the middle of the island, is about 70% contained, and officials are also dealing with a third fire in up—country maui, with no estimate on its containment. in just over four days, the fires have burned roughly 2,000 acres and have destroyed more than 1,000 buildings. these are images from the historic town of lahaina, which was hardest hit. local officials are allowing residents and tourists back into the town, but a nightly curfew is in place. we are now beginning to learn about the harrowing stories of survivors, like this one, where one family was forced to jump into the ocean to escape the flames. the ocean almost dragged my kids away a few times. but, yeah, we stuck together, we held on. i said, "we're not going to die," and we're here, we're alive. an unprecedented logistical effort is underway from all over the united states as government agencies are mobilizing resources to send to hawaii. the state's national guard has chartered planes to help fly first responders and emergency crews to maui in order to help with efforts. meanwhile, the vice president kamala harris spoke about whether she or president biden will visit hawaii. we wa nt we want to be there and there is kind of situations, do the best interests of folks on the ground and we don't want to distract from the resources that need to go to the victims of this tragedy and of course the need that the first responders have to focus on that issue and not worry about focusing on us. joining us now is the bbc�*s max matza, who is in maui. max what is the situation where you are at the moment? they're still thousands of people that are seeking shelter in emergency shelters, some are still living in their cars, hotels are mostly for, some people are sleeping outside but there's lots of people in need and very few have actually been able to go back to lahaina, and while some residents are being allowed back, people lost everything their own, including identification documents that prove they are residence which is required get back into town. i know you have been speaking to people at a temporary shelter as well, what are these people telling you, they have lost their homes, lost everything. lost their homes, lost everything-— lost their homes, lost eve hin. everything. they are starting to hear rumours _ everything. they are starting to hear rumours of— everything. they are starting to hear rumours of who - everything. they are starting to hear rumours of who was | to hear rumours of who was among the dead, they have not been identified yet officially so it really is just rumour at this point. i would say that many people believe the death toll will continue to claim for quite a while, it might take months to find some of these bodies, to find them in the water or under the rubble in cars, so it's unofficial of course, it's unknown what we will wind up at but most people think the death toll will claim at least over 100. we think the death toll will claim at least over 100.— think the death toll will claim at least over 100. we have also been hearing — at least over 100. we have also been hearing a _ at least over 100. we have also been hearing a lot _ at least over 100. we have also been hearing a lot of _ been hearing a lot of discussion about these emergency sirens that were supposed to be sounding to warn people about this wild fire, emergency officials saying those sirens were not activated. what have you been hearing from people you have been speaking to? did they get any kind of advanced warning before the wildfire advancement of the town?— of the town? noah, and that is a source of _ of the town? noah, and that is a source of frustration - of the town? noah, and that is a source of frustration for - a source of frustration for people here. i spoke to one tourist from oregon in the us who says that has been the most upsetting part about all of this for her, that there was no warning, the winds came in, not power out and there was no communication so people did not know the fires were coming into town, and another resident i spoke to was saying that once a month a sound that siren just to test and prove that it works, and yet it did not sound when they needed it, so people want to know what went wrong about what started the fire, but at this point, people do want to know who has died, that is probably the biggest source of frustration, the fact that it is still unknown who is among the dead. hundreds, if not thousands _ among the dead. hundreds, if not thousands of _ among the dead. hundreds, if not thousands of houses - among the dead. hundreds, if not thousands of houses have | not thousands of houses have likely been destroyed in lahaina. you have been speaking to people who are temporarily in a shelter, but more long—term, is there any kind of plan was set up in place for people to be able to move into wants those temporary shelters" is yellow i am not aware of any official plan from the government at this point, but i would say people here are hopeful that the federal government in washington will be able to step in and help. there is a rumour going around the department of housing, the state department of housing will help people find a more long—term solution in public housing but i have not heard of any official plan in the next weeks or months. some excellent reporting now from max, thank you so much forjoining us. meanwhile, hawaii governorjosh green says he's ordering a comprehensive review of the state's response, including why sirens didn't alert maui residents to the danger. hawaii's emergency service administration says based on its records, no—one at the state or county level attempted to activate the sirens. our own reporter on the ground said that no—one he's spoken to was alerted to the encroaching flames. more on that in just a few minutes. earlier, i spoke to us congresswoman jill tokuda from hawaii's second congressional district about the federal government's response to the fires, as well as what the government could do to mitigate the effects of climate change on natural disasters. thank you for being here in this difficult time, i understand you havejust returned to your home state of