry spell and the proliferation of nonnative grasses — but climate change may very well have played a role.

“In this particular example, how much of a contribution [climate change had], that is going to be something that we’re going to be looking at very carefully in the future,” Schmidt added.

The call, which was hosted jointly by NASA and NOAA officials, outlined the latest climate data, in which the planet marked its hottest July in 174 years. The average global temperature in July — the hottest month on record by far — was around 1.8 degrees Celsius warmer than the historical average, experts on the call said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks during the daily news briefing at the White House on Monday in Washington, DC.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed there are no plans in place for President Joe Biden to visit Hawaii after wildfires over the weekend on Maui left at least 96 dead.

Pressed on if Biden will address the wildfires, Jean Pierre said, “Certainly you’ll hear from him, you know, continuously this week,” but she added that she does not have new comments from the president.

“But look, this is something that the president clearly is deeply concerned about, that is why you heard we had the (Criswell) Zoom in right, literally from where she is in Hawaii to talk directly to all of you, to take your questions…and look, you’re going to continue to certainly to hear from us on this issue,” Jean Pierre said.

The Biden administration is committed to supporting Hawaii “every step of the way” following the deadly Maui wildfires, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator Deanne Criswell said Monday.

The FEMA administrator told reporters she’s been “in continuous communication with the president since these fires started,” adding she’s been giving Biden “and his team updates, letting him know what the federal family is doing to support everything that Gov. (Josh) Green has asked for.” 

Pressed if President Joe Biden plans to visit Maui to survey damage from the wildfires on the island, Criswell declined to say if there was a visit from the president scheduled. 

“Right now, our focus is on making sure that we are doing everything we can to account for everybody that has been unaccounted for — and the President has given me the space to make sure I’m bringing in all of the appropriate federal personnel and resources to do that … We want to make sure that they have, you know, all of the resources and the space that they need and not disrupt operations right now,” she said.

Later on in the briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed there are no plans in place for Biden to visit Hawaii after the wildfires.

Criswell, who arrived on the ground in Hawaii in the early hours of Saturday morning, highlighted the federal response, noting the FEMA activated its transitional sheltering assistance program while partnering with AirBnB and hotels to “make sure that everyone finds a temporary solution as they begin to develop their plans for rebuilding.” 

And she touted “a whole of government approach,” from “dozens of our partner agencies to make sure that we have all of the right resources to support the recovery needs for this area and to make sure that we are successful in providing relief to survivors.” 

As part of those efforts, she pointed to work with local partners “to ensure that our outreach and our messaging is also culturally responsive, and that we can get messages out to people so they know what is available to them.”

Franklin “Frankie” Trejos

Franklin “Frankie” Trejos, 68, tried to help others and save his home from burning down before he died trying to escape the Lahaina fire, his niece, Kika Perez Grant, told CNN.

After the fire, Perez Grant said the family received a call from Trejos’ roommate letting them know that the island had been on fire and that he wasn’t sure if Trejos had made it out alive.

According to Trejo’s niece, her uncle and his roommate tried to save their property at first but then decided to evacuate when they realized it was impossible. 

“They both got in their own cars and tried to evacuate. For some reason, his roommate’s car didn’t start, so he crawled around until someone found him. He got badly burned,” Perez Grant said. 

Trejos’ roommate then went back to search for Trejo’s car and found the car a few blocks away from the house. Trejos’ remains were found on top of his roommate’s dog who also died, Perez Grant said.

Trejos, who was a native of Costa Rica but had moved to the United States at a young age, has lived in Lahaina for the last thirty years, according to his niece.

More members of the Hawaii National Guard have been activated to respond to the wildfires on Maui, the Pentagon said, and Indo-Pacific Command remains poised to respond should a request for more aid come in. 

The Hawaii National Guard has now activated a total of approximately 250 guard members, Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said in a briefing Monday.

The National Guard are working with the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency and helping local law enforcement.

CNN reported last week that two Army National Guard heavy-lift Chinook helicopters are helping with wildlife response operations and the search and recovery teams. To date, crews have dropped more than 189,000 gallons of water to support firefighting efforts.

The US Army Corps of Engineers has also sent debris removal experts and temporary power experts to Maui, Ryder said.

The Army Reserve is also helping the Red Cross by providing additional space at a center in Maui. 

Despite a substantial military presence in Hawaii, including the headquarters of Indo-Pacific Command, there has not yet been a request for a larger active-duty response, Ryder said.

“FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and the Hawaiian Emergency Management Agency, as they put together their response in terms of what’s needed, INDO-PACOM is on a hair trigger to be able to support as necessary, and so we’re going to do that,” Ryder said at the briefing.

Ryder said the Defense Department was coordinating with FEMA and other emergency response agencies to avoid a situation in which military assets flowed in unnecessarily and created logistics problems in a disaster situation.

“Obviously FEMA has a lot of experience in these types of situations,” Ryder said. “We’re going to work closely to make sure we’re getting folks what they need.”

