of course, hawaii as a whole is no stranger to natural disasters. in 1996, hurricane nikki came through. that caused about six or six or eight deaths, i believe, around there. and then there was a tsunami in the early 1960s or so, but by far nothing compares to this. i mean, we re already seeing that massive loss of life and to have an entire town wiped off the map, it s unheard of, really. and like you say, really sad to hear that potentially another two deaths on the island, taking the number up to 55. now, president biden has announced a state of emergency, which means federal aid will begin to arrive. that money can be released to provide that. but how easy is it to get aid and to get those who can help with the situation to the island? well, as you know, hawaii is an island place. and so getting anything here, first off, either takes a five hour plane ride from the mainland united states or by boat. it could take even longer. and even inter island, there is some delay. we did have
new figures suggest there s been a sharp increase in the number of people crossing the mediterranean to enter the european union illegally. junior doctors in england begin their latest strike a four day walkout over pay and conditions. hello and welcome to the programme. im frankie mccamley. we start in hawaii, where at least 55 people are now known to have died in wildfires on the island of maui. hawaii s governor says it s probably the largest natural disaster in the state s history and he s warned that the death toll is likely to rise further. about 1,000 people are still missing, mainly from the town of lahaina on maui s west coast. the authorities there say it will take many years and billions of dollars to repair the damage. this report from our
today that said, i am leaving honolulu at two o clock. bring whatever you can. let s fill this boat and let s get things over there to the island. so even though the resources from the federal side, the us mainland may take some time to get here, inter island there is already that help. and i do understand as well that some of the federal resources in terms of manpower have already arrived here in state. the extra hands to fight the fires, the national guard, they are already there on maui doing what they can. and i know we re not at this stage at the moment yet, dylan. we re in the emergency response stage. but the pictures we re seeing homes destroyed, history destroyed. when it comes to trying to rebuild this island, it s going to take years, isn t it? it really is. again, an entire town has been wiped off the map and for so many it so hard to believe. a lot of it is due to the fact that so many people have yet to even be allowed back into lahaina.
catastrophic wildfires have burned in maui carving a deadly path likely becoming the largest natural disaster in hawaii s history. everybody lost everything. we don t know how to feel. i don t know how you are supposed to feel. reporter: the cause of the fire is still under investigation, and many residents say the flames erupted with almost no warning. my heart is just broken for everyone, everyone who has lost someone, everyone who doesn t know where someone is. reporter: maui resident danielle tells me she can t get in touch with her grandmother. we don t know where she is. reporter: who lived in an assisted living facility. what do you want to tell her? tell her, i d want to tell her that we re looking for her. grandma, we re looking for you. if if you can reach a phone to call us, let us know where you re at or anybody can see her, you know, is with her and knows who she is, and just contact us. we just want to find some contact to get
emergency management team to help explain things going forward. right now we re doing all we can to support the families who have lost loved ones and to make sure everyone has health care and soon housing because of the devastation. it is much like an atomic bomb hit lahaina, which is a part of maui leaving other devastation. we have heard a staggering number of those unaccounted for. is it your belief that we will uncover more grim scenes or that many of these people, most of these people are staying with friends or family or elsewhere out of contact? yes, so thousands of people have been out of contact because there was loss of total power and cell service. will the news get worse before it gets better? it will. there will be more fatalities reported. it will be billions of dollars of recovery, but we recover. we always recover here in the islands. governor green, i know you have a lot of work to do. thank you for taking the time to speak to us. thank you for including us