Why people in Maui were caught off guard by the deadly wildfires

Amna Nawaz:

At least 55 people are confirmed dead tonight after fast-moving wildfires ravaged the island of Maui. But the search operation is far from over. Those who did manage to survive now face the daunting task of piecing their lives back together.

Stephanie Sy has our report.

Stephanie Sy:

The smoke has all but cleared over Lahaina, revealing what's been lost. The beloved, centuries-old town on the coast of Maui was once the capital of the Hawaiian kingdom. Today, it's a burnt-out shell of itself.

Keith Hunter, Lahaina Resident:

This is going to take years, years to recover. And it just breaks my heart that all the history from back in the waning days of the 1800s dust, ash and dust.

Stephanie Sy:

Firefighters worked to extinguish the lingering flames. Several wildfires erupted on the island this week, with Lahaina bearing the brunt of the damage, homes, businesses and historic landmarks, Many built out of wood, reduced to gray piles of ash. The street signs melted.

Satellite images show how the area looked before and after the fire tore through.

Gov. Josh Green(D-HI):

When you see the full extent of the destruction in Lahaina, it will shock you. It does appear like a bomb and fire went off.

Stephanie Sy:

Yesterday, Hawaii's Governor Josh Green said it's the worst disaster the state has seen since 1960, when a tsunami claimed the lives of 61 people.

Gov. Josh Green (D-HI):

It's a heartbreaking day, without a doubt. What we have seen today has been catastrophic. We are seeing loss of life here. As you know, the number has been rising. And we will continue to see loss of life.

Stephanie Sy:

Governor Green insisted today that evacuees will return home, even as search-and-rescue efforts continue. Bodies are still being found in the rubble of the some 1,000 buildings that the fire leveled.

Business owner Tiffany Kidder Winn shared this video as she walked down Lahaina's main drag. The gift store she owned, established in 1971 is gone.

Tiffany Kidder Winn, Lahaina Business Owner:

It's everywhere. Looking up the hillside, all the homes are gone, all the buildings are gutted.

Stephanie Sy:

Kidder Winn has lived on Maui for 20 years. She says the fires will have lasting impacts.

Tiffany Kidder Winn:

Lahaina is such a special place and not just for the people that live there, but for so many people that — sorry. I'm holding it together, but I'm on the edge — for the community and for all of the islands.

Stephanie Sy:

Over the past few days, the Hawaiian Army National Guard has dropped more than a hundred thousand gallons of water on the flames. With the fire 80 percent contained, residents are starting to ask why they didn't get more warning.

Hawaii boasts a state-of-the-art outdoor warning system, but the sirens never went off. Officials say widespread power outages disrupted other attempts to notify the public. As it was, many were completely caught off guard. They ran for their lives and, in some cases, swam for their lives.

Vixay Phonxaylinkham, Survivor:

We had to get out. We left our vehicle, and myself and my wife and our five kids, we all got in the ocean. We found a floating board that we hung onto. The ocean almost swept away my kids a few times.

Stephanie Sy:

Even with nerves frayed, the community came together to gather food, water and other essentials for displaced residents.

Man:

Blankets, diapers, water, come on and get it.

Stephanie Sy:

The aftermath of the disaster has left Maui to grapple with physical and emotional scars. But the spirit of aloha is alive.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy.

Amna Nawaz:

For more on the fires, we turn now to Chad Blair in Honolulu. He's a reporter and editor for Honolulu Civil Beat.

Chad, welcome and thanks for joining us.

The images and stories just seem to get more and more horrifying by the day. You have a number of reporters fanned out covering this. Tell us, what kinds of stories are they hearing from folks on the ground?

Chad Blair, Honolulu Civil Beat:

Well, the grief has just been overwhelming, as you can imagine.

I mean, Maui, although it's a separate island from Oahu and the others, we have all been there. We all have family and friends on the various islands. One of Civil Beat's own reporters, Marina Riker, she had to evacuate along with her husband at 1:00 in the morning that Tuesday.

