. >>> and i want to turn next to bill weir, he is fairly close to the center of where landfall is expected from what is now a category 4 hurricane. it has been intensifying. bill, up to this point, what have you been seeing? actually we'll get to bill in a moment. stay with us. a fast moving story, a lot of updates to come. bill weir will be with us when we come back. including mental alertness from one serving. to help keep me sharp. try new neuriva ultra. think bigger. yes, i need a trim. i just want to be able to cut the damage. we tried dove instead. so, still need that trim? oh my gosh! i am actually shocked i don't need a haircut. don't trim daily damage. stop it with dove. at the alzheimer's association walk to end alzheimer's, this is why we walk. ♪ they're why we walk. ♪ we walk in the alzheimer's association walk to end alzheimer's because we're getting closer to beating this disease. join us. introducing the limited edition disney collection from blendjet. nine exciting designs your whole family will adore blendjet 2 is portable, which means you can blend up nutritious smoothies

phil. >> all right, bill weir. orning versus where he is now. you look at the structures that his photojournalist is showing. this is moving very, very fast, rising very, very quickly in an area that doesn't have lot of history of storms of this scale. we will check back with bill throughout the course of the morning. i want to toss it back over to sara sidner. what are you seeing at this point? >> reporter: we are getting another one of those gusts. this is the story of the day. i want to quickly tell you it that we just learned some information here. what you are seeing now is low tide. low tide. the water has come up about 3 or 4 feet, actually probably more like 4 feet at that point. they are saying that this may get up to 9 feet. when might that happen? when is there a possibility this will get really nasty, other than, like, right now? it will get dangerous at high tide at 4:00 or 4:30 in the afternoon. we are by no means in the clear yet here in crystal river. and we are just getting tropical-force winds. we

i'm going to go to bill weir who is in steinhatchee right on the coast. bill, i was with you there last night. i just saw pictures of where we were standing last night. the water is now over where our heads were, substantially over where our heads were. just tell us what you're seeing. >> well, this is the steinhatchee river where you did that live shot yesterday, the banks of it. it norm it alley would flow from east to west, but right now, thanks to the dirty side of idalia, it is pumping upriver now. we're watching pieces of the sea hag marina and those docks and everything between here and there floating, being pushed upriver now. i saw an entire dock, sailboat still attached, going upriver. concern for the few sailors who decided to ride it out on their boats just around the bend here. we did our morning shots down where the white buildings are, around the other side where the water was at its normal level. now it's over the road. we are hiding from the wind behind the cedar block motel and are ready to run from the water. thankfully we have a way out

i do want to switch over to bill weir right now, live in steenhatchie, florida, where derek is 130 miles away from landfall is expected, we're much closer to where the center is. bill, what are you seeing on the ground right now? >> reporter: phil, it's really starting to kick up. this will be our last water line check here. we're down on the actual river here, the steenhatchie river flows threw this really beautiful charming town of about a thousand people at height of season. this is supposed to be the height of scallop season, so we'd have boats and anglers out here. there's a couple of pontoons that were left but most of the boats pulled out of the harbors here, out of the marinas, put up as high as possible. we're staying at about sort of 28 # feet above sea level, which is considered alpine altitudes in this region, but the worry is, is that storm as it comes in here from the west is going to shove that wall of water up into these lowlands here, and a lot of this construction is not built for a storm surge over ten feet. they had a six foot storm surge here back in 2016, and we tal

they said it would be great if there was somebody in uniform to come check on us. >> bill weir, thankteful to have bill there. >> and next, gas prices on the rise. americans paying hundreds more every month. can they go inflation under control? and the offensive in ukraine, narrowly avoiding russian fire overhead and on the ground. postmenopausal women with hr+ her2- metastatic breast cancer are living longer with kisqali. so, long live family time. long live dreams. and long live you. kisqali is a pill proven to help women live longer when taken with an aromatase inhibitor. and kisqali helps preserve quality of life. so you're not just living, you're living well. kisqali can cause lung problems or an abnormal heartbeat which can lead to death. it can cause serious skin reactions, liver problems, and low white blood cell counts that may result in severe infections. avoid grapefruit during treatment. tell your doctor right away if you have new or worsening symptoms, including breathing problems, cough, chest pain, a change in your heartbeat, dizziness, yellowing of the skin or eyes, da

i want to bring in cnn's bill weir on the line in maui. bill, i mean, i am seeing you in facetime. you just got there. we are looking at the images. you are on the ground. how bad is it? >> reporter: it's worse than i had anticipated, laura. i had anticipated it to be bad. i cover the paradise fire, the camp fire, which is the deadliest in u.s. history, and was hearing similar stories of what's happening here, and the harbor is everything i feared and worse. it's completely devastated. the front street buildings, all the iconic tour spots, so popular with people who come to this west side of miami, or of maui, are completely razed to the ground. it looks like a world war ii disaster film almost. as if a bomb went off in the center of town. it came through so fast. i am hearing tales of folks who were just pinned. they had nowhere to go. if they got in their car and got on to the highway, it was bumper-to-bumper traffic with a wall of fire on one side and the pacific ocean on the other side. one woman stood in the ocean for eight hours before she came out, before the flames had pass

