Known for its turquoise waters, its white sand beaches and its steep reliefs, Hawaii no longer offers anything from a postcard landscape. On the American archipelago, it’s more like being at the heart of the underworld of Dante or, for the less literary, in Sicily a few weeks ago. Violent fires broke out on two islands, fueled by strong winds, and have already ravaged several localities.
“It is a deeply dark day”, testified Wednesday evening Richard Bissen, the mayor of the island of Maui, confirming “six deaths”. What do we know about the origins of the fire? What is the human toll? How are the American authorities reacting? 20 minutes make the point.
How to explain such violent fires?
The trigger for the fires remains unknown. But on the archipelago, all the conditions were met to trigger hell. For months, the Pacific islands have been suffering from a severe drought, and the authorities had warned the inhabitants of a possible “imminent disaster due to property and/or bodily damage”, reports the washington post. In addition, the flames were fanned by gusty winds caused by the passage of Hurricane Dora in the distance, hundreds of kilometers further south. Sufficient to cause winds up to 130 km/h.
Several fires are raging on the tourist island of Maui, another focus concerns that of Oahu, where the state capital, Honolulu, is located, and the big island of Hawaii is also plagued by flames in at least two places. . The tourist city of Lahaina, on the west coast of Maui, is the most striking example of the violence of these fires: the city of 12,000 inhabitants was ravaged by flames in a few hours.
The blame in part for a bad state prevention plan, analyzes Elizabeth Pickett, co-executive director of the Hawaii Forest Fire Management Organization, since the archipelago, its authorities and its ecosystem are not used to this kind of threat. “We expected rain, we expected flooding” with the hurricane’s proximity, Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke said. Very far from the fiery scenario in progress.
What is the human and material toll?
The first toll, which reported six dead on Wednesday evening, has already increased considerably. “As efforts to fight the fires continue, 36 deceased people have been discovered so far for the still active Lahaina Fire,” a statement from Maui County officials said. But the area “was not searched or cleared at all,” said a law enforcement officer, explaining that he expected relief to find corpses. “Given the amount of charred material, (…) I don’t think there is much alive in there. »
Claire Kent, a resident whose house was destroyed by fire, testified on CNN of scenes “worthy of a horror film”, describing the chaos which gripped the commune with “people stuck in the traffic jams”, in the middle of “cars in flames on both sides of the road”. Pinned down by the flames, some townspeople threw themselves into the sea to try to survive: 14 people were rescued from the waters off Lahaina, authorities said. At least five people are hospitalized at Maui Memorial Medical Center.
What are the American authorities doing?
More than 2,100 people have been moved to emergency centers, and 2,000 tourists are being accommodated at Kahuliu airport awaiting evacuation. Hawaii Governor, Democrat Josh Green, has called on tourists from other islands to leave the archipelago, and those planning a trip to postpone their plans, so that hotels and Airbnbs can be opened to displaced residents.
The National Guard is mobilized, and US President Joe Biden has announced the mobilization of “all available federal means” on the archipelago to fight the fires. But communication and emergency coordination can be complicated: the wind has knocked down many utility poles, and the 911 emergency call service does not work in certain areas of the island of Maui. According to the PowerOutage site, around 13,000 homes and businesses remained without electricity on Wednesday evening in the archipelago. While gusts recently reached 100 km / h, the wind should drop to around 65 km / h in the coming hours, said Ian Morrison, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Honolulu.