hawaii. what have you been hearing from your constituents and members of your community that have been affected by these wildfires? i will just tell you that it has been heart—wrenching and as you can imagine, not being able to get home fast enough adds to the angst but literally, constant streams of text messages, calls, watching these video footage images and pictures of a town we all love completely wiped out and destroyed, just in a flash. and i have heard from individuals who lost loved ones, i have heard from individuals who are looking for loved ones and we're trying to help find them, connect them up, people who have lost their homes and have nothing but the clothes on their back. the businesses, their livelihoods. there is so much shock and loss — i think the one thing that we take away as comfort is we have all pulled together so mightily to support and surround each other, but there is definitely just a deep, deep feeling of loss and pain, and i can tell you that the heartbreak is felt by absolutely every single one of us. you mentioned there that hawaii and maui and all of these communities are so tightknit, it feels like, over there. what have you seen in terms of the response from people coming together to help each other? you know, it doesn't matter what island you are on, where you live, we all have family who live on every island. i trace back my family roots and my grandfather spent his childhood on maui, all of us have some kind of connection and tie to each other. and so we're looking at our state capitol right now, the last two days they have been taking a massive amounts of donations and things coming in. i just got the plane from san francisco and i will tell you that on the belt with the luggage was literally two or three large boxes taped up that said "maui relief donations". and so, just overwhelming response of people giving what they can, supporting people in ways that they can, it is just inspiring, it is moving, but it does also speak to the great need that exists right now in the community in maui. there is a lot of need and there has been a lot of damage, and now tragically we are hearing that this is officially now hawaii's deadliest natural disaster as well. in your mind and what you have seen and heard, how prepared do you think the state was for an event like this? you know, when it comes to hurricane season we worry about the hurricanes. we don't think about winds whipping up dry conditions and red flag warnings and creating wildfires. wildfires that in this case literally trapped a community between the fire and the ocean. so it was absolutely catastrophic. the thing is, after we are done really supporting this community, supporting ourfamilies and friends, assessing the damage, there is a lot of work to be done in terms of making sure this absolutely never happens again. if we think back in our history, hurricane lane did the same thing but it didn't come after a town, it took out large acreages of dry grass but we have to remember the way our towns are configured, we are along the coastline, this can happen again and so we need to have as many take away the lessons learned from this, because it absolutely must not, must not happen again, it is absolutely tragic. it was a perfect storm of catastrophic events, but that is not going to bring any lives back, that's not going to bring any homes back or businesses back. so bottom line, we have to be better next time and we have two... crosstalk there was a warning system in place that there was dozens and hundreds of these warning sirens across hawaii, but we have heard from reports and officials there that the sirens didn't go off. do you have any sense of what might have happened and whether residents were given enough time, enough warning to get to safety? every person living in hawaii, we are familiar with those warning sirens — the beginning of every month you hear them go off at noon, like clockwork, to test it out, to make sure it works. so there is going to be a lot, there are a lot of unanswered questions into why that warning signal did not go out. what kind of failsafes do we have to have, if in fact the situation is that it burnt down? we know that a lot of alerts went out through cellphones, but unfortunately from the day prior as we know, the cellphones were actually out. so these are things that we have to create redundancies for, to make sure at the end of the day every person who needs to be warned to get to safety can get the alerts that they need. so there is still a lot of outstanding questions and i can tell you right now for many of us, the focus is, there is still a huge recovery effort. we are talking about looking for loved ones, with the casualty counts that could definitely go up from here. really going out there and recovering, assessing the damage and the lost homes and businesses and the entire community. so a lot of questions, but right now we have some very big arms that we have to wrap around our community, that is absolutely suffering and many still don't even know the fate of our loved ones and they are still looking for them. and just briefly, as a congresswoman, what would you like to see the federal government do to try to help states like hawaii and the other states we have seen affected by wildfires, continue to adapt to these disasters and the effects we are seeing from climate change? absolutely. you can ask anyone who lives here — it doesn't take a hurricane to bring down utility poles, to bring waves over roadways and take out bridges and roadways, we are seeing this all the time throughout the year and in increasing frequency. we are seeing drought conditions, torrential rains, so the reality is we have to start looking at how we are going to mitigate and adapt to this kind of climate chaos we are seeing across the country. hawaii is not unique when it comes to wildfires, when it comes to torrential storms coming out of nowhere in many cases. so this is going to be about how we put resources and support, and change policies, so that we are both adaptive to climate change and we prevent this kind of massive loss of life, loss of property, from ever