And yet another indictment for former president trump. And more than 100 Million People are under a severe storm threat this morning. Well tell you the areas most at risk. Good morning and welcome to our viewers in the u. S. And around the world. Im rahel solomon. Great to be with you. The officials in hawaii raised the death toll to 96. Already it is the deadliest wildfire in more than a century. Officials say the lahaina fire is 85 contained. A lawsuit has been filed against the main power company. The company kept its lines energized despite dangerously high winds. The cause of the fires has not been determined. The high winds drove the fire to spread at the stunning speed of nearly a mile a minute. In the wake of widespread criticism, the state has launched a formal review of the Emergency Response including why a Warning Siren system wasnt activated. In the meantime they are being given permission to be allowed back into the town and homes. Reporter this is the only checkpoint for residents to get into lahaina and for people who stop here to have their licenses checked so officers can make sure they are, indeed, residents, they tell us this is a profoundly emotional moment. Listen to a woman named susan who told us everything shes been experiencing before and after she goes into the disaster zone. I drove through lahaina for the first time on friday. I, again, live up north seven miles out of lahaina and that night of the fires we were watching the sunset on one side and it seemed like the sunset on the other side from the flames. We did not know how serious it was. When i drove through on friday i had no clue what i was going through. I got so everything is gone. I worked at the charred house in 1991, it is flat to the ground. Theres houses that i used to live in in lahaina and i dont know where they were. I lost friends there. They were going back to get their animals. She died. Its really sad because people come over here. I heard there was a Snorkeling Boat looking at lahaina town. Give them respect, you know . Its so bad. People died here. You know, people i mean, its not just a vacation its not just a place for vacation. We live here. Reporter so to give you some perspective, the checkpoint were at, its about 1,000 feet above the pacific ocean. An amazing picture. So much beauty. What a contrast to the moonscape, the ashen, burned, seared landscape of lahaina. Once you goat a couple yards ay from us this narrows into one lane of traffic. Its somewhat of a difficult road to navigate. It shows you how difficult things are to access the area and for people to see what, if anything, has survived. Thats the latest here on maui. Im mike va layer yes. Back to you. Maui resident shalena barrier narrowly escaped. A video was taken from her backyard before conditions got even worse. Lahaina. Reporter she joins us now from california. Good morning. We appreciate you being with us today. First, just if we could start at the beginning. When did you know something was wrong . Walk us through how quickly it all happened. Clearly we can tell something was wrong in the morning when there was no power and the wind was crazy. My husband came home early from work and was helping our neighbors whose roofs were blowing off of their houses. We prepared to evacuate. My husband was watering the house and my neighbor said, the fires here, the fires here. Did you all leave together . Walk me through those moments in terms of leaving the house behind to try to safely escape. You know, fires are something that we deal with on maui so i naively thought oh, its okay. These things i dont niecely need. That may be important or sentimental. Ill come back and claim them later. So there were a lot of things that were lost that i wish werent, but, you know, funny something that sticks out in my head is i was so concerned about not locking my back door which, you know, in hindsight doesnt matter. I heard you say that you heard your neighbor say the fires coming, its time to go. What were the warnings like . I mean, what alerts did you get . What alerts didnt you get . You know, unfortunately, you know, i hate to say there was no alerts. We do have a siren system thats tested every month for tsunamis. We do have other neighbors who were waiting for ee vablg cue wags because generally thats, you know, what youre told to do is to wait until someone comes to tell you to evacuate. It was happening so fast i dont think there was time to tell the residents to evacuate. You told our producers that your husband is still in maui. Is that still the case. Uhhuh. Yes, he is. How is he . What is he telling you about what things are like in that region . He hes doing okay. You know, hes someone who has to work and has to stay busy so he was down this morning in lahaina trying to access our property and when that didnt work he decided to go and help any way he could so he just hes in he said his heart is just so full with everyone just coming together, the Community Coming together. Mauis such a special place and he said that, you know, everyone just feels so connected and the love is just so huge. Can i ask whats next . I mean, lahaina will take a very, very long road to recover. Whats next for you and your family . I dont know so far. Im trying to create some normalcy with my children. I want to do home school. Im hoping to my kids birthday is in a couple of weeks. Im hoping to have my husband out here and we can spend it together. I think just trying to heal and just trying to, you know, support those around us who have lost also their homes and their family. Anything we can do. Shaleena barrios, we so appreciate you being with us this morning. Thank you. Thank you so much. For more information on how you can help Wildfire Victims go to cnn. Com impact or you can text hawaii to 707070 to doe zbliet at least two