Alia Harbor in Maui for more on this
Melissa today marks one week since these
wildfires started what's it like there
right now and what are you hearing from
residents about the search and rescue
efforts
and Diane it's an impressive Mark to
think that exactly a week ago folks were
waking up here in Maui trying to see
that they were going to have high winds
then that date that just kind of
escalated the more stories of survivors
that we hear the more that they show us
their videos we can tell that by the
afternoon there was a lot of high winds
power lines were already down and then
we saw that Devastation just pour in
throughout the evening so it is
incredible to think that that as we're
marking this one week the survivors
though now have an incredibly long
journey ahead and then yet so do so many
families that are still waiting to hear
about those unaccounted for you know
something that the Maui County police
chief shared with us in the press
conference last night that I found so
striking he shared how the search and
rescue efforts and he admitted it it's
slow but he says it's slow intentionally
he says what they're doing is they're
working with FEMA they're combing
through this area that is just so vast
we're talking about 25 percent that
they've already cleared but then he said
something to me I found so striking he
said I want to unders people to
understand this is not a numbers game so
he's saying that he doesn't want people
to just quickly ask what's the new uh
death toll he he doesn't want that to be
like that he says this is a personal
thing he goes it's not just ash on your
clothing when you take it off
it's our loved ones
that really is how the people here are
feeling Diane it's heartbreaking Melissa
an investigation is also underway into
why the state's alert systems weren't
activated what's the latest on that
front
definitely so it's frustrating for
residents here right they have the most
comprehensive siren systems when it
comes for tsunamis we've gotten video of
them they're still standing in fact they
were not impacted by these wildfires or
these high winds so now the state has
admitted they were not activated the
governor did respond to this criticism
last night also he made it a point to
share that typically the sirens are used
just for tsunamis when it comes to
wildfires they get evacuation notices on
their cell phones with text messages
emails on the television what's the
issue here the power was cut out so all
of the communication couldn't come in
you know the governor going on to say
that this is a complicated situation
still nonetheless Hawaii's attorney
general investigating everything from
before and after Diane so what more do
we know about the fire hydrants running
dry what are officials saying about that
that's another it's it's like obstacle
after obstacle here the fact that
there's no water first and foremost the
governor when he was asked this question
at the press conference he admitted
there's a water problem here on the
island of Maui but again he pushed down
to the State Attorney General's
investigation saying that's going to
have to be thoroughly reviewed but so
many instances and Diane it leaves you
with the concern look today they're
expecting High wins again there is that
uncertainty none of these fires the main
ones here still about 80 percent
contained it's not a hundred percent
containment yet so there's obvious
levels of concerns of what happens if
there's another Wildfire what will the
evacuation policies be it's unnerving
for the people here and and they deserve
answers Diane all right so Melissa what
happens next
really next is going to be the hardest
part as we're expecting today to hear
from essentially officials as they start
to share the identifications of each of
those victims we're talking about 99
people ranging in ages we have yet to
we've only heard from about like three
relatives but imagine the scope and
magnitude of these families when we
start to learn who they are and then
sadly of course that we continue to hear
that more people are being found that
did not survive Diane my homeless Adan
and mahalaya harbor on Maui Melissa
thanks for staying on top of it
hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here
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