Officials warned death toll could rise after wildfires left dozens of people injured and homes and businesses destroyed
At least 36 people have died in ferocious wildfires that have ravaged the historic town of Lahaina in Hawaii, as crews continued mass evacuation efforts and desperate searches for survivors.
Officials warned on Thursday that the death toll in the blazes on the island of Maui could rise. Search teams spread out to charred areas on the island at first light.
Continue reading...Officials said at least two dozen had been injured as the fire destroyed businesses in the historic town of Lahaina in western Maui
Six people were killed in the unprecedented wildfires that tore through the Hawaiian island of Maui overnight, authorities said.
The fires, fanned by strong winds from Hurricane Dora, destroyed businesses in the historic town of Lahaina, and left at least two dozen people injured, officials said at a press conference Wednesday. There have been 13 evacuations for three fires.
Continue reading...This liveblog is now closed. You can read our full story on the wildfires below:
Hawaii Governor Josh Green, is expected to be back in Hawaii on Wednesday evening, after returning home from a scheduled trip.
Green has been in contact with the White House, and is preparing to request emergency federal assistance sometime in the next two days, once he has a better idea of the damage, his office said in a news release.
Jill and I send our deepest condolences to the families of those who lost loved ones in the wildfires in Maui, and our prayers are with those who have seen their homes, businesses, and communities destroyed. We are grateful to the brave firefighters and first responders who continue to run toward danger, putting themselves in harm’s way to save lives.
I have ordered all available Federal assets on the Islands to help with response. The Hawaiian National Guard has mobilised Chinook Helicopters to help with fire suppression and search and rescue on the Island of Maui. The US Coast Guard and Navy Third Fleets are supporting response and rescue efforts. The US Marines are providing Black Hawk Helicopters to fight the fires on the Big Island. The Department of Transportation is working with commercial airlines to evacuate tourists from Maui, and the Department of the Interior and the United States Department of Agriculture stand ready to support post fire recovery efforts.
I urge all residents to continue to follow evacuation orders, listen to the instructions of first responders and officials, and stay alert.
Lou Conter, 101, is now final survivor of ship on which 1,177 were killed when Japanese attack brought US into second world war
Ken Potts, one of the last two survivors of the USS Arizona battleship, which sank during the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, has died. He was 102.
Howard Kenton Potts died on Friday at the home in Provo, Utah, that he shared with his wife of 66 years, according to Randy Stratton, whose late father, Donald Stratton, was Potts’s Arizona shipmate and friend.
Continue reading...A 58-year-old received life-saving treatment after being bitten on the leg by a shark, said authorities
A surfer is in serious condition after being bitten on the leg by a shark off Honolulu, authorities in Hawaii have said.
The 58-year-old man was attacked shortly before 7am on Sunday near Kewalo Basin, according to Honolulu Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Local reports suggested an 8-foot tiger shark was seen in the area.
Continue reading...California newlyweds claim they returned to boat after dive to find it sailing away
A California couple has filed a $5m lawsuit against a tour company in Hawaii which it claims abandoned them in the middle of the ocean during a snorkeling tour.
In September 2021, Elizabeth Webster and her husband, Alexander Burckle, were on their honeymoon in Hawaii during which they booked a snorkeling excursion with the boat tour company Sail Maui.
Continue reading...Christopher Kunzelman was renovating a home in a village on Maui in 2014 when the men referred to him as ‘haole’ and beat him
In a case that reflects Hawaii’s nuanced and complicated relationship with race, two Native Hawaiian men are scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday for a federal hate crime in the brutal beating of a white man who tried to move into their remote traditional fishing village.
A jury convicted Kaulana Alo-Kaonohi and Levi Aki Jr in November, finding that they were motivated by Christopher Kunzelman’s race when they punched, kicked and used a shovel to beat him in 2014. His injuries included a concussion, two broken ribs and head trauma.
Continue reading...Plane heading for San Francisco took steep dive shortly after takeoff in dramatic incident in mid-December
A United flight from Maui to San Francisco plummeted to less than 800ft above the Pacific Ocean shortly after takeoff in December, an apparent near crash and previously unreported safety incident revealed by airline industry publication the Air Current.
Flight tracking data analysis revealed that the Boeing 777-200 had reached an altitude of roughly 2,200ft when it began a steep dive, descending at a rate of about 8,600ft a minute. After dipping below 775ft, the flight recovered altitude and traveled to San Francisco without further issue.
Continue reading...Large volumes of traps, nets and marine debris in sperm whale’s intestinal tract highlight plastic pollution’s threat to wildlife
A sperm whale that washed ashore in Hawaii over the weekend probably died in part because it ate large volumes of fishing traps, fishing nets, plastic bags and other marine debris, scientists said on Thursday, highlighting the threat to wildlife from the millions of tons of plastic that ends up in oceans every year.
The body of the 56ft (17-meter) long, 120,000-pound (54,000kg) animal was first noticed on a reef off Kauai on Friday. High tide brought it ashore on Saturday.
