The wildfire that swept across Maui a week ago turned one of the nation’s most celebrated island vistas into an ashen moonscape and killed at least 99 people, a number that officials warn could rise by scores as the search continues.
The deadliest wildfire in the U.S. in more than a century devoured homes and businesses, blackened cars and left only ruins where thriving neighborhoods once stood. In some places, the flames advanced as fast as a car at highway speed — a mile a minute.
The most serious blaze swept into Lahaina on Aug. 8 and destroyed nearly every building in the town of 13,000. When the flames were out and the smoke cleared, all that remained was a grid of gray rubble wedged between the blue ocean and lush green slopes.
Now begins a long recovery as survivors mourn the dead, search teams look for more victims in the charred debris and families try to begin anew.
The cause of the wildfire is under investigation. Fueled by a dry summer and strong winds from a passing hurricane, the flames raced through parched brush covering the island.
The fire was Hawaii’s deadliest natural disaster in decades, surpassing a 1960 tsunami that killed 61 people. A tsunami in 1946 killed more than 150 on the Big Island.
India became the first country to land a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole on Wednesday — a historic voyage to uncharted territory that scientists believe could hold vital reserves of frozen water, and a technological triumph for the world’s most populous nation.
The head of Russia's space agency said Monday that the Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the moon after its engines failed to shut down correctly, and he blamed the country's decades-long pause in lunar exploration for the mishap.
The managers of the Panama Canal said they expect income from the waterway to drop after authorities were forced to limit the number of ships passing through each to 32 due to a lack of rainfall.
A new scientific study published Thursday suggests the world should start preparing to protect the ecosystems that emerge from under the disappearing ice, as a warming planet is inevitably causing glaciers to melt.