Im here on the road to lahaina. This is as close as we can get to the community. And what i want to show you right now is the scene here. If we just move over here i want to give you a picture of these dry conditions here on the island of maui. You can see there the dry grass, the drought here, which has been a persistent problem for many months. You can also see the high winds. And these high winds really have been an issue in fanning those flames and they are leading to more concerns, ever present concerns from authorities about the prospect for flare ups in these places. Im going to move out of the way so you can look over my shoulder here. What you can see is this is the last Police Check Point here on the road to lahaina here, everyone on the road here is stopped and asked questions about why they are going on. And many people are then forced to turn around in this lane here and essentially turned back, because right now they are only allowing Emergency Workers in. Its coming at a
Are known to have died but hundreds still remain unaccounted for. Search teams are checking through the rubble of burned out buildings and vehicles. Many people were forced to run into the sea, to escape the flames. An official review has been ordered into whether residents were given sufficient warning about the fire. It appears some early sirens never sounded. There are also questions over the speed of the emergency response. From maui, heres john sudworth. Videos of the disaster continue to emerge. This one shows lahainas residents huddled in the water the only place of refuge they could find as the smoke and ashes from their burning town rained down upon them. Hundreds are still listed as missing. The Authorities Say temperatures here reached 1,000 degrees. The task of both finding and identifying the bodies will take time, according to hawaiis governor, himself a trained doctor, speaking to us media. They will find ten to 20 people per day, probably, until they finish. And it is p
And then these high winds, winds averaging 70 mph, reignited those flames and, at times, they now believe that that fire was moving at a speed of one mile every minute, leaving those residents of lahaina with little chance of escaping. Now here at this harbour today, weve met volunteers who have been taking their boats, packing their boats with aid, trying to get over to lahaina to distribute much needed humanitarian aid. People still need food, water, clean drinking water, shelter. The absolute basics at the moment, which are in short supply. And, speaking to everyone, you get the sense that people are traumatised here. Many people from lahaina in particular have lost absolutely everything but, because their humanitarian needs are so great, theyre barely able to process the loss. Theyre barely able to grieve when essentially they are sleeping out in the open in some cases when they have such dire humanitarian needs. There are other concerns about the weather. You can see that at times
But so far only a tiny fraction of the affected area, less than 5 m has been searched. Hundreds of people are still unaccounted for, and authorities are expecting the death toll to rise significantly. Wildfires in the area are still burning with firefighters working to bring them under control. These pictures are from the Us National Guard which is providing assistance. Hawaiians are donating supplies to be sent to the worst affected areas. But maui locals say much more help is needed. Hawaiis governor has given this update. It isa it is a harrowing sight in maui. The police in this division, when you do come across scenes in houses or businesses, it is very difficult for them, ultimately will be sharing with our people that there have been more fatalities. I do expect the numbers to rise. More now from our North America correspondent sophie long who is in maui. The death toll now stands at 93 but we are told that that will rise. Over the past five days we have heard countless harrowin