>> reporter: thank you so much, bill weir. good to know that, you know, look, you're doing okay and you're in the calm before another band comes through. appreciate your time, bill, we will be checking back in with you. thank you also to derek van dam and to john berman in tallahassee and derek in tampa. we're giving you the scenes of what's happening with this category 3 now, hurricane idalia, back to you, phil, in the studio. >> spanning 150 to 180 miles of the west coast of florida, all of which is seeing effects even though the big bend region is really kind of the direct path. keaton beach is what the florida emergency management division official who leads that organization was saying earlier today, sara, we've been watching throughout the course of the morning, what you've been seeing on the ground, the water, the flooding, we've been talking about storm surges, very, very dangerous, potentially 12 to 16 feet. as you noted it's now category 3 storm, not category 4, but in talking to the hurricane storm director earlier,

bill weir.top, just to be clear, you said for now, at least, the surge seems to be going the other direction? i know the tide could still come in more. but for now, the worst seems to have passed? >> yes. you can see -- it's a very clear line where the high watermark left its debris there and it has been receding now fairly steadily. about as fast as it came up. at what point it will level off, we don't know. but the wind is still holding this water here. >> reporter: all right. the wind is holding the water there. i'm sorry to hear about the family that owns the marina, it may be gone. although, it is heartening to know that they themselves are okay. bill, every once in awhile we get this really pounding rain. what are you getting in terms of rain there? >> reporter: we're getting these bands now. we saw the 80, 90-mile-per-hour gusts for a few minutes a few hours ago. now it's probably in the 30-miles-per-hour range. still dangerous. we're taking shelter behind one of these grand trees that ar

i'll send it back to you guys in the studio. >> thanks to bill weir for that.and look at the devastation in hawaii. she says only 3% of lahaina destroyed by fire has even been searched. >> they have gridded out the area. they used the dogs and they have the teams that go in there, but it's hot. the ground still has hot spots. the dogs can only work so long before they need a break. and so the 3% covers 3% of the grids that they have mapped out. and now they will just me to theically continue to go through that. but one of the changing things is, many of the areas that they're searching, there are structures that are partially standing. so the engineers are embedded with them to evaluate the stability of that structure. >> one team on the ground in maui helping displaced residents is ground force by cajun navy. their founder and ceo joins us now. rob, i appreciate your time. i want to start with what bill was getting at there, in the sense of, there is a huge influx of aid, people who want to help or at least the process of that getting in. what are you seeing o

. >> cnn's bill weir, he is in maui, where fires are still burning despite -- just outside in fact thebill. >> reporter: this is the kula neighborhood in maui. we're several miles from the destruction in lahaina. and this is still an active fire zone. only about 60% of this upcountry fire has been contained and we can actually see at least two hot spots around here, which explains the yellow helicopter. that is the maui fire department. he's taking bucketloads of water from a nearby swimming pool of a home that was completely burned down. they're refilling it with a fire hydrant. but the fire department is stretched so thin here that it's really sort of do-it-yourself, diy fire protection, which explains this setup. this homeowner was gone. his wife was here. but she fired up their improvised sort of fire prevention system and they're spraying it as far as they can down into the ravine here with the fear that some of these hot spots might whip up. there's a couple of storms brewing in the pacific. nothing near to hurricane -- or the storm dora that created all of the firestorm winds. b

bill weir, thank you. and fema spokesperson john mills joins us now from hawaii. , john, i don't know if you were able to hear bill, but the death toll now standing at 111. we've seen reports more than 1,000 people still missing. as noted it's now been ten days since the fire. most people by now have had access to some cellphone service. based on what you and your teams are seeing are you bracing for what could be a profoundly unthinkable death toll? >> brianna, good to be with you. i think your correspondent bill weir captured the tone very well. a lot of things are taking place here, and unfortunately the fema urban search and rescue teams that are searching for those who are still unaccounted for don't have a lot of good news in terms of finding survivors. they're working really hard. we have doubled the number of search dogs, so now 40 or more working in that area. but as has been reported, it's a challenging environment to work. so we're working very closely with maui county officials and also state emergency management on this very challenging task while also

i'm joined now by bill weir. what are you seeing on the ground, bill?the governor to keep them in the loop as they talk about how to reopen, how to rebuild. they're working in a void of information, just a vacuum. we have communication back up on the island. we're next to a free wifi station here. ten days later, you would think the 1,000 missing would make first contact and proof of life. but you've got so many locals agonizing without that information. meanwhile, there are canine, human cadaver remain searching dogs working feverishly. here's a little look. >> reporter: with noses 40 times more powerful than ours, a trained cadaver dog can smell a body buried 15 feet deep. but in lahaina, the challenge for these good boys and girls is not depth but breadth, as they work three and a half square miles of ash and loss. for their handlers, this is pain staking, heartbreaking work. for the dogs, it's hot and hazardous. >> who is this? >> this is ameprentis. >> burned claws and clumsy booties are just some things to overcome. los angeles county fire captain

