A wildfire that swept through the resort town of Lahaina on Hawaii's Maui island has killed at least 36 people, authorities said, while leaving smoldering ruins in its wake and forcing thousands to flee the onetime capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Video footage showed neighborhoods and businesses razed and vehicles burned to a crisp across the western side of the U.S. island as the wildfires cut off most roads out of Lahaina. The town is one of Maui's prime attractions, drawing 2 million tourists to the island each year, or about 80 percent of its visitors.
Watanabe was among the more than 2,100 people being housed at the island's four emergency shelters, Hawaii News Now said. Governor Josh Green said Hawaii had not seen such widespread disaster and death since 1960, one year after it became a U.S. state, when a tsunami killed 61 people. A restaurant on Lahaina's Front Street owned by Mick Fleetwood, the drummer for rock band Fleetwood Mac, was devoured by the flames, according to unconfirmed reports. A post on its Instagram account said the proprietors did "not have enough information" about the restaurant's condition.
In a call with Green, Biden mourned the lives lost and vast destruction of land and property, the White House said. Human-caused climate change, driven by fossil fuel use, is increasing the frequency and intensity of such extreme weather events, scientists say, having long warned that countries must slash emissions to prevent climate catastrophe.
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