Apocalyptic images
from Hawaii
where wildfires have killed
at least six people.
In Maui County,
violent and explosive
wildfires have torn through the island
of Maui, destroying homes and businesses.
The fire is being fueled
by a hurricane 800 miles away
interrupted.
So suddenly people
had to run into the ocean
to escape the fire
and then later be rescued.
CNN's Derek Van Dam is with us now.
Derek,
we just heard from authorities in Hawaii.
They still say the fire is still burning
and it's likely to continue as well.
Jake,
I mean,
we still have the indirect impacts
from Hurricane Dora
and high pressure system to the north.
So what it's doing
is it's putting the squeeze right
on the Hawaiian Islands
and allowing those winds
out of the east to gust.
Well, we just checked over 40 miles
per hour in some of those locations.
That's
going to obviously
complicate fire efforts.
But look at the aerial video
that you're seeing
on your screens right now.
This is imperative
because
the fire that impacted the west side of
Maui, the the location,
the economic hub of Miami,
where all the resorts and businesses
are generally located,
where people go as tourists to visit
Well, the fire
ran out of room
to burn, literally moving into the ocean
as it literally had nothing else to char.
But it was just incredibly
harrowing moments.
There were adjectives
used like dire and apocalyptic.
And you can see exactly why
with some of these first aerial visuals
that we are getting
now, everyone in Hawaii
knows how to handle a hurricane.
Everyone knows how to handle a volcano
as well, as difficult as it can be.
But this caught people off guard.
As a meteorologist,
we were watching
Hurricane Dora slide
well south of the island chain.
It wasn't a concern for us.
We thought it was fish
food, literally not impacting land.
But the fact is that it
created a phenomenon
with the winds
that no one could have foreseen.
And it caught people off guard
in the middle of the night
when people were sleeping.
So you can imagine
just how terrifying
those moments were overnight
when we started to see those little flash
points, the little hot spots
on satellite imagery
that meteorologists look at.
We started to see those flare up
and that was a concern.
And we immediately started to recognize
that there was a problem.
Social media videos start pouring in
and then we start to learn
about the communications going down, 911
not becoming available
for residents over the western side.
Of the island of Maui.
Think how concerning
and how terrifying those moments
must have been for people
not being able to reach out for help.
Well, that's what people had to endure.
Their turn down there.
And Dan, thank you so much.
Joining us now, Quentin
Cochise, the president of Blue
Hawaiian Helicopters, a helicopter
tourism
company, and Quentin
you suspended operations
to use your helicopter fleet
to help
get food, water
and other supplies into areas of Maui
that are the hardest hit.
Tell us what your staff is seeing
in these hardest hit areas.
Aloha.
Good afternoon.
The devastating night.
I don't think many people slept
across the state
We canceled all of our tourism operation
and just really partnering with the state
and focusing on taking care of the people
that need
our authorization
to find a one of the other airports
near closer to Lahaina
where we can bring in food
and water and support.
Good thing about,
you know,
helicopters,
they do have the versatility that land
you know, on different locations
like a golf course or the smaller airport
over on the west side.
But seeing it from the air
and seeing the pictures just don't do it
justice is just absolutely tragic.
Devastating.
Several coworkers have lost their homes.
We have
business partners that have,
you know, their complete businesses
and while have burnt down.
And it's just
tears that keep pouring
and pouring from people's faces
as we kind of work through the morning.
And I'll wake up and realize
what we have in front of us.
Tell us about how
your own staff
has been personally impacted by this.
I know you're trying to help locate
some of your teammates
in these impacted areas
who might not have even had
electricity or calm since yesterday.
Anybody has been Hawaii,
been to Hawaii, knows Hawaii.
I mean, we're all ohana.
We're all family.
We all love and care for each other
so much.
And at this heart, it's just devastating.
And not being able
to get a hold
of some of your coworkers that just
you can't stop thinking about it.
We actually had
I have a friend
that's a runner has gone through.
And the areas that you're able to
access are gone and knock on doors
and got some verification
that people are okay,
but the fires are still going,
the winds are still there.
They're still,
you know, ashes and hot spots.
So we just have to be careful.
It's very limited.