Several firefighters trying to contain the flames quickly approaching the historic town of Lahaina last week have described weak water pressure and fire hydrants running dry, complicating an already perilous operation.

“There was just no water in the hydrants,” Keahi Ho, one of the firefighters working in Lahaina told the New York Times. 

Another firefighter, unnamed by the paper because he was not authorized to discuss the operation, said his truck connected to a hydrant but the water pressure was too weak to be of use and the flames grew and spread beyond their ability to contain them.

A third firefighter told the New York Times that when he arrived, he was told there was no water to fight the fires and crews pivoted to prioritize evacuations.

Ho, speaking to CNN, gave a statement, but wouldn’t elaborate on his comments to the paper.

Maui County Department of Water Supply Director John Stufflebean told the New York Times that backup generators were in use to maintain the water supply, but as the fire spread, “water was leaking out of the system.” That water was flowing out of their melted pipes as the fire damaged properties.

CNN has reached out to the Maui County Department of Water Supply for more information and comment.

Downed power lines block a road in Lahaina, Hawaii, on August 11.

Hawaiian Electric’s stock tumbled to a 13-year low Monday morning, plummeting nearly 40% after a class-action lawsuit filed over the weekend alleged that Maui’s devastating wildfires were caused by the utility’s energized power lines that were knocked down by strong winds.

The utility says it provides power to 95% of the state’s residents.

The suit alleges that Hawaiian Electric Industries “chose not to deenergize their power lines during the High Wind Watch and Red Flag Warning conditions for Maui before the Lahaina Fire started,” despite knowing the risks of sparking a fire in those conditions.

The company and subsidiaries “also chose not to deenergize their power lines after they knew some poles and lines had fallen and were in contact with the vegetation or the ground,” the suit alleges.

It has not yet been determined what started the wildfire.

Read more about the Hawaiian Electric’s stocks following the lawsuit.

A caretaker photographs the site of a home destroyed by the Maui wildfires in Kula on Sunday.

Mobile carriers continue to work to get cell service back up and running on Maui.

T-Mobile: The company told CNN on Monday it has successfully deployed generators to fuel some of its cell towers that lost power due to the fires. T-Mobile is also using small portable cell service terminals to provide connectivity in regions where the network’s fiber connections were destroyed. Additional equipment to provide more cell service is expected to arrive on the island later today.

AT&T: The carrier said it has restored service in north Ka’anapali and is using portable satellite solutions and operating drones with cell service support over impacted areas. AT&T said its temporary cell service sites can handle up to 450 calls at a time. 

Verizon: The company continues to use satellite-based mobile hotspots at evacuation sites in areas of greatest need. Over the weekend, Verizon said it restored its cell service towers along Hawaii Route 37 and partial service to a portion of West Maui. Its engineers are working to get a mobile cell site to Lahaina, where there is significant structural damage to its equipment. The company is also working to deploy drones for search, rescue and recovery efforts.

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green is expected to hold a news conference on Maui at 3:30 p.m. local time (which is 9:30 p.m. ET) Monday, his office told CNN.

There have been 96 confirmed deaths from the fire, officials said in an update Sunday night local time. Officials are searching through the wreckage for the many who have been missing since the wildfires broke out.

Around 2,200 structures have been destroyed or damaged in western Maui, where the hard-hit historic town of Lahaina is located, Green previously reported. About 86% of the structures were residential, he added.

Crews in west Maui are still sifting through the ashes of what used to be homes and beloved landmarks wiped out by the deadliest US wildfire in more than 100 years – and the death toll continues to rise.

There have been 96 confirmed deaths from the fire, officials said in an update Sunday night local time. And there are still people unaccounted for as search teams with cadaver dogs look for remains in decimated neighborhoods.

Here’s a look at the aftermath and recovery efforts from the Maui wildfires:

A Mercy Worldwide volunteer makes a damage assessment of an apartment complex in Lahaina, Hawaii, on Saturday.

Volunteers load supplies in Kihei onto a boat heading to West Maui on Saturday.

Firefighters work around a fallen tree in Kula on Sunday that was uprooted by high winds.

JP Mayoga, right, a chef at the Westin Maui, Kaanapali, and his wife, Makalea Ahhee, hug on their balcony at the hotel and resort near Lahaina on Sunday.

Burnt trees, cars and the ruins of homes are seen in Lahaina on Sunday.

A member of a search-and-rescue team and her cadaver dog cool off near Front Street in Lahaina on Saturday.

Churchgoers pray during a service held by Pastor Brown of Lahaina's Grace Baptist Church at Maui Coffee Attic in Wailuku on Sunday.

Grace Hurt, right, embraces someone while loading supplies for those in need Saturday at Kihei Ramp on Maui. "The reason why we are out here today is because we have ohana on the west side, boots on the ground that have no roof over their heads," Hurt said. "We are in an effort with the entire community here, we are trying to get them supplies directly."

Maui County firefighters douse a flare-up in a canyon in Kula on Sunday.

A cat looks out from a burnt field in Lahaina on Friday.

See more photos from the catastrophic fires.