Her rental unit was destroyed. Fortunately, she and her husband are safe now. But everyone in the state has been touched by this terrible tragedy. The video speaks for itself. It's a war zone. It's an apocalypse.

Amna Nawaz:

What about you're hearing — what you're hearing from authorities right now? Do you have a sense that they have a full picture of the damage and the loss yet?

Chad Blair:

No, we don't know that right now, certainly not a dollar figure placed on that.

We do know that at least 1,700 structures have been destroyed. There's at least 1,000 people unaccounted for. Hopefully, we will learn more about that. And you heard the governor early. It's very, very likely that those casualties, those fatalities are going to increase from 55 and up.

But, right now, we're not getting much more information. The focus for the emergency people has been recovering, getting people to safety, making sure those fires are contained.

Amna Nawaz:

I understand you have been trying to get some more information.

Now, we just heard my colleague Stephanie Sy report on that warning system that never seemed to go off. Have you heard anything from authorities in the way of a timeline? Were evacuation orders issued? Was that warning system supposed to go off?

Chad Blair:

Every indication so far is, the warning system did not go off at all, that people were self-evacuating.

But we are not getting any full answers from officials. There was no official timeline that has been presented. We're not hearing from the electric company, for example. Is there a utility pole that perhaps sparked a fire? We don't know those things. That's very frustrating.

All of us are trying to find out more information. We do believe there will be more info in the days to come. But, so far, we're not learning much more.

Amna Nawaz:

Tell us about other supplies on the ground, what people are going through.

We have heard about the number of buildings that have been destroyed. What about medical services, hospitals, clinics? Are they still functioning? Can people get medical support, or even medicine if they need it?

Chad Blair:

They are functioning. They can get medical support, although there had been initial reports that perhaps the hospitals on Maui were overwhelmed.

That is not quite the case at all. There have actually been few reports of injuries. That's encouraging so far. Hopefully, that won't change. What we have heard is a concern about morgue space, a place to store the bodies, a cold place, obviously.

But, so far, the medical facilities and operations are fully functioning.

Amna Nawaz:

Chad, what would you say are the biggest challenges right now?

We have heard, of course, some of the — the fire seems to be mostly contained, correct me if I'm wrong, but the search-and-rescue still continues. What are officials up against?

Chad Blair:

I think the biggest challenge, in part, is communication.

Fiberoptic cables were melted. There were at least 29 utility poles down. Here at Civil Beat, we're using satellite phones to communicate with our teams on the ground. In terms of the officials, the emergency responders, they're using radios. You just can't use the cell phone to get through.

So that communication has been part of the challenge. Given the terrain as well, there were a lot of roads blocked by cars that were burning. Much of that has been cleared out of the way. But these things continue to be concerns.

Amna Nawaz:

It's just imaginable, the scale and the suddenness of that loss. We see these pictures and these aerials, and it's hard to imagine how quickly this all unfolded.

Chad, for people on the ground there, what is the greatest need? A lot of people are seeing these images and wondering: What can I do? What's your message to them?

Chad Blair:

Oh, there's a lot of folks that are donating to charity. You can go to the Red Cross. You can go to any number of organizations that are bringing food and water and clothing, all sorts of supplies.

That aloha spirit that was mentioned earlier is strong. And relief is coming. And if you need to find someplace to donate to, go on Google and look forward to Maui fires and charity. You will get plenty of — plenty of offerings, plenty of suggestions.

Amna Nawaz:

I just have to ask. I know it's difficult sometimes for reporters who are covering a story at the same time they are living through it.

Tell us what that's been like for your team.

Chad Blair:

Well, they're just terrific.

And I should say Marina Riker is already back on the job, if you can believe that. Brittany Lyte, another one of our reporters who covers the neighbor islands, is still there on the ground. Several other photographers and reporters have since returned to our offices in Oahu. But they're still there, and they're still working to get the story out.

Amna Nawaz:

And we are so grateful to all of them and to you.

Chad Blair of Honolulu Civil Beat, we will be following your reporting. And, of course, we're keeping everyone down there in our thoughts and prayers. Thank you for joining us.

Chad Blair:

Thank you, Amna.