cnn chief climate correspondent bill weir joins us now from maui. ill, i cannot believe -- you and i have talked about climate change so many times then i know sometimes you end up getting deployed to places like maui which is just been on the receding end of the devastating effects of what's been taking place with our planet. what can you tell us about the search efforts and what have you been able to get your arms around in terms of the scope of this problem? >> reporter: it's unlike any disaster i've covered, jim, over many years. this is unlike any search and recovery that a lot of these veterans have seen. they're searching house by house and normally if it was a hurricane you'd know which room you were searching. here the entire house is just turned to ash and it's as if 3 1/2 square miles of a vibrant community is cremated at the same time, so the enormity of the forensic search is just -- it's hard to wrap your head around. we'll give you a glimpse of that next hour and hung out with some of the cadaver dog teams but the emotional piece of th

and bill weir joins me now. rea today. what are you seeing? what have residents done without access to their homes? >> reporter: well, it's certainly ramped up the uncertainty and fear of the worst, people looking for proof of life of family members. but this is what it looks like since they opened up lahaina now to residents. long, miles-long line of cars here. this sheds light on the difficulty of evacuation when the grass was burning. over here, we've got a sample of what was fuel of this fire, invasive grasses in what was years ago, tropical forests here. but with those massive winds turning this into a blow torch, bringing down power lines like this, blocking roads, you had this sort of gridlock. it's one lesson learned. but they're really preparing for the worst when it comes to the fatality count. we've seen this in disasters. when you don't have the information, people fear the worst. a lot of people turn up okay. we hope that's the case here. folks are bracing for this not only to be the deadliest fire i

bill weir for us on the ground in maui.hawaii's sylvia luke. thanks so much for making time. i know you are very busy. let me start by saying our hearts on the mainland go out to you andual of the hawaiians. i know it's been so devastating. i want to ask you if you have any update on fatalities and how many people remain missing. >> you know, we really appreciate that, jessica. you know, we have received so much support not just locally, but nationally and internationally as well. this has been really devastating for our community and from the -- we started with a death toll of 60. now it has significantly climbed. we still have not completely done our -- done the assessment. the county is -- the county of maui is still doing its assessment and our fear is that the death toll will continue to climb. a lot of needs out there, and the community is really coming together, coming together to aid the people of maui. >> and it sounds like based on what you are saying, i know bill weir, our correspondent, said that they expect a p

this is not a safe place to be. >> reporter: bill weir, cnn en route to maui. >> "outfront" now, thelost his home. dustin, i am so sorry for such a loss. i know your family has lived in that home for generations. i just can't imagine what you're going through right now. i know you've got family members who you haven't even been able to get in contact with. how are you even managing right now? >> honestly, i've not slept in over 24 hours. i spent all night all through the morning scrolling through my phone looking for family members trying to get in touch with my mom. i know that she's safe, i know where she is. but, like i said to another interviewer earlier, my voice was broadcast to you before i got to speak to my mom and let her know i was safe. the infrastructure here is not capable of handling this kind of tragedy. >> dustin, we're looking at images of lahaina that we've just received just from the harbor. and it looks like a war zone. it looks like it's been bombed out. it is like an apocalypse. i know you just heard there people talking about just the shock of how fast it move

. >>> plus bill weir. i was born on the south side of chicago.r schwab. i love to help people understand the world through their lens and invest accordingly. you can call us christmas eve at four o'clock in the morning. we're gonna always make sure that you have all of the financial tools and support to secure your financial future. that means a lot for my community and for every community. ♪ ♪ ("un monde pliable" by jeongpill song) ♪ ( ♪ ♪ ) (camera shutters) ( ♪ ♪ ) (camera shutters) ( ♪ ♪ ) ( ♪ ♪ ) ( ♪ ♪ ) , that is the official: hawaii, after deadly wildfires as search and rescue teams continue to search the rubble and ash. officials say possibly more than 1000 people are possibly still unaccounted for. news today, the administrator in charge of emergency management on maui resigned. he cited health reasons. no more details were given. but the surprise resignation happened after he defended the outdoor siren system that would have one resident's of the fires. rejoined bill weir in maui. what are using on the ground, bill? >> well, anderson, t

bill weir, thank you so much.facing a legal fight. what happened in court today. coming up. zing scent of gain flings... time stops. (♪) your heart races. (♪) your eyes close. (♪) and you realize you're in love... steve? with a laundry detergent. gain flings. seriously good scent. and 50% more fresh. now that's love at first sniff. if you have moderate to severe crohn's disease skyrizi is the first and only il-23 inhibitor that can deliver clinical remission and endoscopic improvement. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to. liver problems may occur in crohn's disease. control of crohn's means everything to me. ask your gastroenterologist about skyrizi. ♪ control is everything to me ♪ learn how abbvie could help you save. david: as we start a new school year, there's something new happening in california's public schools. they're called community schools. leslie: it re

the word is, i'm concerned. >> and bill weir joins us now.was never activated during last week's fires. >> well, it's mostly conflicting information. over the weekend, we heard the fire chief in maui say that the process broke down between somebody in the field needing to call, somebody else going to computer, sounding the alarm, and the fire moved too fast for that. the latest story from the governor is that it's an aging system. some of the sirens might not have gone off. in maui, you think tsunami. and running uphill here in the fire wouldn't have been the best idea. but a lot of people didn't know there was a fire. so, the argument is that anything, especially since so many children were home that day. school was out. at least get people moving around, looking around, seeing the smoke and out of harm's way. this is all part of investigation, so many unanswered questions, anderson. >> a lot to still learn. bill weir, thank you so much. >>> coming up next, why a campaign fund-raiser for serial liar george santos is facing a legal fight. wha

