The headlines saying it all, heartbreak across the state as those fires continue to rage across Maui Chasing Thousands from their homes. No power, no internet and next to no progress in beating back the flames that have already left dozens dead. Fema directorwill join me live in a minute. Donald trump launching a threepronged attack using ads, speeches, and Tv Interviews to go after the men and women charging him with crimes. Is there a point in which those criticisms themselves break the law . And a year and a half after russia invaded ukraine, its a scenario that almost no one would have predicted at the start. Moscow now under increasing threat, its airports scrambling planes, Government Buildings bombed, Residents Raing for cover. Well have the latest there as well. But we begin with paradise ablaze. At this hour, at least 36 people are dead as three Wildfires Rage across maui. Parts of the island looking like a bomb went off and evacuations are happening around the clock. The headline in the local paper has a haunting succinct description, truly apocalyptic. The Seaside Town Of Lahaina once the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom is now largely burned to the ground. 217 buildings gone and with them irreplaceable pieces of personal lives and shared history. Familiar landscapes incinerated, now theyll never be the same. Thousands of residents had to run for their lives, one man telling nbc news he had just minutes to escape. Two houses i grew up, my grandparents home, my house where my brother lives, my mother, my father, every Single Person that i work with, the people i see at the bank, the grocery store, everyone i know is now homeless. And for thousands more, Dream Vacations turning into a hellish nightmare, with tourists chased to the airport for an escape, all of it most likely the latest heartbreaking and costly price being paid for chronic inaction on Climate Change. I want to bring in nbcs dana griffin from maui. Dana, more than 2,000 people at Evacuation Centers across the island. I know youre at one of them right now. What are you seeing . What do people need . Reporter yeah, chris, its around 7 00 local time. Were seeing people huddle underneath the awning because it is raining right now. Not sure if this is going to help with the firefighting efforts today, but people here, they need shelter. They need somewhere to go. Weve seen a lot of people sleeping in their cars. 3 to 400 people slept here inside maui high school. We spoke to someone with the red cross, and they tell us at this Evacuation Center which is the largest, they have pretty much everything they need. For the people who are still in lahaina, they need meals that they can readily eat and water. That is the big concern. Theyre actually preparing for a group to try to get to those people and see what they need. Its just very devastating to hear some of the people walking in telling us that theyve lost their homes, others have slept in their car for several days. It is very concerning, chris. Thank you so much for that. I know youll keep us posted on the situation there. Now for the two pieces of information on the fires we just got from the white house within the last 15 minutes. One, President Biden will address the fires just moments from now from his trip to utah. Well listen to that once it starts. Also, he has really just within minutes approved a Disaster Declaration for hawaii. So let me bring in the fema director deeanne kriswell, you heard whats going on in hawaii. I know you have seen it, so lets talk about that Disaster Declaration. What resources does that open up for the people of hawaii . Hi, chris, good afternoon. I just got off the phone with the governor just shortly before that was released to let him know that the president did approve his request for a major Disaster Declaration. At this stage, what thats going to do is allow us to really make sure were bringing in the entire federal family to support the response needs right now and then begin the recovery process. You know, we are still very much supporting hawaiis life saving and Life Sustaining missions, and we want to make sure we have everything at our fingertips to be able to get out there to support them. Weve already released enough meals and water to support 5,000 people for five days from our Logistics Center thats there on the island, and well send more as needed, and were sending Additional Communications teams and Communications Equipment as well as teams that will go on the ground and talk to people and help them get registered for assistance. Were going to keep moving these resources in as we have a better understanding of what the actual impacts are. But today focused on saving lives and sustaining those that have been displaced. So how much can you do in terms of Firefighting Resources . Because i was noticing when i was reading the maui times this morning that the Hazardous Conditions in hawaii sent some First Responders to the hospital. This is a dangerous situation for them, tremendously dangerous. Very much a dangerous situation, and i just really commend the First Responders that have been working Night And Day since these fires start. Many started on tuesday on the big island and in maui shortly after that. Part of our resources and part of what this support will do is help reimburse for all of the Overtime Costs that they are incurring to help suppress these fires, but also it gives us the ability to bring in Additional Resources if they dont have what they need on the island. So were going to work very closely with the governor and his team to know exactly what they need and get those resources