witnesses are set to appear before an atlanta grand jury. Bonnie willis is nearing the completion of her probe. Jeff duncan was notified over the weekend he must appear to testify tomorrow, tuesday. Its a Signal Willis is moving ahead in a conspiracy and racketeering probe. Her wide ranging investigation is concluding. Willis has texts and emails directly connecting members of trumps legal team to the effort to breach the voting system. Among those under investigation are rudy giuliani, sidney powell, former new York City Police commissioner Bernard Harrick and others. With indictments nearing, security is tightening. We have more. Reporter The Big Question here is will Fulton County be yet another place where trump is charged and arrested . Regardless of that answer, it appears that Fulton County is ready. They have an increased Police Presence around the courthouse right here. You can see that. Oftentimes were seeing Law Enforcement officers patrolling around the courthouse and also these barricades, orange and white, that have been set up and theyre doing Road Closures as well to control who goes in and out of this sensitive area. And its not just the building but also the very visual face of this investigation in Fulton County into donald trump and that is fau nie willis, a sourc whos familiar with Law Enforcement in atlanta. She has she have had additional Security Protection near her home. Willis has recently urged local officials to stay vigilant about any security threats. In an email obtained by cnn willis shared racist and sexualized messages she has received due to this investigation and similar threatening voicemails. The sheriff, patrick labott, he is the man in charge of security on the ground here in ferrerascopeland. He Fulton County. We are leveraging technology. How it can create a Force Multiplier for us. Then twee have as many as four or five other sheriffs offices coming in to help across those particular parameters and making sure holistically we are safe. Were ready. Trump has been over the past couple of months been attacking willis on Campaign Events and on truth social with what hes been saying against her. Willis has previously said that due to trumps rhetoric, Security Concerns have escalated. Isabel rosales, cnn, atlanta. Lets bring in now cnn legal analyst joey jackson. Good morning. I feel like i just talked to you yesterday. Good to have you back. The newest development, georgia prosecutors have these messages linking trumps legal team a 2021 are breach. How significant is that, if at all . Reporter good morning to you, rahel. Its very significant. Indications are the District Attorney is going to called rico, racketeering, influence corrupt organization act. What happens is in order to do that you need two patterned felonies. What tdoes all of that mean . It means there are two felonies shes looking at to charge that, which is a Fraud Statute in georgia. And many states throughout the country you need those two things, one of which shes expected to charge relates to this tampering of these Voting Machines in order to find these votes. Another, of course, is expected to deal with witness tampering. The significance of that is we now have an indication of what felony shes looking to pursue. You need at least two felonies that could potentially be much more but it could be damning evidence when you have emails and other evidence which connect the dots between the parties youre investigating and the parties, rahel, you wish to indict. If, in fact, some of trumps legal team are tied up into this, does that signal how far up this alleged scheme went . Reporter it certainly would. What the expectation is, remember, rahel, there was a special purpose grand jury that was convened and that happened last year. It was from may of 2022 till january of 2023. What does that mean . A special purpose grand jury is a grand jury convened for a special purpose. That purpose is specific to whether there was Election Interference and what specifically people may have done. Now that grand jury that heard from 5 wi75 witnesses did not h the ability to indict. Now we move here to another grand jury which consists of 23 people, a majority of which, right, 12 have to vote out an indictment and theyre hearing all of this evidence and information and so, again, to the last point, theyre connecting the dots between what, if any, involvement mr. Trump had himself, the former president , in addition to what his allies may or may not have done. They may or may not have directed. Absolutely it seems to me that those indications are that not only was the former president allegedly involved, but many people surrounding him involved to the highest of levels. Well see specifically what that means. That process is secretive on purpose. The expectation is we will learn something new this week. Joey, before i let you go, i want to switch to another story. Hunter bidens lawyer speaking about the possibility of a trial after that plea deal faelell ap. Heres what his attorney said on sunday. Take a listen. Its not inevitable and i think youre trying to avoid one . Yes, we were trying to avoid one all along, and so were the prosecutors who came forward to us and were the ones to say, can there be a resolution short of a prosecution . So they wanted it and maybe they still do want it. So essentially they were talking about trying to avoid a trial because this was supposed to be a plea deal. Joey, does the appointment of a Special Counsel change the odds of a plea deal happening or could it happen still . Reporter yeah, i think thats certainly bad news from a defense perspective. The distinction, rahel, is as follows. You can control the future, what you are pleaing to, as it exactly happens as it moves forward. Now that you have that blowing up and there are indications it could be