Hawaii's biggest disaster kills 55 people with 1000 still missing: Report

Rescue and clean-up crews are now pouring into the historic Hawaiian town of Lahaina, which has been levelled to ash and rubble in what the governor describes as the state’s largest-ever natural disaster.

Fast-moving wildfires killed at least 55, and the police chief said it’s likely 1,000 people remain unaccounted for. Hawaii Governor Josh Green warned that the death toll is probably going to keep rising as search crews dig through the damage that characterised characterised as looking like a bomb scene. Accuweather Inc. put the preliminary estimate of damage from the fires at $8 billion to $10 billion.

The blaze was 80 per cent contained as of Thursday, but aerial surveys found more than 270 buildings burned in the seaside resort, once the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Thousands of residents and tourists fled an area left without electricity, phone service or the internet.

Photos and videos posted to social media this week depicted apocalyptic scenes. The flames — fanned by strong winds from a hurricane far off the coast — barrelled through the town so quickly that residents had little time to flee, and some even jumped into the ocean waters to escape.