TIMES ARE HARD FOR OUR BRETHREN

The investigation continues into the cause of the deadly Maui wildfires. close to 100 people are confirmed dead, but officials warned there are still scores of people missing and that number is likely to go higher. Nearly 3000 buildings were damaged by fire, smoke or both, with $3.2 billion in insured property losses. 85% of the buildings destroyed were homes. But through it all, the Aloha spirit remains. Volunteers who lost so much themselves are now organising donations.

You know, and I considered myself a strong leader, but it broke me. It still breaks me. This is what keeps me going, helping people. More federal aid is now on the ground and the president has promised whatever the island needs, but he says he's waiting to visit. He wants to avoid getting in the way of recovery and clean-up efforts. Meanwhile, here in Northern California, law enforcement is providing insight into what happens next. We talked with Butte County Sheriff Corey Honey, who played an important role in helping people survive the campfire. Our Roxanne Elias joins us live in the studio and there's a lot to be learned from his perspective on this. Roxanne, there is Chris and Laura.

Sheriff Honi says something he wants to point out that's important to him is that people tend to draw a lot of conclusions between the number of people who are unaccounted for and the potential number of deaths. But the fact and the hope is that all of them will eventually be accounted for. For those of you who are familiar with Campfire, it was a devastating event. It moved very rapidly, and so trying to evacuate that many people that quickly was a very, very challenging task. Butte County Sheriff Corey Honey takes us back to 2018 when the campfire ravished his community.

He still remembers being tasked with having to evacuate almost 30,000 people. It's a scene that quickly turned deadly, just like the Maui wildfires, almost exactly the way our experience was when they were dealing with all of the same kinds of things. From challenges dealing with warning people of the threat, challenges with getting people evacuated, and people having to flee for their lives. And then, of course, in the aftermath, the devastation. The efforts have now turned to what he calls a grim task of searching for human remains. Law enforcement will have to look in the areas where people could have been seeking shelter and identify the remains, Honi says. During this time, he found it helpful to hold nightly briefings to keep his community informed. And I think that was helpful.

Also attended a lot of community meetings so that I could understand what people were dealing with, what their concerns were, what, what challenges they were facing, and where possible I would try to help them work through those kinds of things, he says. These types of events will have long-lasting effects on a community and recovery will be a very lengthy process. No one impacted by this fire will ever be the same again. They'll never be made whole again, Sheriff Honey says. People should pay attention to the stress and all of the trauma that they're under and make sure that they're dealing with it in the healthiest possible way. One of those may be seeking long-term health help.