putback together, now you have a Special Counsel which will have charges consistent with that evidence, those could be serious. Now either youre going to plead to the charges or youre going to take the case to trial despite them. I think the ante has raised significantly for hunter biden in terms of the cases, prospect and losing the control that i just eluded to. Joey jackson, so much to watch. Thank you. Youre welcome. This week is set to start with another round of weather. More than 90 Million People are under heat alerts in the south and pacific northwest. More than 100 million easterners are under a storm threat. Lets bring in meteorologist derek van dam. This is going to march eastward and hit the midatlantic. You saw more than 100 reports yesterday. Now we start to focus our attention across the mid Tennessee River valley all the way to the midatlantic including the nations capitol. Damaging winds, large hail and a tornado or two. The specific wording coming out of their discussions. Weve narrowed this down for you. 5 of probability of a tornado occurring from philadelphia to washington. Keep an eye on the sky. Anywhere across the i95 corridor. Thunderstorms will move through this afternoon and evening during the peak daytime heating hours. Of course any time we get these thunderstorms moving across the same areas, we get the potential for flash flooding. We have a level 2 of 4. For many of the larger cities, philadelphia including new york city. So overall we have 100 million americans impacted by the potential of Severe Weather today. Severe storms. Record heat. Its all in advance of this cold front. This is the 90 millions that have heat alerts including here in atlanta, georgia. Since the middle of july right through the middle of august we have broken over 7800 heat alerts or heat records. Then well add another 230 to that just through tuesday. We have overnight max minimums and Daytime Highs that will be potentially broken. Just to kind of put this into further perspective, places like austin, texas, 37 days of the mercury climbing above 100 degrees. Today well do another 100 degree day, plus. Phoenix, arizona, hitting 119 three times and weve already had 19 days above 115 degrees. Thats not even when you factor in heat indexes. All in all, rahel, the heat continues. Hot and muggy summer. Derek van dam, thank you. Still ahead here on early start, the jabs thrown between desantis and trump at an important stop on the president ial campaign trail. See the moment two pilots ejected from a plane in michigan. Plus this that is a home in Pennsylvania Exploding over the weekend. Were going to have the details next. Wi 30 grams of protein. Those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks uuuhhhh. Here, ill take that woohoo ensure max protein, 30 grams of protein, 1 gram of sugar. Enter the 10,000 powered by protein max challenge. Rsv can be a dangerous virus. [sneeze]. For those 60 and older. Its not just a cold. And if youre 60 or older. You may be at increased risk of hospitalization. [coughing]. From this highly. Contagious virus. Not all dangers come with warning labels. Talk to your pharmacist or doctor. About getting vaccinated against rsv today. They fell in love with the irresistible scent. Huh, huh, so did their dog roger. Gain scent beads keep even the stinkiest Stuff Smelling fresh. vo Verizon Small Business days are back. From august 7th to the 13th. Get a free tech check and special offers. Like a free 5g phone. Plus, switch, keep your number, and get up to 300 off. With Verizon Business. Its your business. Its your verizon. Welcome back. 5 people died and one hurt when a home exploded. Three homes were destroyed. Cnns Paulo Sandoval has the latest. That was absolutely horrific. A neighbor captured this explosion. I want you to see it and hear it yourself. Though its slightly off camera, you cant miss it. The ariel images are quite telling at the site of the blast. It looks like a tornado tore through this neighborhood. Local authorities said over the weekend that they are not in a position to determine a cause when it comes to this explosion here. They are saying this investigation may likely last for months, if not longer. A local gas provider said that they immediately dispatched crews, conducted testing in the area looking for any possible leaks but officials over the weekend said that gas system was, quote, operating as expected. It will be interesting to see where the investigation takes them. Were told by officials that 57 firefighters had to be treated on scene for minor things like heatrelated injuries. Rahel. Thank you, paolo. Time for quick hits across america now. It shows the moment a group of people stole up to 100,000 worth of merchandise from a los angeles mall. You can see them rip the items from shelves and racks. The lapd is currently looking for those involved. 16 people were hurt in a Boat Explosion at a marina in the Lake Of The Ozarks at missouri. The explosion was set off by a spark. Gas fumes that are built up in the area were on the boat plus this. T the. Video shows the moment two people ejected themselves from a jet at a michigan air show. They parachuted and landed uninjured in a lake. The jet crashed in an apartment complexs parking lot. Thankfully no one was there hurt either. Turning to 2024. The 2024 republican primary race playing out at the Iowa State Fairgrounds where leading candidate donald trump and his closest rival, Florida Governor ron desantis made the rounds each vying for the goodwill caucus attendees. We have more. Reporter the campaigns of ron desantis and floridas donald trump clashed at the iowa state fair. Theyre trying to build support for what is going to be one of the most important gop nominating contests on the calendar. For governor desantis, he has cut staff, he has cut spending, he has