happening again anywhere else. us congresswomanjill tokuda, thank you so much forjoining us during this time. as we mentioned at the start of the programme, hawaii's historic former capital, lahaina, has been left in ruins after the wildfires swept through the town, burning down celebrated landmarks. however, one of the few iconic landmarks that was left standing, a 150—year—old banyan tree, which was scorched by the flames, but not destroyed. the colossal tree has been a major tourist attraction for years. earlier, i spoke to dr kalei nu'uhiwa, a lahaina native and current adjunct professor at the university of hawaii at manoa about the history of hawaii's former capital. thank you so much forjoining us to speak about lahaina, which is, of course, the town where you grew up, you know it well. i wanted to ask you first of all, have you been in touch with your friends or loved ones there in the town? yes, actually, just recently, to — the communications are not actually up yet and so, not a lot of wi—fi or phone capabilities, so they're trying to reach out to us as much as possible to let us know that they are ok, so for me, my friends and family are all accounted for, although we have lost personal items and things like that... very good to hear they are safe. unlike others, who. .. unlike others, who... thank you. we have seen images of destruction and the sense of loss is hard to imagine. can you describe some of the cultural areas, the fixtures of this town that dates back centuries, that may have been lost in this fire? right. so, pre—contact time, lahaina was an area that was known for its water resources and so, there are some religious sites that are there that sort of go back to that time, before contact, so a lot of chiefs, our leadership in the past would have a home there to be able to rule from and so, that's actually some of the spaces that are gone. the thing about lahaina is you could walk down front street — which is an amazing space and place that was sort of captured in multiple time eras, this chronological walk. you could walk from pre—contact where, the hawaiian leadership would be, where they would go and pray, do their spiritual practices, their political decisions, those kinds of things happened there. that street you were describing, was that destroyed in the fire? yes, front street — absolutely completely levelled. there is nothing left of it anymore. so, that's actually a little bit difficult right now to come to terms with that, sort of took that place for granted and as i was saying, it is the area for native hawaiians, there were lots of things that happened there, a lot of beginnings, laws, rules, the beginnings of education happened there as well, the oldest school west of the mississippi was there, or is it still there, so a lot of things happened along that street, and it touches upon multiple areas of time and history. crosstalk significance of this town, how does it feel to now begin to come to terms with the fact that much of it has, unfortunately, been lost in this blaze? right, so, personally, it's actually where a lot of us are still in shock. we're still getting through that. and as days go through and go by, a little more realisation comes in with social media photos and those kinds of things. i liken it to the time that a hurricane came to hawaii and the devastation happened to the community although everybody was connected to that as well, but what is sad about it is this historical timeline that i keep referring back to about front street is you could go, like rome, to places in roman point to things and say this is where —— in roma and point to things and say this is where a previous rule this out and this is where his son was coronated, his coronation ceremony was, the funeral of his daughter was here — you could point to things, this is where the wall used to be, that the whaling industry was, you could point to various things, see it in real—time and now, those things are just completely gone, nothing left of them, all smouldering ashes at the moment, and currently we are focusing on the lives that have been lost in the livelihoods that have been lost, that's kind of what we're working through first. you're mentioning all the lives lost there. how would you describe the community? i know it's a small town, 12,000 people or so lives there. what kind of person lives in lahaina? 0h, right. a very resilient one, for sure. they used to hosting multiple different changes, cultures that come through, whether it's through the plantation era, where there were multiple cultures living in one space and place, got along, got — easily celebrated each other�*s festivals and those kinds of things. so, i know they will rise and stand firm and help each other�*s neighbours and get through this devastation and this tragedy that is occurring, and i also know that hawaii will do the same — that the other islands and other communities will stand up and help and so, it's been amazing to see how many people and how many communities and also nations are sending their assistance, so i really believe they'll rise and there will be resilience and they will rise to the challenges. resilience certainly would be the word here and we wish you and your community the best. doctor, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us. thank you so much. take care now. the maui blaze moved fast, driven by hurricane—force winds and grass parched by drought. a short time ago i spoke with pao—shin chu, a professor and climatologist at the university of hawaii on how climate and climate change helped fuel hawaii's deadly blaze. thank you forjoining us. we have been seeing these images of destruction there in maui. to what extent do you believe — as someone who studies meteorology and climate change — that climate conditions played a role in such a destructive wildfire? actually, we know that - climate_ in hawaii, so when we have el nino, then the following winter in the spring in hawaii is very dry and this is our rainy season. so, this means we almost have a six—month drought. and following this drought period, then by spring and summer of next year, then we see