so, it's really complicated time for hawaiians. >> bill weir, i'm glad you are there.cnn.com forward slash impact, or text hawaii to 70 70 72 don't to eight. next, cnn exclusive, never before seen -- ukraine may be using unmanned siege are on to attack that key bridge linking russia occupied crimea. the ukrainians are now saying it was them who did it after all. nick paton walsh, also, this attack they did on a russian ship that got access to some remarkable video. his report is coming up. sensodyne sensitivity gum & enamel relieves sensitivity, helps restore gum health, and rehardens enamel. i'm a big advocate of recommending things that i know work. oh, oh, oh...i'll be the judge of that. oh, that's nice... oh!! searchable, verified reviews. that's better than the ham, and i've never said that. booking.com booking.yeah moderate to severe eczema still disrupts my skin. despite treatment it disrupts my skin with itch. it disrupts my skin with rash. but now, i can disrupt eczema with rinvoq. rinvoq is not a steroid, topical, or injection. it's one pill, once a day. many

bill weir is cnn's chief climate correspondent.g florida's big bend where hurricane idalia is expected to hit the hardest. bill, thanks for joining us. how are these record-breaking warm waters amplifying the effects of what we're watching tonight? just how quickly this storm is intensifying. >> reporter: yeah, it's all connected, kaitlan. one of the scariest units of measurement i've learned covering the climate beat is hiroshimas per second. that is, the amount of extra energy absorbed by our oceans. a few years ago it was five hiroshima-sized explosions per second, every second of every day being absorbed. now it's around ten due to the heat-trapping pollution that comes from burning fossil fuels. and it's sort of the way if you were to heat up a bathtub of lukewarm water with a tea kettle it would take a while. it would lukewarm until it no longer is. and it feels like the summer of 2023 we saw these numbers where people went wow, this is off the charts faster than we had anticipated. and it just creates more storm energy. it's

i want to now go to cnn chief climate correspondent, bill weir, who is live on the scene. you are right on the path of this storm, now a category three almost. how is the situation changing where you are as it moves closer? >> well, abby, we haven't seen any change yet here. it's still pretty calm before the storm but it was less than a year ago when i was preparing for hurricane ian and we went to bed and woke up and the storm had intensified greatly. that is the ingredient here, the warmer golf of mexico, warmer than we have ever seen before. it is in patches and so, overall, it is about 88 degrees, and average temperature but hot or warm to the shore, close to 90. so we are going to see whether or not that is sort of a steroid shot for this particular storm as it gets close to the shore. folks in communities like this, which is right, a low-lying community right on the river here as that storm surge pushes all the water up into the neighborhoods. that is the main concern. >> to that point, you just talked about this warmer water. historically warm water. these communiti

thanks so much, bill weir. what a story to tell. ned by wall street journal reporter who reported the story bill referred to there regarding what and what it did not do, what hawaiian electric did in advance of these wild fires. she wrote the book "california burning." catherine, the 2019 wild fire season in hawaii was already one of the worst it's ever seen. it is your reporting hawaii also dn electric concluded it needed to do more to prevent ( the wild fires. but four years later, doesn't seem like it accomplished a lot in that space. tell us what you learned. >> sure, absolutely. so 2019 was a really consequential year. we had seen pacific gas and electric receive protection after its power lines started devastating the deadly wild fires in 2017 and 2018. you know, many utilities were paying attention to this and hawaiian electric was one of them. look at the california experience. we have done some initial assessment and determined that there is a range of matters that we should take to make our infrastructure safer. they said t

bill weir, cnn, maui. >>> up next, donald trump says he'll be absent from the first debate. his reason why. >>> kim jong-un overseas a cruz missile test. >>> plus, huge celebrations in spain. the country's triumph at the world cup. how the woman's futbol team beat the odds to win its s first tit. zevo on-body repellent. people love it. bugs hate it. he snores like an angry rhino. you've never heard an angry rhino. baby i hear one every night... every night. okay. i'll work on that. save 50% on the sleep number limited edition smart bed. plus, free home delivery when you add a base. shop now only at sleep number. (female announcer) attention! medicare has expanded dexcom coverage -for people with diabetes. -if you have diabetes, getting on dexcom g7 is the single most important thing you can do. it eliminates painful fingersticks, helps lower a1c, and is covered by medicare. before using the dexcom g7, i was really frustrated. my a1c was stuck. (female announcer) dexcom g7 sends your glucose numbers to your phone or dexcom receiver without painful fingersticks. the arrow show

