Latest Breaking News On - Con troelg on maui - Page 1 : vimarsana.com
shelters on maui may be full but you do have an option here onna wahoo at the convention center so i wanted to make sure that you knew that. i particularly want to thank at the convention center, cal annie and daniel and terry orten for accommodating us. i don't think they've slept since we got the calls last night. and we want to thank jerry gibson from the hotel association. we'll have booths set up there that will tell and inform guests that are coming what the hotel status is, what the rate is and the hotels that have occupancy. so on behalf of hawaii tourism authority, once again, it is a sad day but we thank everyone for the cooperation, aloha and mahalo. >> at this time, we'll open up for a live q&a with the media and i'm going to repeat the
overwhelmed with burn patients and those suffering from smoke inhalation. these violent and explosive wildfires are not under con troelg on maui, which is the second largest of the 137 islands. the fires are being fueled by strong winds from a hurricane 800 miles away. let's bring in bill weir and chad myers. bill, how unprecedented is this kind of situation in hawaii? >> you know, jake, you could hear it in the voice of the lieutenant governor who was talking about the fact that we are prepared as hawaiians out there vulnerable in the middle of the pacific when it comes to hurricanes, they know what to do. but it comes to volcano eruptions, they know what to do. but the fire moved so quickly and the pikes from the air harken back to paradise, california, which was almost completely incinerated by fast
out there working. we have our chokers open, so i believe at this time, those are -- we appreciate the support that people have given to us. especially appreciate the team work that we've received from our firefighters, federal partners, our military, our national guard, a lot of our private contractors who have been out there, and others who have just reached out to help. we're so thankful for that. but at this time, our thoughts and our prayers are with maui and we're not out of woods yet. but i think the situation in maui right now should take precedent over this.
islands, will cause this type of wildfires. wildfires that wiped out communities, wildfires that wiped out businesses, wildfires that destroyed homes. we're learning and gathering information more and more and we just feel so sad and just great sympathy and prayers out to the people of maui, the individuals who are impacted and josh and i want to send our deepest gratitude to the mayors, both on maui and the big island for working so hard. they're both -- their teams and at the same time all of us are working very closely to ensure the health and safety of our communities and members on all of the islands are protected. today we signed another emergency proclamation which will discourage tourists from
assist with search and rescue and traffic control and security and we're standing by as the lieutenant governor mentioned close coordination with fema for additional federal resources. based on the request for our visitors, to leave maui, we worked with the department of business economic development tourism and the hawaii convention center, so if there is anyone that is traveling off of maui to oahu and do not have and was not able to get a hotel room, they could get lodging at the convention center. we don't have any transportation laid out. we're working that logistics now. but if you could find your way to convention center, we could provide you shelter until you get follow on transportation out of the state of hawaii. if you need information, on the website, so ready.hawaii.gov and that is hawaii spelled out and
response teams are working together to gain control of the island. the disaster wiping out power to around 14,000 homes and businesses. >> people sleeping everywhere. >> reporter: also stopping travel at the airport forcing several travellers to sleep on airport grounds. and according to maui county officials, the u.s. coast guard has rescued at least 12 people from waters saying they jumped into the ocean to escape the smoke and fire conditions. some residents comparing the scene to an apocalypse. >> people running for their lives. >> reporter: many now saying they are homeless. >> our house is gone. everything that we had ever known is gone. >> everyone i know in law hina, they're homes have been burnt down. zprf >> reporter: similarly to what southern california residents experience with santa ana winds, the winds that rushed over maui in the terrain went through some
walling moving wildfires. there is usually a ring road and there is not a whole lot of place to get out and they have been just suffering, weeks of very dry windy conditions and the leeward side of the island is much drier than anybody had anticipated and people just weren't ready for this and it is heart braking. lahaina has a massive tree in the center of town and it looks like all of it was burned away. first season of the white lotus was filmed athe four seasons and there is a fire near there and another third fire closer to the middle of maui. and you could tell they're just really just coming to grips with it now. so much wind and smoke that they don't have a full assessment yet. >> chad, we're told that the fires are made much worse by this -- these hurricane winds from 800 miles away. how soon might the strong winds die down? >> i think tonight. down to around 40.
closed for operational or emergency responders only at this time. there is just a lot of poles down and fires in different spots an it is dangerous to utilize that roadway. but caw healy is open. we expect everybody to use that to get into the airport. our airport partners are amazing. they've dropped fares an offered waivers to help everybody get off of maui, so to make sure that we could move people to oahu or get them home to use the resources to recover and focus on the residents of maui in that area. we'll keep updated on our website pages, the accessibility of our highways and if any impacts occur at the airports. i would recommend to everybody, any time we have travel like this, that is -- that is impacted on one iexd island, it will impact others. make sure you check in with your airlines and status of your
they have generously provided support and so we are just thankful for many supports, but at the same time, please reach out to people, i mean, we -- any time there is a disaster, any time there is things like this that happen to our community that shake our community, it is our families and our people, it is our ohana, that help each other and this is a time we need help. we need to be -- standing together and we need to be brave for each other and at the same time, it is just with sadness and just -- we are just struck by the devastation felt in maui. >> acting governor luke, at this time, i would like to bring up major general hen hara, from the
we're going to keep our thoughts on the families and it is important now that our efforts are geared up for understanding what else may be happening in those areas that were effected and as well as yesterday. >> crews are still in search and rescue mode, we were just told. how is that efforts going on as the wildfires continue to rage? >> well, these are still active fires. search and rescue efforts will come in areas that are being safe and accessible for those crews. so, these are completely active fires. i think it is important to keep that in mind and it is going to be a case by case and area by area neighborhood by neighborhood situation. >> 911 service and cell service has been out in west maui. what is the current status of emergency communications on the western part of the island? >> on the western part of maui,