disaster i ve covered, jim, over many years. this is unlike any search and recovery that a lot of these veterans have seen. they re searching house by house and normally if it was a hurricane you d know which room you were searching. here the entire house is just turned to ash and it s as if 3 1/2 square miles of a vibrant community is cremated at the same time, so the enormity of the forensic search is just it s hard to wrap your head around. we ll give you a glimpse of that next hour and hung out with some of the cadaver dog teams but the emotional piece of this, i don t think we can fully comprehend. we re in paradise, one of the most beautiful places in the world filled with some of the most generous, warm, hospitable aloha spirit you d want to meet going through insufferable pain that most of us want comprehend. i ve been to lahaina myself. it s a beautiful, beautiful part of maui, and it s depressing
finally starting to get a glimpse, their first look at the devastation, even those whose homes survived the fire, seeing what happened to their neighbor is just getting, the psychological toll of this, the trauma, will be with these folks for quite awhile. speak to a specialist about that shortly. we spent some time today with cadaver dog teams, to bring that to you tomorrow night. but along the way, we met a veteran, fema urban search and rescue officer, who has seen so many disasters, more than 90 in his career. but he says this is unlike anything else, take a listen. what are the particular challenges in this site, compared to all of the experiences. so, i have been to a number of hurricanes and tornadoes. and what s so unique about this is, we are not looking at a street, we are not looking at a
reporter: well, anderson, people are starting to get their first looks at the devastation even those whose homes survived seeing what happened to their neighbors is gutting. the psychological toll and the trauma will be with these folks for quite a while. i am speaking to a specialist about that shortly. we spent some time today with cadaver dog teams and we ll bring it to you tomorrow night. along the way we met a veteran fema urban search-and-rescue officer who has seen so many disasters, more than 90 in his career, but he says this is unlike anything else. take a listen. what are the particular challenges on this site compared to all the experience you have? i have been to a number of hurricanes and tornadoes and what is so unique is we are not looking at a street, not looking at a block. what we re looking at is the whole community and again it isn t a few houses tipped over, a few structures leaning this way. what we are looking at is it is
everyone will be found alive. first responders have described horrific scenes. a warning to our viewers, what you re about to see and hear is disturbing. local crews working with cadaver dog teams flown in by fema resume their search today in neighborhoods reduced to fields of ash. when we pick up the remains and they fall apart, i don t know how much more you want me to describe it. that s what you re stepping on. reporter: maui s police chief says crews have covered just 3% of the destruction. we have an area that we have to contain that is at least 5 square miles. it is full of our loved ones. reporter: the fire ripped through lahaina tuesday afternoon, a time many tourists and locals would have been walking and shopping on historic front street. i saw one dead on the ground like a piece of charcoal, lime pompeii almost, just dead. i mean, there s nothing you could do. it was that fast.
that. we re also looking in the setting up some shower stations just outside of rolling fork and outside of silver city. but as far as search and rescue efforts are going, it s more of a search and recovery. at this point. we are facing the threat of super weather coming into the area again today later in yeah. so we re just we re hit orderly morning to beat that stuff coming in. well, i m sure that people are incredibly grateful for the work that you and your volunteers are doing. how many teams are people do you have there on the ground? and can you tell me specifically about any rescue or recovery efforts that you all have been a part of the recovery efforts right now are going to be our cadaver dog teams, which came in yesterday afternoon, and they are assisting department of wildlife and fisheries and other local law enforcement search crews, and they re basically going with