bill weir picks up the story for you. >> we never anticipated in this state that hurricane, which did not make impact on our island, would cause these type of wildfires. >> reporter: while hurricane dora is hundreds of miles south of the hawaiian islands, the storm brought winds of up to 80 miles per hour to maui turning the tinder dry hillsides into a blow torch and catching hundreds of people between flames and the pacific ocean. >> nobody was prepared. >> reporter: sylvia luke issued an emergency proclamation and josh green is returning to the island tonight. >> he is cutting his trip to a week and that tells you the magnitude of how grave we think the situation is. >> reporter: thousands are in evacuation shelters and rescue operations are under way for both maui and the big island of hawaii where several other fires are burning as well. >> right now the priority is for saving lives, preventing human suffering and mitigating great property loss. >> everyone that i know, their homes have been burned down. >> are a high that is on fire. >> reporter: in one of the hardest hit areas,

let's go straight to cnn chief climate correspondent bill weir on the island of maui. idents there? >> reporter: boy, it's happening minute by minute, day by day, jake. you have some people, families giving dna samples to authorities because their loved ones are missing. most of those 96 souls there were essentially cremated by these wildfires. that's goings to take time for forensic evidence. those who still have their homes are affected economically. it's a psychological toll arizona people debate about whether tourists should be welcomed or not. a lot of people are putting this ang sooint into action. i've seen some of the most impressive do it yourself relief efforts. >> me and brittany will lead the front. just stay close. >> reporter: when charlie and brittany fleck saw pictures of the devastation of la hine hine nah, the couple from maui knew they had to do something. >> weave got cash. do you need cash? >> i think there's a big ice truck coming. >> we've got help on the way. >> reporter: they put out a plea on facebook. and when thousands of dollars began rollin

bill weir picks up the story. >> we never anticipated in this state that hurricane which did not maked will cause this type of wildfires. >> reporter: while hurricane dora is hundreds of miles south of the hawaiian islands, the storm brought winds of up to 80 miles per hour to maui turning the tinder dry hillsides into a blow torch and catching hundreds of people between flames and the pacific ocean. >> nobody was prepared. >> reporter: the lieutenant governor issued an emergency proclamation tuesday and the governor is returning to the state tonight. >> he is cutting his trip by a week and that tells you the magnitude of how grave we think the situation is. >> reporter: thousands are in evacuation shelters and rescue operations are under way for both maui and the big island of hawaii where several other fires are burning as well. >> right now the priority is saving lives, preventing human suffering and mitigating great property loss. >> everyone i know in lahaina, their homes have burned down. >> reporter: in one of the hardest hit areas, the tourist mecca of lahaina, coast guard say

bill weir, cnn, maui. >>> and if you want to help those impacted by the hawaii wildfires, go to cnn.com/impact or text hawaii to 707070. >>> donald trump's formal arrest in georgia now just a few days away. coming up, we'll explain what sort of treatment the former president might expect when he reports to the jail. >>> plus, they overcame tough opponents and personal challenges. now england and spain are one win away from the world cup title. see the fans getting ready for the big game. previews of the final next. stay with us. seemed obvious. why would a person spend d more money? he's eight and he gets s it. i'm 10.. well, that's less impressive. struggling with the highs and lows of bipolar 1? ask about vraylar. because you are greater than your bipolar 1, and you can help take control of your symptoms - with vraylar. some medicines only treat the lows or highs. vraylar treats depressive, acute manic, and mixed episodes of bipolar 1 in adults. proven, full-spectrum relief for all bipolar 1 symptoms. and in vraylar clinical studies, most saw no substantial impact on weight. elderly d

in the best way possible for right now, bill weir, thank you so much. jim?rants out in an official news conference set for the top of the hour on that ugly riverfront brawl in alabama. the fight appearing at times to break along racial lines. what police are saying. >>> plus, the battle heats up over a proposed protective order in the election meddling case. trump's lawyers say it would violate his first amendment rights. the doj says trump wants to try the case in the court of public opinion. the deadline is moments from now. >>> florida governor ron desantis made another big change as he continues to trail trump by a wide margin. those details and much more ahead on "cnn news c central." r. ♪ with 30 grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! uuuhhhh... here, i'll take that! woohoo! ensure max protein, 30 grams of protein, 1 gram of sugar. enter the $10,000 powered by protein max challenge. ♪ ♪ let innovation refunds help with your erc tax refund so you can improve your business however you see fit. rosie used part of her refu

bill weir, thank you so much. here's one bit of good news. officials say the wildfires on maui are now 80% contained and the winds that fuelled the flames are gradually decreasing. cnn meteorologist chad myers reports. >> it's obviously good news that hurricane dora has moved away. what isn't gone, though, is this rainfall deficit. 80% of hawaii in some type of rainfall deficit and in maui county 16% of the area there under severe drought. even in the dry areas of maui just to the west of haleakala. how are there dry areas in hawaii? only the one side of every extinct volcano is a rain forest. the other side, that's where it is dry, almost a desert. so here's the west side of maui. the wind and the storms, the trades, come in from the east to the west. if you are on the east side of these mountains, that's where it rains. it rains almost every single day. places receive 400 inches in kauai and some places. so there is the rain forest that we talk about. on the other side, when the air comes over the top and comes back down, that's when you ge