The road from the airport
the main airport in Maui,
the little airport,
they call it the poly road.
It's just a two lane road
that has been closed.
And so there's limited access
and an hour limit that's all coverage.
No Internet.
They haven't had power in 24 hours.
So it's just really hard
and it's going to take, you know,
probably days before we know
everybody's okay.
Helicopters can land in
just about any terrain,
although obviously it's it's dangerous.
These are particularly dangerous
conditions.
Have you ever seen anything like this
as as a helicopter pilot?
I'm specifically not a pilot.
I'm the president of the company.
But what we do is
we were landing a couple of the airport
and safety is our number one priority.
We do a full risk assessment.
We evaluate the winds,
we evaluate everything, safety.
And we will not go if it is not safe.
Or safe.
Is this our number one priority?
We'll never put our employees
or anybody at risk before we do that.
And that's
why we're landing
at the designated airport versus
some of these other spots.
As of now,
just because
that is the safest thing to do.
Gwen Cox, thank you so much.
Let's go now
to meteorologist Chad Myers
for the latest forecast.
And Chad,
when do you think
these horrible conditions
are going to get better?
I know you said earlier that the
the winds,
these devastating winds
from 800 miles away from that hurricane
you hope will alleviate this even
because the hurricane is moving away.
So as the hurricane moves away,
so will the wind.
What happened here?
And Derek really just hit a good
deal here,
the high pressure to the north,
and it was blowing like this,
the low pressure,
the hurricane down to the south.
It was blowing like this.
And so all of that wind
funneling through the islands.
And we had the hot spots
and the hot spots showed up.
And then all of a sudden,
we had video and pictures.
And it is a devastating event block
after block of the homes
just gone, reminding you, reminding me
of something from Southern California.
82 is the highest gust that we saw.
That's just an enormous amount of wind
when you consider how far away
the hurricane
actually is at this point in time,
like 800 miles away.
So, yes, I mean,
there are hurricanes
can hit Hawaii and do.
And we do have winds of 60, 70,
80 sometimes.
But, boy, this was just a dry event.
There goes the hurricane category.
Four how far away
the Honolulu Islands are.
So it is going to be a brutal afternoon
and evening.
Some of the pictures we're seeing now
finally coming in our our
our devastatingly painful.
They really are.
Did you, Jake,
I mean,
when you see
the dark pictures
that we only had this morning
and we thought that they were just
hopefully burning trees,
but in fact, they weren't
they were burning homes.
They were just hot spots
of what was the left of the home.
So there goes the storm.
It is going to be
a much less impressive storm
in a couple of days.
And the more it moves farther
and farther away
tonight, winds will be 40, tomorrow
they'll be 30.
And then by the time
we work into the weekend,
the winds could be ten.
Just about exactly
what you'd expect from the trades.
All right, Chad Myers, thanks so much.
Let's go now to Jeff Hickman.
He's the director of communications
for Hawaii's Department of Defense.
Thanks for joining us.
Tell us the status
of what the National Guard
is focusing on right now
as these fires continue
to burn out of control. In Maui.
Oh, Jake, for having me.
Yes.
The Hawai'i
National Guard
is assisting
both Maui County
and Hawai'i County to islands.
So on
Maui, County,
we have about 39 personnel
assisting the Maui Police Department
with traffic control and roving security.
So right now, the number one goal
for both counties
and the Hawai'i
National Guard is to protect lives.
And by setting up these roadblocks.
That's right.
Now one of the best ways we can do it.
So the National Guard is assisting
both police departments.
We've been working
24 hours and are running out of personnel
to do it.
So the Hawai'i National Guard
is assisting them,
and I think they're even requesting
more personnel for the very near future.
The Hawai'i National Guard
is also sending
two Chinook seed 47 helicopters to Maui
that are on the ground right
now, getting their assignment
to head to their upcountry area on Maui.
On the slopes of Haleakala
to assist with the fire suppression
up there.
They'll be carrying 4000
gallon water
buckets and be able to do drops
about four to five an hour
And then on the big island,
we have about 30 personnel
also assisting with air traffic control
and checkpoints.
And the active duty army
is assisting with fire suppression on
Hawai'i Island.