- Wildfires, fueled by winds from Hurricane Dora, raged across Hawaii this week.
- 911 service and some landlines went down in parts of Maui, and 93 people have been confirmed dead.
At least 93 people have been confirmed dead after wildfires ravaged parts of Hawaii, authorities say.
The catastrophic wildfires have been devastating Maui and the Big Island of Hawaii since Tuesday, destroying homes and even prompting some residents to jump into the ocean to escape the fires. The state's lieutenant governor Sylvia Luke has called on President Joe Biden to declare a federal emergency, CNN reported.
Wednesday night, Maui County released a short statement saying that 36 people were confirmed dead, with no other details available.
That number has since increased to 93 fatalities, according to a late Saturday press release from Maui County officials.
Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said Saturday that search and rescue crews with cadaver dogs have covered just 3% of the search area, AP reported.
"We've got an area that we have to contain that is at least 5 square miles, and it is full of our loved ones," he said, adding that the number of dead will likely continue to grow and "none of us really know the size of it yet."
High winds from Hurricane Dora, located about 500 miles from the Hawaiian islands, have made the fires especially difficult to control, according to the Maui Emergency Management Agency.
"The fact that we have wildfires in multiple areas as a result of indirectly from a hurricane is unprecedented; it's something that Hawaii residents and the state have not experienced," Luke told CNN on Wednesday morning.
According to the EMA's tweet, 13 areas of the county have been evacuated and over 2,000 people still don't have power.
People online also mourned the loss of the Lāhainā Banyan Tree, one of the country's largest banyan trees that is an estimated 150 years old, according to the Lāhainā Restoration Foundation. Several tweets gave local, unconfirmed accounts the tree was lost to the fires, with other respondents saying they were "heartbroken" it might have burned.
Accounts of the fires have been posted on various forms of social media, with video showing intense devastation.
One user's video showed clouds of smoke billowing from the Lāhainā area, saying they "dread what it will look like in the morning."
—HawaiiDelilah™ (@HawaiiDelilah) August 9, 2023
Another shared video showed a street in West Maui hazy with smoke, with huge fires burning just tens of feet away from the filmer.
—Sniper (@SniperSniperbrn) August 9, 2023
According to announcements on the county's website, buses are taking residents to several shelters across the island, while visitors and tourists are being taken straight to the Kahului Airport. A later statement announced the opening of two additional shelters King's Cathedral Maui and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Maui Lani.
The announcement adds that the shelters do not provide bedding, toiletries, or other personal care items, and that those bringing pets will need to have them restrained.
As of Thursday late morning, Maui County said the Lāhainā fire was about 80% contained, the fire in Pulehu was about 70% contained, and did not yet have updates on the containment status of the upcountry Maui fires. The same report said more than 270 structures were impacted by the fires, according to flyovers from the Civil Air Patrol.
The Maui County Fire Department and the lieutenant governor's office did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.