so much pain and a lot of distrust around this really traumatized community. >> bill weir, thank you monday, president biden and first lady jill biden will head to maui to tour the devastation firsthand. cnn's pri sescilla alvarez. >> reporter: he'll be going down with his own officials. the fema administrator will travel with the president as he sees the devastation firsthand. the president has been raegulary briefed since these wildfires ripped through maui and has been deploying federal assets to the islands to assist them in their recovery. this will be a moment for the president to see it all firsthand and to go into his consoler in chief mode. that's something we've seen many times when he has visited devastation in empathizing and sympathizing with the people on the ground and assuring them they will get the resources they need. >> biden held a historic trilateral summit with japan and south korea at camp david yesterday. what were the take-aways? . >> reporter: the president was underscoring the trilateral agreement and cooperation moving into the next few months and years an

cnn's bill weir is on the island of maui.not even completely gone yet. >> reporter: that's true, jake. even around lahaina, there's still hot spots. i'm going to show you in the upcountry. we actually spent time with a family that's sort of in this limbo after given dna and fearing the worst about someone they love so much. there's that part of the story they're worried about, but we found men trying to put out hot spots with bottled water in the high country. here's a look. with an upcountry fire only 60% contained, maui's fire department painfully stretched thin, and winds picking up again, some residents are using sprinklers and hope to protect home. >> whoa, careful, careful. i mend volunteer first responders trying to knock down hot spots with bottled water. >> oh, man, you can feel the heat. >> there's a smoldering pit over there. all it needs is a good wind to get it going. by the time we got there, it was flaming. it started off with a little smoke. let's get some water and haul it over there. by the time we got over

the video we just showed you of the devastation in lahaina came from bill weir and his crew.hey were able to get inside the devastated area and what they found was shocking. have a look. >> the trees that you guys see behind you right here this was all from the tornado that came through. >> that's crazy. >> we never even seen a tornado in hawaii. >> reporter: in a place so familiar with weather extremes -- >> wow, it's crazy. >> reporter: maui locals have never seen anything like the firestorm that obliterated lahaina. >> smolder of smoke, and we're like, wow, that house survived. now there's a little brush fire and within five minutes the whole thing was engulfed, went up in flames. >> really? >> nobody there to put anything out? >> reporter: pulling into lahaina now, getting our first glimpse and it's worse than you can imagine. it looks like a world war ii set, like a bomb went off here, utter scorched devastation everywhere. melted boats in the harbor. what was once the capital of the kingdom of hawaii and one of the most well preserved towns in the nation is ash. includi

bill weir has more on the ongoing effort. >> reporter: here on maui as the fatality count ticks up day by day, it is the number of missing that weighs so heavy on the hearts of people here and really around the world watching this story. over 1,000 missing according to the governor's last statement on that and given the fact that lot of the power is back up, a lot of the communication is back up, you'd think we would have heard from those folks by now. and what is especially grievous is when you think about how many children were home that gaday. there was no school. a lot of young ones were with the grandparents or someone else while the parents worked. so you can imagine the agony in those families if they haven't found their children. i spoke actually to a veteran urban search and rescue officer from fema in hawaii from the houston area and he says that some 90 disasters that he's addressed in his career, this is unlike anything else. >> what has been powerful is the fact that there are a number of local firefighters and pds that lost their home, lost their everything and they are o

bill weir, thank you very much.hawaii's governor. thank you for joining us, josh green. what is the updated death toll tonight? >> 178 individuals and 38% of the territory has been covered by the rescue team. they're really accelerating now. we're adding 225 additional people to do search and rescue and another 20 dogs, taking up to 40 dogs. much more territory will be covered quickly. >> more than a week after these horrendous fires, how many people are still missing or unaccounted for right now? >> it's still difficult to say. i think it's probably still over a thousand, although i can't tell you what's happened today. a lot of people are still isolating in other people's homes. right now we're focused pretty completely on the disas tr area and getting people into housing, getting people into hotel rooms. over a thousand hotel rooms now and houses that we've put people in and that is everyone who has been displaced, plus the first responders. it is a tragedy beyond any expectation, but we are buoyed by the fact th

bill weir, cnn, maui. >>> coming up just ahead, former president trump set to surrender to charges in fulton county, georgia, this week. we'll have more on what that could look like. >>> plus, thousands forced to flee. >>> russia's latest mission to the moon ends in failure. t youru know what isis? myplan from m verizon. switch nw and they'll give you nfl sunday ticket from m youtubetv, on the. (hero fan) this plan is amazizing! (josh allen) another amazining plan, backing away from m here very slowly. (fan #1) that was josh allen. (fan #2) mmhm. (vo) for a limited time get nfl sunday ticket from youtubetv on us. a $449 value. plus, get a free samsung galaxy z flip5. only on verizon. our ears connect us to the moments that matter. give them the nutrients they need with lipo. it's formulated with ingredients clinically shown to protect your ears from dizziness, ear ringing, and even hearing loss. never miss a momen with lipo flavonoid. and there he is. chaz. the rec league's self-crowned pickleball king. do you just bow down? no you de-thrown the king. pedialyte. 3x the electrolytes. a

