‘Simply Overwhelming’: CNN Anchors Astonished Over Devastating Report of Hawaii Wildfire Fatalities, Destruction

Wildfires continue to tear through Hawaii’s island of Maui on Thursday, and the images clearly affected two of CNN’s morning anchors.

After a report by Chelsea Davis, who works for CNN affiliate Hawaii News Now, CNN News Central hosts John Berman and Kate Bolduan were overcome by the devastation to the historic town of Lahaina, which was leveled by the wildfires. Davis toured the area with a local man, Kekoa Lansford, who described the desperate conditions he and his neighbors were seeing and pleaded for help:

Still get dead bodies in the water floating and on the seawall. They’ve been sitting there since last night. We’ve been pulling people out since last night trying to save people’s lives. And I feel like we’re not getting the help we need. You know? Oh, my God. …

All this, I couldn’t even figure out what was going on. Half the time, I never knew where I was, but I just knew that I had choked smoke, and I couldn’t tell where I was sometimes. Sometimes I could. You know, it’s a short road, Front Street. If you guys walked on the streets, it’s completely burnt. And we just, if I saw somebody, I helped them.

Coming out of the segment, Bolduan was shook by what she’d seen:

Bolduan: Oh, my God. … I mean, we see a lot of stuff that is horrible what she just walked through.

Berman: Look, every time we get a new piece of video and a new piece of reporting from the ground there, you get a better sense of the scope of the devastation.

Bolduan: That poor man that was… he was helping pull bodies from the water and he’s…

Berman: … Walking through it, and he’s trying to live in it. And it’s just got to be overwhelming. It is simply overwhelming.

As of Thursday, there have been 36 reported fatalities in Maui County related to the wildfires. Drought conditions across the state are part of the reason for the fires, with drier than normal conditions being reported over the past week. In addition to decimated buildings that were businesses and homes, over 11,000 people are without power, cellular networks are out, and 2,100 people are reportedly living in emergency shelters. Hospitals are also overwhelmed with patients suffering from burns and smoke inhalation, some needing to be transferred to other islands in the state.