Hawaii wildfires: Seventeen thousand acres of land are burned

Natural disasters in the USA

Hawaii wildfires: Seventeen thousand acres of land are burned

Overview

What happened

The 2023 Hawaii wildfires were a series of wildfires that broke out in early August 2023 in the U.S.

Date

August 8, 2023

Location

Maui, Hawaii

Key people

Joe Biden, Contact Information Hawai

Outcome

The 2023 Hawaii wildfires burned 17,000 acres of land and killed at least 102 people, with two others missing, when a series of wildfires broke out…

Why it matters

The wind-driven fires prompted evacuations and caused widespread damage, killing at least 102 people and leaving two people missing in the town of Lahaina on Maui's northwest coast.

What was Hawaii wildfires: Seventeen thousand acres of land are burned?

S. state of Hawaii, predominantly on the island of Maui. The wind-driven fires prompted evacuations and caused widespread damage, killing at least 102 people and leaving two people missing in the town of Lahaina on Maui's northwest coast. The proliferation of the wildfires was attributed to dry, gusty conditions created by a strong high-pressure area north of Hawaii and Hurricane Dora to the south.

An emergency declaration was signed on August 8, authorizing several actions, including activation of the Hawaii National Guard, appropriate actions by the director of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency and the Administrator of Emergency Management, and the expenditure of state general revenue funds for relief of conditions created by the fires. By August 9, the state government of Hawaii issued a state of emergency for the entirety of the state. S. President Joe Biden issued a federal major disaster declaration.

For the Lahaina fire alone, the Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) estimated that over 2,200 buildings had been destroyed, overwhelmingly residential and including many historic landmarks in Lahaina. The damage caused by the fire has been estimated at nearly $6 billion. 5 billion (2023 USD).

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