bill weir, thank you so much for all of your extraordinary reporting. thoughts remain with the people of lahaina and all of hawaii. bill, thank you. for more information about how you can help hawaii wildfire victims, go to cnn.com/impact, or text "hawaii" to 707070 to donate. >>> up next, an update on a serious category 4 hurricane barrelling towards california. stay with us. beautiful. you see how the light catches the hubcap? stunning. you sure you don't want your family in the family photos? they helpeus save money when we bundled, so... ah. same difference. okay. this one's going on same difference. the mantle. [car screech] [car door slam] [camera shutter sfx] introducing ned's plaque psoriasis. [camera shutter sfx] he thinks his flaky, red patches are all people see. otezla is the #1 prescribed pill to treat plaque psoriasis. [ned?] it can help you get clearer skin and reduce itching and flaking. with no routine blood tests required. doctors have been prescribing it for nearly a decade. otezla is also approved to treat psoriatic arthritis. don't

and we have bill weir here to discuss. bill, florida's no stranger to hurricanes, right?s is just part and parcel for being in florida. but tell us how climate change is making it even tougher for the state. >> well, you know, climate change doesn't really more hurricanes, it just creates more deadly or more expensive or more damaging hurricanes depending on where it hits landfall. warmer water as we just heard is the fuel. we got a lot of that. triple digits near the florida keys this summer. hot tub hot there. so it was not a matter of if but when and now it is a matter of where this comes to shore. remember less than a year ago, i was down there actually started hurricane ian watch in tampa, but it ended up hitting further south, and that one ended up being the third costliest ever behind katrina and harvey, $115 billion storm, took 150 lives in florida, over 160 elsewhere. and so, yes, it is a one-two punch season after season it seems. >> and that is really the name of the game when we talk about all kinds of natural disasters, costliness of it. and when we talk abou

. >> i'm joined now by bill weir on the island of maui.r from the president? how was he received? >> reporter: i think it's pretty obvious that the white house had heard in advance concerns from sort of working class hawaiians and multigenerational locals here who said they really wanted to be listened to. they wanted a seat at the table for how this place is rebuilt. you have to understand, there's been sort of generations of tensions, as sugar cane was replaced by tourism, and water rights were taken to fuel these million dollar neighborhoods and resorts, while a lot of times the working class, the life guards, the waiters, the performers at the tiki shows were being cut out, priced out of their own land. he said we're going to pay attention to ancestral land and traditions and follow that lead. there is a piece on cnn.com about the water rights right now. he said, we want to rebuild maui according to the wishes of the people of maui. which people? is it developers? is it work rg class locals? there's a lot of questions there. he did emp

cnn's bill weir has been reporting on the damage now on maui for over a week now. an you tell us about these continued search operations? >> reporter: well, we're almost two weeks from this tragedy, fred. and the fact that there's 1,050 souls still officially lists as missing or unaccounted for tells you so much about the psychological toll. these are families who know their children are gone. this is a mental health crisis. there are mental health first responders, a sweet woman named jazzy wong, she worked at san kw quentin prison and here's our conversation. you've gone to the shelters, i understand, and then you were at the four season hotels? >> yeah. i was at one of the first shelters and then i went to the main shelter where the most people have been. walk around the shelter and check in with people and see how they're doing. one example was we met a couple who had lost both their kids in the fire and we created this prayer circle of like about 50 people, volunteers and people at the park to just pray for this couple and for this family and it was like so hea

let's take you there now with cnn's bill weir. still burning on the island. >> you are right, jim. there are still flareups around lahaina mostly contained in the upcountry fire . we were there yesterday as all doctors were dropping buckets of water, we met some volunteers putting out hotspots with bottled water in these types hard-to-reach goalies and canyons about there. it's about 75% and 10, gusty today, maybe 20 mile an hour winds. it's one of many thanks for all these folks to worry about, they are going through so much just to try to identify who's truly gone and the search and recovery teams have gotten health -- help. a mobile morgue has been brought in, some forensic experts to help them sort through all that ash. it is just heartbreaking and affect so many people around the island and so many ways, a lot of people saying tourists should stay out of the way for respect. that would mean an economic catastrophe on top of all of this emotional pain right now. these are complicated times for people of hawaii. >> bill weir re

cnn's bill weir is on maui and joins us now. first to the lahaina community members, their news conference here. there's growing frustration both with the lead up to this, lack of warning, and the response to it. can you explain that frustration? >> reporter: as you can imagine, your neighbors have lost homes and family members, and there is no one in uniforms, days for weeks afterwards. all these relief pods are completely diy, and you set up by folks, life guards and bartenders have taken care of each other in these communities right now. there's frustrations about everything from the air, which is toxic and blowing around. they need dust fences to protect that, to water, which can't be consumed or even boiled in parts of lahaina. there are pets, hundreds of pets that survived and now are sort of going hungry inside that area. they're demanding to get in there to take care of their an malls. a woman lost her home and business and articulates it well. listen. >> the whole island of maui has come together to help each other. i t