moving to help them stop the spread of this fire. As you well know, thousands of people remain without power. There is very little Internet Access right now in the areas of the hardest hit fires. Whats your team doing to get in contact with people who need help or how can they get in touch with you . Theres a number of ways. We know that many people were evacuated, right, and so they are at shelters on oahu or maybe theyre in shelters in maui. We will have teams that will go to them, get their information and start their process of recovery. If you have Internet Access, you can go to disasterassistance. Gov. Or you can call if you have phone access. That usually at this stage, Long Wait Times and so i would strongly encourage people to either go to the internet or we will bring people into the shelters and into the communities that havent been as significantly impacted as its safe to do so. I dont need to tell you this, we are seeing not just in hawaii but across the country and really around the world, disaster after disaster, after billion dollar disaster that is tied to Climate Change. How has that changed the equation for you and what the Organization Needs to do . Yeah, youre right, chris, look at just this event alone, you know, driven by winds from a hurricane that was several thousand miles offshore. This is an example of how all of these different climate events from decades of drought to dryness and then these types of wind events that are driving and coming together to create hazards that we havent seen before at a level. Weve seen wildfires, but we havent seen the intensity that were starting to see. This fire thats happening in hawaii right now really reminds me of a fire that we saw in colorado in December Of 2021 where a community, brush fire driven by winds burned down the entire community. And this is unfortunately becoming a normal for us. We are continuing to bring in our personnel to support the response and recovery of these communities, but we are also investing a lot of time and funding to support reducing the impacts from these to our mitigation programs. We have to start looking at what these threats are going to look like as a result of Climate Change five or ten years from now, and putting money and investment into how were going to reduce the impacts of the future threats that were going to face. Deanne criswell, i know you have your hands full not just with this. Thank you for taking the time. We appreciate it. I want to bring in democratic congresswoman jill ta cue ta who represents most of the hawaiian islands, i cant imagine that you are anything but shocked and devastated. What can you tell us about what is happening at and to your home island . You know, as youve heard, its absolutely just heartbreaking to see the videos and the pictures. These are places that we love. Its where weve had our own memories. Ive talked to folks that have lost loved ones. Theyve lost homes. Theyve lost businesses that theyve had for generations, and so when we really think about what happened here, this has changed the face of our community. I can assure you, we are resilient and strong. Were going to pull together and support every last person there to make sure we rebuild. Really right now, its a lot of shock. Its a lot of pain. And weve got to act urgently to provide the support our community needs. This Disaster Declaration from the president , we are just so absolutely grateful to him for doing this and for the fema director we have so many needs right now, pressing needs for our community that we need to quickly address. Give us a little idea of what those most pressing needs are as youve been talking to people on the ground. I know youre going to be traveling back to the island later today. Yeah, literally in a few hours, ive been rushing back to try to get home. People need the most basic things, food, water, a lot of individuals have been cut off from Essential Lifelines to even get food and water. Cell service, connectivity, too many people right now still dont even know if their loved ones, friends and family are okay because they cant reach them on the phone. Shelter, so many people have said i literally just have the clothes on many my back. I have never been homeless before, but i have no home to return to. Looking to provide even temporary shelter for these individuals and looking at the longterm future helping them rebuild their homes. Cars on the load, those cars are no longer operable, so transportation for so many individuals literally went up in flames. Such basic things, food, shelter, water, more than just their clothes on their back. And what really well have to deal with is the Emotional Trauma that is not going to go away once you provide the food or even put the roof back over their head. We are talking about longterm generational trauma that will exist here that we will have to provide services and support for. It has been devastating just from afar to watch the pictures, especially from lahaina. The New York Times reporting its not just a popular beach town, but i want to read to you how they describe it. For residents of hawaii, it is trove of history. Its Heritage Museum and a Landmark Courthouse Houses Artifacts from before the rest of the world knew hawaii existed. On wednesday that legacy and more appeared to be in ashes. Youve talked about the shortterm, and obviously there are immediate needs, but longterm whats your concern . Whats your greatest concern here . You know, the big concern that we have to remember is while this for us just came completely unexpected, we thought we dodged the hurricane 800 miles away. Those winds swept up