The fire that swept through Maui
this week is now the deadliest U.S.
wildfire in more than 100 years.
Officials said last night
with at least 93 people dead.
And that figure is tragically expected
to only grow
as emergency workers
uncover more scenes of horror
lines of abandoned, charred cars
that trace the fury of the flames
fanned by the winds of a hurricane
hundreds of miles away, homes
reduced to ash
as people ran for their lives,
some of them running into the sea.
Were, some floated for hours,
battling fumes
and watching their city burn
the ocean off Lahaina.
Hawaii will also need to be dredged
for bodies one leader said.
And as those who recover
ask desperately for help and information,
top officials
say they are still battling
dangerous circumstances on the ground
and pledged to get Hawaii
all the resources
it needs to recover and to investigate
why the island of Maui
was not more prepared for this disaster.
Joining us now live from Hawaii,
Senator Mazie
Hirono, a Democrat
who spent yesterday
surveying the damage
on the island of Maui with the governor
and the director of FEMA.
Senator,
thank you so much for joining us.
I'm so sorry
it's under these tragic circumstances.
You toured the devastation
firsthand yesterday.
What did you see
and what did you hear
from people on the ground
The entire
historic town
of Lahaina burned to the ground
and the images of cars
totally in
there have been demolished.
And and we saw a group of cars
near the ocean.
And it's
quite clear
that the occupants of those cars
probably fled into the ocean.
And I was told that at least
12 people were rescued
from the ocean in that location.
But to see all of these charred,
totally demolished cars.
But the scenes of devastation
will stay with me.
And that is why
I really thank the president
for declaring
an emergency
declaration within hours
of being asked to do that
by the state of Hawaii.
And I was there
with the family of federal agencies,
including the the administrator of
FEMA, SBA, US Fire, and
150 FEMA people are there.
They brought
in, sadly, cadaver
dogs to continue the search.
What is it like for you
on a personal level
and on an emotional level
to see this kind of horrific destruction
and loss of life
in your beloved home state?
Many of us have stayed in Lahaina.
I did, too.
And it is an iconic town.
And so many people went there
because it's very, very historic.
It was the seat of the monarchy,
the capital of the monarchy.
And there were many historic
buildings, including,
I have to say, this massive banyan tree,
150 years
old, the oldest
banyan tree in the country.
And it is my hope is that it is
it will be restored.
But very importantly,
yes, as I said yesterday,
we are in a period
of of mourning and loss as we search
for more people
who are still unaccounted for.
Some of them have been found
in the shelters.
I visited one with some 400 residents
sleeping on cots.
And we are going to need to provide them
with short term and long term housing.
But we are all there on loss to do that.
Ordinary
Hawaii residents have been mobilizing
to support the victims of these fires.
And as you note,
FEMA is there
and other government agencies.
My colleague Bill Weir is reporting from
Maui and he's hearing from people there
who are still desperate
for more help from the government,
people who are wondering,
where's the Navy? Where is the army?
Why isn't the military
flooding into the region?
Where are the hospital ships, etc.?
Are you satisfied
that everything possible is being done
to ensure
these Hawaiians are getting all the help
that they need?
From the government
I can understand
why there is frustration,
because, as I said,
we are in a period of shock and loss.
From what I can see, the government
agencies are there.
They are going to set up
areas where people can come
and get their driver's license
restored, all of those kinds of things.
But yes,
they are going to need a lot of help.
And for what I saw, there is a pledge.
The President Biden called me directly
to pledge his support
because we know
that recovery will be long
and the resources will be necessary.
I have also heard
from my Senate colleagues
of Chuck Schumer and others
pledging their support.
Recovery will be
I'll take a lot of resources.
And the focus right now is truly on
the recovery.
There are still people
who are unaccounted for.
They need to be identified.
There is a call
for people to come in to provide DNA.
So we are in there.
They still
I would say the initial phases,
but we're going to do everything we can
to provide the kind of support
that people will need.
We're
also hearing from Hawaiians questions
about how this could have happened.
There was a statewide assessment released
last year
saying that the threat
to Hawaii residents
from wildfires was low.
A 2021 Maui report on wildfire prevention
efforts found that
the County Fire Department
had no actual plan for preventing fires.
And then I'm sure, as
you've heard personally,
many Maui
residents say
they didn't receive any official warnings
before it was too late.
And state officials are acknowledging
that none of the 80 warning
sirens on Maui were ever activated.
Why do you think officials were so
unprepared for this
I'm not going to make
any excuses for this tragedy.
The attorney general has launched
a review
of what happened with those sirens
and some of the other actions
that were taken. So that is happening.
And there will be time
enough,
I would say, for those kinds
of reviews and investigations to occur.
But we are really focused,
as far as I'm concerned, on the need
for rescue and well,
the location of a
we know sadly more bodies.
And as
I talk with the people who are this large
place where the residents were that,
yes, we're going to need
to provide a lot of support.
And that is why I'm asking for
and I expect
to receive bipartisan support
for additional funds
that will enable us to recover
that that recovery is going to take time.
It is not going to be overnight
by any means.
It will take years.
This is an entire town
that has burned to the ground.
Some 11,000 residents
live there
and the tourists who were there,
thousands were evacuated to Oahu mainly.
And the airlines really stepped up
to lower their their fees. And
their hotels
have also stepped up to provide
lodging for our visitors.
So I think that we are doing a lot
in order
to provide the kind of support we need to
to be providing.
But there will always be
the call for more.
And my hope and expectation
is that all of that will come.
Experts warn that
that extreme disasters
such as this one
are only becoming more common
because climate change is fueling
stronger storms,
hotter temperatures,
more widespread droughts.
And earlier
this week, President
Biden incorrectly claimed
he had already declared
a climate emergency,
which would give him additional powers
to combat the climate crisis.
Given what you're seeing on the ground,
do you want President Biden
to actually declare a climate emergency
I think that we
we very much need to acknowledge
that climate change is upon us.
There are whole states, by the way,
Jake, where you can't even use the words
climate change
because they still have a head
in the sand attitude.
But for example,
the Inflation Reduction Act
provided some $300 billion to combat
climate change
and to
move us away from continued reliance
on fossil fuels.
Yes, there is more that needs to be done.
And there will be lessons learned
from this ongoing
tragedy for the other counties
as well as the county of Maui.
Clearly, wildfires is an occurrence
in Hawaii.
People don't realize that
that acres have burned in Hawaii,
as is so many other states.
And in
terms of the
percentage of acreage burned,
Hawaii is on a par with other states.
There is not enough recognition
that we are going to need to combat
these kinds of wildfires
that we have a situations
where the
tremendously high winds
that we're attending to Hurricane Dora
just resulted in these flames
just zipping and spreading in.
And just and just
I can't even tell you how fast
the flames spread.
So we need to be assessing our ability
to contend with these kinds of
natural
occurring disasters,
which we are seeing more of
and the frequency and the the damage
that is done.
Clearly, this is happening
all across the world.
Yeah.
Senator Mazie Hirono,
we thank you for your time.
And our thoughts and prayers
go out to the to the people of Hawaii.
This morning.
Thank you so much for being with us.
Thank you.
And for those of you
at home looking for ways to help
Hawaii wildfire
victims, you can head
the CNN dot com slash
impact scene and slash impact
where we have a list of vetted resources.
Or you can donate
by texting the word Hawaii.
H.W.
Air dry to 70, 70, 70 707070.