Continue reading...Plane was unable to change course within seconds, investigation finds, leading to 25 people injured
A cloud shot up vertically like a plume of smoke in a matter of seconds before a Hawaiian Airlines flight last month hit severe turbulence and 25 people on board were injured, according to a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The captain of the 18 December flight from Phoenix to Honolulu told investigators that flight conditions had been smooth with clear skies when the cloud shot up in front of the plane and there was no time to change course, the report said.
Continue reading...One passenger lost consciousness while others suffered cuts, bumps and bruises after severe turbulence on flight from Arizona to Hawaii
Eleven people were seriously injured when a flight to Hawaii was rocked by severe turbulence about 30 minutes outside Honolulu, emergency services have said.
Nine others were transported in a stable condition, the Honolulu Emergency Medical Services said in a statement.
Continue reading...Officials warn lava advances could be highly variable over the coming days as flow crosses level ground
Hawaii’s Mauna Loa, the largest active volcano in the world, that erupted last week for the first time in nearly four decades, continued to spew lava Saturday, though the flows have slowed to a crawl.
Fissure three in the volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii remains active and is feeding a lava flow advancing at an average rate of 150 feet an hour over the past 24 hours. Fissurefour is “sluggish”, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said, while fissures one and two are no longer active.
Continue reading...For many, the lava flow is a time to pray, sing, dance and make offerings to Pele, the Hawaiian deity of volcanoes and fire
For many Hawaiians, lava flows are a time to honor, reflect.
Glowing lava from the world’s largest volcano is a sight to behold, but for some, Mauna Loa’s eruption is a time to pray, make offerings and honor both the natural and spiritual worlds.
Continue reading...Scientists scramble to re-establish the crucial monitoring that has been situated on the volcano since 1958
The world’s premier measurement site for global carbon dioxide levels has been shut down because of a volcanic eruption in Hawaii, with scientists scrambling to re-establish the crucial monitoring that has been situated on the volcano since 1958.
Lava has been shooting more than 150ft into the air from Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano, since Sunday night and a river of molten rock is now not only menacing the main highway on Hawaii’s big island but also the Mauna Loa Observatory, a scientific station situated on the northern flank of the volcano.
Continue reading...Cyril Derreumaux, 46, spent 91 days on a ‘magnificent adventure’, traveling 2,400 miles from Monterey to Hilo
After three months at sea, rationed meals and a brush with a tropical storm, a San Francisco Bay Area man became the second person to successfully kayak from California to Hawaii.
Cyril Derreumaux reached Hilo early Tuesday morning on his second attempt to complete the 2,400-mile journey, which he documented on social media.
Continue reading...Cameron Carter, 19, who had never travelled on a plane before, was left unable to contact his family throughout ordeal
An Australian teenager who travelled to the US for a job interview was strip-searched and held in a federal prison for 10 days, including eight confined to his cell, after he was deemed ineligible for a common holiday travel program.
The 19-year-old, who had never travelled on a plane before, was denied contact with his family in Australia throughout the ordeal. He was supposed to be sent back to Australia after two days, but was held for another eight so he could go before a judge, after an immigration officer said he had resisted returning to Australia.
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Continue reading...Aloha Petroleum’s case against AIG could set precedent as to whether firms are protected against climate damage claims
A fossil fuel firm is suing its insurer for refusing to cover a climate lawsuit in a case that could affect the wider industry’s ability to defend itself from litigation.
Aloha Petroleum, a subsidiary of the US-based Sunoco, filed a claim against AIG’s National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh earlier this month, arguing it had failed to protect Aloha from the mounting costs of defending climate-related claims by local governments in Hawaii.
Continue reading...Native Hawaiians have protested the $2.65bn project, saying it will further defile an area already harmed by other observatories
The National Science Foundation will examine the environmental impacts of a proposed optical telescope on the summit of Hawaii’s tallest mountain, a project that has faced strong opposition from Native Hawaiians who consider the area sacred.
Native Hawaiians have long protested the plan to build what would be one of the world’s largest optical telescopes on Mauna Kea, and say the $2.65bn project will further defile an area already harmed by a dozen other observatories.
Continue reading...A strong winter storm in the South Pacific produced the swell which headed for the islands, bringing waves more than 20ft high
Towering waves on Hawaii’s south shores crashed into houses and businesses, spilled across highways and upended weddings over the weekend.
The large waves, some more than 20ft (6m) high, came from a combination of a strong south swell that peaked Saturday evening, particularly high tides and rising sea levels associated with climate change, the National Weather Service said Monday.
Continue reading...US military investigation points to human error after fuel leak that poisoned thousands
A US navy investigation has revealed that shoddy management and human error caused fuel to leak into Pearl Harbor’s tap water last year, poisoning thousands of people and forcing military families to evacuate their homes for hotels.
The investigation, released on Thursday, is the first detailed account of how jet fuel from the Red Hill bulk fuel storage facility, a huge second-world-war-era military-run tank farm in the hills above Pearl Harbor, leaked into a well that supplied water to housing and offices in and around the sprawling base.
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