coupled with dry conditions, red flag warnings resulted in these wildfires. But what we have to remember is this can happen again in hawaii. We have to be prepared so that this never happens again to another community. Longterm we have to look at how were going to be supporting our communities. They need to become more resilient. Its more than just shelter. We need to make sure we help our community embrace the memories they made right here in lahaina. It was like a bridge to our pest, a connection to the present, a way we could look forward to the future, based on the artifacts, the memories of history that was in our very First Capital of our state. We cant let that go. It has been literally its ashes right now, it has been burned down, but we have to make sure that we preserve that, that part of our past. This is now part of that story, more importantly how do we use this to be more resilient as we go forward. Tragedies like these challenge us, and it is always remarkable to watch how people rise to the occasion. You talk about people pulling together and weve been hearing and watching as everyday citizens in lahaina are rescuing their neighbors, literally right now. And i want to play for you congresswoman, what one of them told us. Thats what we do in lahaina, we dont leave people behind, you know. Thats just how we roll. Weve been pulling people out since last night, trying to save peoples lives, and i feel like were not getting the help we need. Its both inspirational and worrisome. Are you confident moving forward that you will get the help you need, and what is your message to the people of hawaii . Its heartbreaking to hear those statements from our citizens, and quite frankly, when it comes to emergencies and disasters like this, we can never work fast enough. That is the harsh reality. We have to understand the absolute urgency, the aggressiveness in which we must pursue every last source of support and help. As we know, the u. S. Coast guard was literally pulling people out of the water. We had, you know we had our military friends literally dropping buckets of water to put out fires. We have fire crews coming from every county. The reality is for those suffering and hurting right now, thats never going to be enough. We have to continue doing as much as we can, even more than we can, and this federal declaration by the president , that just, you know, flipped the switch for us to be able to get real support, on the Ground Support that were going to need. But more importantly too, you know, how do we rebuild and come back to some kind of normalcy. It breaks my heart to see constituents, you know, feeling this way, and it just drives us even harder forward that weve got to understand the urgency. Weve got to put ourselves in that position. And quite frankly, All Of Us Have Friends And Family that are right there. This is painful. This is heartbreaking for all of us representative jill tokuda of hawaii, safe travels. We send our thoughts and all of the good possible emotions that we can as you continue on this struggle. Thank you so much for taking the time to be with us. Thank you. Weve also got Breaking News from iran where Five Americans detained in tehran are potentially in the process of coming home. Part of a Prisoner Exchange deal. Nbc news chief Foreign Affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell broke this story on her show in just the last hour. Picks up the reporting with us now. What more can you tell us, andrea, how might this work . Its going to work slowly, and its been a torturous negotiation, but they are, according to the source there, they are out of ebben prison which is a notorious horrible prison, one of the prisoners has been there almost eight years. Over the years, weve tracked them, talked to their families, interviewed their daughters here in the u. S. , and you know, one was a conservationist. Some were dual citizens, had dual citizenship. They were on trumped up charges of espionage without a trial in one case, show trials held on espionage charges. And iran has done this, taken hostages for money, for trade, for diplomatic advantage. In this case, in a slow process once it has been cleared and through the swiss ambassador there and other representatives from oman that they are out in house arrest. They will stay in house arrest until money is transferred, 6 billion, which is money that iran earned from oil sales to south korea in this instance, money being held in south korea will be converted into qatar to a currency that iran can use. The u. S. Treasury is going to take care of this, and this was all going to be spent, they say, on humanitarian nonsanctioned food, medicine, other kinds of aid. That taking place will take some time, and once this takes place, they will, of course, in this location now under house arrest, they can be checked by the swiss and the other representatives, the brits and others who are there in tehran representing u. S. Interests to check for their health condition. Reunited in some instances with Family Members who have also been in iran. In one case, the wife has not been able to get out. She has not been given an exit visa, so in essence shes been stuck in iran all of these years as well. So the daughters will be able to have their parents home in some time maybe midseptember, they think, and once that takes place, then there might be an unspecified Prisoner Exchange as well. That is what is very much under active discussion. This has all been very secretive. We were asked to hold back the details until they were safely out of prison. Andrea mitchell, thank you so much, and i know youll keep us posted as