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Islands and distribute water. with military helicopters aiding in extinguishing the fires. they flew 13 hours, did 58 drops and about 150,000 gallons of water to assist with suppression of the fire. reporter: recovery will be a long road ahead, according to hawaii s lieutenant governor. the damage to the infrastructure, it s not just buildings. i mean, these were small businesses that invested in maui. these were local residents, and you know, we need to figure out a way to help a lot of people in the next several years. reporter: 11,000 people were flown off of the island yesterday. another 1500 people are expected to fly out today. airlines are reducing their fares. they re increasing their flights to get people off of the island. officials are asking people also to cancel their flights, to cancel their vacations here. ....
Anything but essential travel does not go to maui. we ll welcome visitors back to paradise after the fire is done. all right, pete muntean is with us now. pete, give us a sense of the travel situation there. reporter: you know, the real challenge now, john, is getting people off the island and evacuated. the airport is the main airport on maui. it s about 15 miles from luhina, and it is really the epicenter right now. airlines are adding flights. this is the latest from hawaii airlines. they added four flights today after adding nine flights yesterday. in some cases, airlines are doing something called upgauging, meaning swapping out smaller planes that would typically be on a route with larger planes to get more people and more seats headed off the island. in fact, hawaiian airlines has even started adding $19 fares to try and incentivize people to leave. the big question now is how to deal with people coming in. you mentioned united and american airlines have canceled ....
Thing. those who have shown aloha by heeding our call to leave the island at this time, you know, we re thankful here at this assistance center to be able to reciprocate that and take care of folks on their journey home. what s your message to people maybe on the mainland who are trying to reach family or loved ones who could be traveling in maui? the american red cross does a great job managing shelters. you can call 1-800-red-cross if you re trying to get in touch with someone. also our state emergency management website, ready.hawaii.gov has a butch of resources for people looking for people, folks wishing to help in some way, or keeping up with the latest. when do you want tourists back on maui? you know, it s important to note that the impacted area is west maui, including the resort ....
Their flights on to the island. that s a big deal because some of those flights are nonstops from places as far away as chicago, denver, l.a.x. the head of transportation at hawaii, his name is ed sniffen. he says that right now, the best thing that s happening is that airlines are waiving their fees. meaning that if you had a trip to hawaii, to maui, you can change your trip free of charge. no change fees on pretty much every major airline that flies to maui. he says, i want you to listen now, it is helping people although the island will be open for business again soon, he insists. we really appreciate what the airlines have done. we look at the transpacific flights, alaska, delta, united, and american have increased capacity by bringing in larging planes to insure we get more seats to get more people off the island. southwest has dropped their fares and increased their ....
Few miles. how surprised are the people coming to you? how surprised have the tourist been about what took place on maui? sure. to paint a picture first. the island of maui has about 150, 160,000 residents. on an average day, 70,000 visitors. so the visitor presence is really pronounced on the island of maui. in a disaster like this, there s certainly priority placed on making sure visitors know what s happening, where they need to be, what they need to do. understanding that, like you said, sometimes folks unplug and relax. so there have been lots of efforts made reaching out through our hospitality industry to lodging accommodations, transportation companies, all of that. trying to get folks where they need to be. we did make a call out for visitors who don t need to be on maui to leave at this time. and you know, we talk about aloha, and it s a reciprocal ....