large acres burned by wildfire in hawaii. so, previously, we knew that on this time scale, climate does influence wildfire. this ocean phenomena which brings heat the up, right, from the bottom of the ocean, affecting notjust the pacific but the entire globe — what is it about that phenomena that affected hawaii so drastically? yeah, because if you have el nino, studies show then there is a better chance for more hurricanes to occur in the central north pacific, including hawaii regions, so this is no surprise to us. like, this year, we have — injuly, we have had a tropical storm calvin and in august, we had a hurricane dora, which is pretty strong, so this is something that we always keep watching, these hurricane develop following el nino. there was around 90% less rainfall in hawaii recently than a century ago. really dry conditions. what's behind that? do those numbers strike you as out of the ordinary? yes, those numbers are really alarming. i think that, of course, the climate is changing, so that it's different from before, and we do see more and more wildfire activity, temperature rise, sea level rise, we have more hurricane activity, we have more drought, so they are all linked together. we've also seen these kinds of devastating wildfires hitting other parts of the globe. hitting the western united states. how vulnerable was away previously to wildfires? was it considered a risk zone? —— how vulnerable was hawaii previously to wildfires? usually, wildfires do not receive much attention in hawaii because the inaudible land area is very small. and basically in the tropical islands, there's lots of vegetation, usually compared to california, hawaii usually is not considered to be wildfire—prone region but this time, it's very unusual, because there was a combination of very strong pressure gradient between — north of hawaii we have this high pressure and to the south of hawaii, we have hurricane dora, which is low pressure, so this generates a very strong pressure gradient, and if you have a very strong pressure gradient, this drives very strong winds, so this is a large—scale. well, once again, the latest news we're getting on these wildfires — the death toll has now risen to 67, making it hawaii's deadliest natural disaster on record. ceuphone cellphone and internet service down, many without power in maui. local officials are also advising residents to exclusively drink bottled water, citing potential harmful contaminants in the local water systems. we are continuing to follow this story for you online as well on our website. you can follow our coverage there about the wildfires and make sure to check us out. bbc.com/news. 0urteam is our team is following this and will bring you the latest. this page has a breakdown of the latest facts from officials, as well as a detailed timeline of events leading up to the wildfires. i'm carl nasman here in washington. stay with us right here on bbc news. hello. it is shaping up to be yet another unsettled weekend of weather but that doesn't mean it's going to be raining all the time — far from it. while it will be showery and quite breezy, there'll be some drier spells, too. in fact, parts of the south and the east are going to see the driest of the weather, furthest away from the centre of this area of low pressure — that is what will be driving the showers over the weekend. and see all the white lines, the isobars squeezing together? that shows that we are going to have some quite brisk winds, particularly around western coasts. a band of rain through the morning pushing its way northwards and eastwards across scotland. northern england seeing some of that, maybe parts of wales. behind that, sunny spells and showers, some of them heavy and thundery. a few showers breaking out down towards the south—east corner but actually, a decent amount of dry weather to be had here. so, there's confirmation of what will be a breezy, indeed quite windy day around some western coasts. temperatures a little down on where they have been. the warmest weather in eastern england at 2a degrees, more generally around 16—22. and then, as we head through saturday evening, we'll continue to see some showers, particularly across the north and the west of the uk. some areas of cloud, some clear spells, too, and another relatively warm night — 12—15 degrees. so, for sunday, our area of low pressure just continues to swirl, centred close to the north—west of scotland, so that will be driving the showers. this frontal system here to the south—west, that'll be running in later in the day. so, some spells of sunshine to be had but also some showers, maybe some longer spells of rain at times for northern ireland and western parts of scotland. and then, late in the day, some cloud and perhaps some rain into the far south—west of england, maybe the far south—west of wales. temperatures between 18 and 23 degrees. breezy again — perhaps not quite as windy as on saturday. now, through the coming week, low pressure will be with us initially but then, it looks like high pressure will build for a time and, actually, as that high shifts eastwards, it may be that we start to pick up a feed of slightly warmer air from the near continent. the big question mark is about how quickly this area of low pressure then swirls in from the west to turn things unsettled once again. but signs are that as we head through the coming week, there will at least be some drier and warmer weather on the way for many of us. v0|ceover: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. hello, i'mjohn hello, i'm john wilson, welcome to this cultural life, the radio for pod casts in which i talk to leading creative figures about the key moments of the life and the most important cultural works that have fired their imagination and had a profound impact on their own art. my guest is carlos acosta, the cuban born ballet star who over a 30 year career is now regarded as one of the greatest dancers of all time, becoming the first black principal of the royal ballet and set new standards of grace and set new standards of grace and athleticism in

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