Is it alabama or is it florida . A new report is raising questions. Our nbc reporters are following all of the latest developments and we begin with Steve Patterson who has the latest on the ground in hawaii. Steve, whats the latest from there. I know theres still just so many people who cant get home or who dont have a home to go to. Reporter or who are missing Family Members, chris. The death toll has increased overnight. It is now 55. Everything we have heard from the mayor to the governor to Emergency Officials on this island and looking at the devastation and looking at the damage, that toll will almost certainly increase over the next few hours and days. The governor has just told some families that they may be able to go back to their homes soon, but youre right, in a lot of cases, they will find nothing there. Lahaina has been almost entirely reduced to rubble. Thousands of structures raised. Were expecting millions, if not over A Billion Dollars in damage. Federal help is on the way. There are still active fire fights, though, going on on this island. Six major fires still burning. A lot of those, the majority of those have been mostly contained and now the major operation is as mentioned to get into that town, to try to connect missing to Family Members, to try to clear as much wreckage as possible so they can continue search efforts. In a lot of cases these are cadaver dogs looking for more bodies. The mayor said while they have a good count on how many have died, again, based on the damage and based on the fact that they have not done a major Search Operation on the interior of a lot of the structures youre seeing on television right now. That toll is expected to increase as they start going inside these buildings. It is heartbreaking work. It is terrible work in a lot of cases, but there is a spirit of aloha here. Im at one of six major shelters on the Island Of Maui. This is Maui High School behind me. We have seen donations all day. We have seen blankets, food, water, people just doing everything they can to help out. And speaking to people here who left with the shirts off their back, who left without anything, without knowing if their pets are going to be okay, if some of their Family Members are going to be okay. Theyre in good spirits, doing everything they can to keep spirits up and to try to help each other get through this. It is so tough. 15,000 people, mostly tourists left the island last night. That number is expected to be nearly as high tonight again, chris. Steve patterson, thank you for that. Lets go to washington now and the new developments in trumps Election Interference Case. Garrett haake is there. Garrett, what did we learn about how evidence is going to be handled in this case . Well, chris, were still waiting for the final approved protective order from the judge, which we expect to come down sometime this afternoon. Both sides got a little bit of what they want here. The government is going to have to designate some of the more than a million pages of discovery that they hand over to trumps defense team as sensitive. Only that material will be things that hes not allowed to discuss publicly. The vast majority of this evidence is likely the kind of thing that it would be able to continue to talk about publicly. Were also hearing that the former president will be able to review this material. He doesnt have to have his attorney present with him, although he cant copy it. He cant take pictures of it with his phone. Thats the good news if youre Donald Trumps defense attorneys. The bad news from their perspective is the judge made very clear in this hearing shes not going to take any Political Considerations into her thinking when it comes to how she handles this case. She made clear several times the fact that the defendant is running for Political Office is not going to factor into her decisions, and while she was really talking about it in terms of how this evidence is reviewed or how its discussed on the campaign trail, its important to keep in mind that may also be a major factor when it comes to scheduling this trial. We dont yet know when its going to start. The government wants it to start in early january. Were waiting on a response from Donald Trumps defense team about a date that they would find appropriate. These comments from the judge indicate to me that shes not going to listen to, you know, complaints about when super tuesday or Republican Convention might be and take those into account when she sets the trial date. Now we wait for the judges final order on the protective order part of this, talking about the evidence part of it, and we have a little bit longer to wait on the trial date. That likely wont be decided until the hearing at the end of this month, chris. Garrett haake, thank you for that. Also breaking this hour, the Special Counsel thats been appointed in the hunter biden case. I want to go to nbcs chief White House Correspondent peter alexander. Tell us about what Attorney GeneralMerrick Garland had to say a short time ago, and did the folks in the white house where you are get a headsup . Reporter well, to answer your second question first, were told no one at the white house got advanced notice about the announcement coming from the Attorney GeneralMerrick Garland today. Well play some of his remarks just a short time ago for you, but this is a significant moment in this investigation into the president s son, hunter biden. Today, the Attorney General elevating the prosecutor investigating hunter biden to give him special Counsel Authority here, which means he can continue to pursue these investigations and only moments after that announcement was made by the Attorney General, we heard from prosecutors in this case basically saying they had reached an impasse in their investigation or their, to have a Plea Agreement with Hunter Bidens team over tax and gun charges saying in fact that investigation, that case did appear that it would be going to trial. Heres part of what the Attorney General said when he spoke only a short time ago. Listen. On tuesday of this week, mr. Weiss advised me that in his judgment, his investigation had reached a stage at which he should continue his work as a Special Counsel. And he asked to be so appointed. Upon considering his request, as well as the extraordinary circumstances relating to this matter, i have concluded that it is in the Public Interest to appoint him as Special Counsel. Reporter among other things, its relevant and significant because it means that the attorney here now Special Counsel, david weiss, can pursue this case for a possible trial in the jurisdiction that he sees fit, not just delaware, where he serves as u. S. Attorney. Garland referring to weiss, you see there, as a Career Prosecutor and why its notable as it demonstrates, again, in the words of the Attorney General, the sort of independence of his agency, and also the need to have accountability on any matter, no matter who the defendant may be, in this case, the son of the president. Democrats and the president have been frustrated with Merrick Garland over the course of his time serving in this office. They have said privately that they have had frustrations about how slow he was to pursue any possible charges against the former president for his efforts to subvert democracy in 2020, and separately for the appointment of a different Special Counsel, robert hur, whos investigating President Bidens own handling of classified documents, chris. Peter alexander, thank you. Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville is denying a new report that says he doesnt actually seem to live in the state that he represents. For more on this, lets bring in Senior National political reporter, sahil kapur, get us up to speed on this. Reporter new reporting by the Washington Post raises serious questions about whether alabama senator Tommy Tuberville actually lives in the state of alabama. Now, lets start with the fact that tuberville doesnt deny that he is new to the state, his main connection is that he coached football at auburn for about a decade ending in 2008. In the year 2017 he said publicly that he had retired to florida. In 2018, local reports said he had voted in florida, and then in 2020, he got elected senator from alabama after listing a residence in that state which has fairly lax requirements for that job. The Washington Post reports that in the last couple of months, tuberville has sold off whats left of his properties in alabama and bought a new condo in florida where he seems to spend a lot of his time. That includes a 3 million home in Santa Rosa Beach in the florida panhandle. He recently bought property, the post reports, in florida during the Fourth Of July recess, and this part of the post report stood out to me. It said, quote, tubervilles frequent visits as a senator can be gleaned through expenditure reports filed with the fec by various Campaign Organizations and pacs. These are disbursements through his political operation that are paid for by that. It continues, quote, they show since tuberville became a senator there have been almost monthly expenditures for travel and food in Santa Rosa Beach or another florida town, panama city beach, which is about 50 miles away. Now, tubervilles campaign issued a statement not exactly taking issue or contesting the fact in the story, but they said its nothing new. Yes, he has sold property in alabama. They call his florida property that hes had for a couple of decades, a Vacation Home. This is the statement from his spokesperson steven stafford, coach, coach lives in auburn. He has a Vacation Home in the panhandle. Im sure lots of senators have Vacation Homes, unquote. Chris. Sahil kapur, thank you so much. One thousand people on the Island Of Maui still unaccounted for as wildfires wipe out homes and nearly all methods of communication. Ill talk to a local resident who watched her home burn down and then hiked a mountain just so she could tell her family she was safe. 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Right now, the situation for survivors of the wildfires in maui is grim. The hardest hit area, lahaina has no running water, no electricity, little to no internet or phone service. Many residents say food is still scarce, and thats what we know from the areas that rescue crews can get to. Other areas are still impossible to access. And a Pain Staking Search has begun to find the missing. More than a thousand people unaccounted for and the death toll is rising. This is the mayor of maui earlier today. Certainly weve seen devastation, destruction, immeasurable loss, loss of life. That was the number that they found people who were outside of the buildings, so we have not yet searched in the interior of the buildings. Were waiting for fema to help with that search. Hes talking about the 55 people who were found not to have survived. Joining me now alena davis who lives in lahaina and narrowly escaped the wildfire. Thank you for being with us. How are you doing . Where are you staying . Are all of your family and friends okay . Thank you for having me, and having this opportunity to speak on this. Im doing much better now. Were now three, four days after the 8th. As of yesterday afternoon, all of my family was finally fully evacuated to a safe area and accounted for. Its devastating. Were all shook to our core. We didnt lose just our home. We lost our community, our entire town, generations of our household has grown up in. I cant imagine trying to figure out where your friends are, is everybody okay, what have these last days been like . Okay. So on the 8th, shortly after the fires broke out, i would say they broke out about 4 00 p. M. By 6 00 p. M. , there was absolutely no phone communications. It wasnt even until the next day that i was able to drive up to the highest point in kaanapali and then walk up the Hillside At The Kaanapali Farms to get word out to my friends and family and, you know, people of the media from maui to let them know what was really going on. Because it was absolutely devastating. The entire town was burnt to the ground. The town of lahaina, Everything North Kaanapali was in tact, and thats where we were able to seek shelter for the night. But as it stands today, my entire household is displaced, you know, theres no news whether we will have jobs. We were given no notice. We had to leave with nothing. I was able to grab my computer and some important papers. But everything of our entire lives has been burnt down to the ground, and were just one family. Theres hundreds of families in the same situation, so i just i wanted to have this opportunity to have a larger platform to bring attention to this situation so that we can get the necessary funding federally, internationally help through donations and i also just want to acknowledge the efforts of our government, the maui fire department, Police Station and all the local individuals on the ground making it happen, delivering gas, because that was the biggest issue, people couldnt evacuate because there was no gas. When the electricity goes out, all the stores close, all the gas stations close, power lines were falling on top of the gas stations. So i just want to acknowledge their efforts and its happening. Its a slow crawl. Were getting word of friends and family who are unaccounted for. I have one friend who went back to find her family and found them charred in their vehicle. So i have other friend who were, you know, there didnt seem to be any evacuation or alarm, but as i know now, the Maui Police Department was going door to door, knocking on doors, getting people out as soon as they could. And people were the infrastructure of the city is was a big problem. People were not able to escape. Its one way in, one way out. People were on foot running faster than the cars. People were being grabbed, thrown into the river, thrown into the harbor to escape the flames. Im so fortunate that i was able to evacuate at the site of the intense black smoke that was fast approaching our home. If you could summarize what you need right now, what the people who are around you need right now, youve acknowledged that the government is working very very hard, and just being here and looking at the pictures, the extent of the logistical challenges is beyond belief. But what do you need . What can be done to help at least in the shortterm . So our community is amazing. Anybody thats able to leave lahaina and west area who is in central maui is getting quite a bit of help, but there are still people who are unaccounted for and who are trapped. Locals are, you know, i say funding for locals to their go fund mes, to their venmos is important. I know that federal is doing it, but the people on the ground need immediate relief and finances to help their families and get gas to them, supplies. Were all displaced. Were all in, you know, were three families in one household, so were going to need Immediate Solutions for shelter. A lot of us, you know, are displaced. We dont have work, we dont have employment, so, you know, funding is probably the best solution. La phena davis, i dont know how youre able to function. The strength of the community there has really been extraordinary, maybe you can come back on monday or tuesday if its possible. We would love to hear how youre doing and check in with you. Thank you so much for taking the time, and aloha