. >> billing weir is on the grou with more. >> reporter: with an up country fire not fully contained, maui's fire department stretched painfully thin and winds kicking up once again, some residents on could you could kuna are using sprinklers and hoses to protect their homes and trying to knock down hot spots with bottled water. >> you can feel the hit. just needs a good wind to get it going. by the time we got there, it was already flaming. started off with just a little smoke and then we said let's get some water and haul it over there. by the time we got over there, it started flaming already. so we'll go back and put more water on it. >> in this smoky brush, one wrong step means a burned foot. >> soot is so deep, you can't get through it. >> but they stay at it until they are spotted by a helicopter dropping water scooped from swimming pools and finally get the help they need. and they wonder why more skilled firefighters aren't being brought over from oahu. >> my mind is blown. what is even happening. this whole road should be blocked off and firemen should just be all here hands

bill weir, cnn, maui. >>> pentagon says it is focused to getting u.s. army private travis king back on to american soil after he crossed in to north korea last month. after weeks of silence, north korea has finally publicly confirmed that he is in fact in the country and says that he admitted to entering illegally. paula hancocks is tracking this live from seoul. this is a very mysterious story. ugs u.s. and north korean officials seem to agree that they went into north korea intentionally. but beyond that, there is slightly different information. what can you tell us? >> reporter: it is interesting that this is the first time north korea has even broached the subject publicly finally admitting that travis king has crossed into their territory. what they have said, and this is of course all through north korean state run media, kcna, quoting travis king or at least saying the words are from him, but in this article that he harbored ill feeling against inhumane, maltreatments and racial discrimination win the u.s. army. so what pyongyang is saying is tha

bill weir has more. >> reporter: the president and dr. biden spent several hours both over lahaina, on the ground here, and meeting with first responders and victims of this tragedy peat the bigmaui. and he said the right things. he said what a lot of folks i've been hearing from have been saying, that he wants maui, the people of maui, to help determine how this place is rebuilt. there was a question asked who will have the most influence in that conversation going forward. locals here, working class native and multigenerational hawaiians are worried about people moving in to buy up as much land as they can and rebuild it for their interests. the president says -- promises that that won't happen. it remains to be seen. there is a lot of forces at play here. he did serve as empathizer and chief after five days of being mostly silent on the issue publicly, but the governor said that he was working behind the scenes to assure first responders that the feds had their back on this. he shared the stories we're familiar with of losing his daugh

. >> i'm joined now by bill weir on the island of maui.hear from the president? do you think, how is he perceived? >> i think it's pretty obvious that the white house had heard in advanced concerns from walking clause hawaiians, and multigenerational locals here who had said they really wanted to be listened to. they want a seat at the people table for how this place is rebuilt. you have to understand there's been generations of tensions. sugarcane was replaced by, tourism and water rights were taken to fill these million dollar neighborhoods, and resorts, a lot of times working class, the waiters, the performers of the tv shows were being cut out, squeezed out of their own lands. for him to say, a couple of times we are going to pay attention to ancestral lands, and traditions, and follow that lead. there is a big tension over here. i have a piece up on cnn. co m about the water rights issue right. now they say they want to rebuild maui according to the wishes of people of maui. which people? is it the developers, working class, locals th

cnn's bill weir takes us there. >> reporter: aloha from the kula neighborhood. this is the ongoing upcountry fire several miles from lahaina, but several hundred homes were burned up here last week and there are active hot spots, still over a week after the initial blaze broke out. you can see the chopper in the distance is from the maui fire department. he's got a bucket dangling below, and with precision, dipping it into swimming pools and dropping it on smoldering hot spots in these canyons. there was worry that if the winds cranked up again it could start a whole new firestorm up here. here he is coming right now. this is really the only official presence we've seen, even this long after the initial fire. while we have heard reports they were going to double the number of national guardsmen and maybe the coast guard to work on the fires, we haven't seen any evidence of that yet. we are seeing, actually, a couple of folks with fema vests talking to homeowners about how to get them into the system for a one-time cash payout and maybe some support on housing re

bill weir, cnn, maui. >> a sacred space.id, the president is going to be meeting with the community leaders, and some other leaders in maui. joining us is the chairman of the council alice lee. and you are going to be meeting with the president and the first lady when they visit today, and what is going to be your comments today? >> well, i will be telling him that we are grateful for him and his proclamation. because of him, we have had over 1,000 federal personnel on the ground, and 10, 12 agencies represented here on maui. i think that, and i hope that he is going to give us even more good news. we are looking forward to hopefully we will continue to have this very good relationship with the federal government. >> what would good news be coming from him? >> additional fund ps. this going to be the costliest recovery of maui county, and of the this tragedy not only destroyed a whole town and community, but it destroyed part of our spirit. so, to rebuild that. it is going to affect our economy in the meantime, because jobs

let's go to chief correspondent bill weir about 90 miles south of tallahassee. the water temperature in the gulf of mexico has been exceedingly warm. how is that record warm-water, how is it contributing to the strengthening of this monster storm? >> reporter: well, heat -- hot water is the engine for hurricanes, and the engines we're seeing now are bigger than ever before. the gulf of mexico had never seen a surface temperature of 84 degrees fahrenheit until august when it went to 88, over 2.5 degrees above average for the last 20, 25 years or so. so that engine has the potential -- every one degree above normal has the potential to add 10% more strength to a hurricane. there's a lot of other factors a at play there. winds that can are 120 could be 125. there's nowhere for this water surge to go but up the rivers, here's exhibit "a." this is the river and it's a beautiful fishing community here. we're at scalp season right now would be hugely popular the hotels and inns here with anglers of all sorts and a historic community, a lot of older construction, wooden