TRANSCRIPT:
Hawaii's wildfires began on Tuesday night, taking most of Lahaina's residents and visitors by surprise.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's director Deanne Criswell is already on the ground in Hawaii, along with a surge of FEMA personnel, to help survivors get access to federal assistance.
That access has been made possible by United States President Joe Biden declaring a state of emergency as the scale of the destruction on Maui unfolds.
"Anyone who's lost a loved one, whose home has been damaged or destroyed, is going to get help immediately. And I've directed that we surge support to these brave firefighters and first responders and emergency personnel working around the clock there, risking their lives [[which means access to federal assets such as the U.S. Coast Guard, the Navy third fleet, and the U.S. Army]]. I just got off the phone before I got here for a long conversation with Governor Josh Green this morning, and let him know I'm going to make sure the state has everything it needs from the federal government to recover."
Scores of locals are taking cover in hastily organised emergency shelters, while visitors are being evacuated from the island, an estimated 11,000 people flown out in the last 24 hours.
Major General Kennneth Hara, from the Hawaii State Department of Defense, says firefighting efforts also continue in challenging conditions.
"The reason it spread so fast is there are reports of gusts of up to 85 miles per hour (137 kph). So you know that is so fast, and that's why Maui County had such a hard time doing containment of the fire. And because the winds were so high, we couldn't provide the helicopters to do the water bucket support. As an example, the military helicopters, their limitation to start the aircraft or shut down is 45 knots - about 30-something miles per hour (48 kph) - and it was far in excess of that. So we couldn't get those helicopters into the firefighting fire suppression mission until today."
James Tokioka, from the Hawaii Department of Business and Tourism, says other teams are trying to address problems with the infrastructure that's been destroyed in the wildfires.
"On West Maui, there's no power. General Hara's team is going to be doing assessments in the area, but right now, the roads are still some of the roads are still closed. So it's hard to get to the hotels to find out what their situations are. We're just assuming that most of them are closed in West Maui."
California governor Gavin Newsom has confirmed 11 members of the state's urban search and rescue team, and others who specialise in mass casualty events, are heading to Hawaii to help in the grim task of checking burned-out and so far unreachable areas of Maui.
At least 36 people are confirmed to have died in the unfolding disaster.
Spokesman for Hawaii Emergency Management Agency Adam Weintraub has told the US Good Morning America program they are concerned this death toll will increase.
"We've got a fairly large burned area that the search and rescue teams still need to explore and see whether there's any survivors in those areas. We do fear that there may be additional casualties. We're hopeful that this is everyone and that we found them all so far. But these were large and fast-moving fires, and it's only recently that we've started to get our arms around containment. So we're hoping for the best, but we're prepared for the worst."
President Joe Biden says he knows the scale of the task before them - and the federal government will give them what they need.
"In the meantime, our prayers are with the people of Hawaii. But not just our prayers: every asset we have will be available to them. They’ve seen their homes, their businesses destroyed. And some have lost loved ones. And it's not over yet."
