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A Devastating "Fire Tornado" In Hawaii; Bringing Care To Thousands In Rural Ghana. Aired 4-4:10a ET

Aired August 15, 2023 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

COY WIRE, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, wherever you are in this world. So happy to be here with you and hope it`s a terrific Tuesday too. I`m Coy

Wire. Welcome to CNN 10, where we walk you through the top headlines and fuel your mind with some thought-provoking stories from around the world.

We start today with the news happening on the Hawaiian island of Maui, the deadliest wildfire in the United States in more than 100 years. Lahaina, an

area on Maui known for its historic city center was almost entirely destroyed and the devastation is so bad. It looks like a war zone. Flames

have destroyed many of the homes and businesses and emergency workers are racing against time to rescue missing people.

When we recorded our show, nearly 100 people had died from the wildfires and there were warnings that that number could increase in the coming days.

Before the wildfire on Maui began, a moderate drought covered more than one-third of the island, making it more susceptible to fire.

In addition, hurricane Dora, a Category Four storm over the Pacific increased wind on the island and caused wildfires to spread around Maui

more rapidly. Other factors compounded the danger on the island. Roadblocks forcing fleeing drivers onto one narrow downtown street. This created a

bottleneck of traffic that was quickly surrounded by flames on all sides. And when the fires began emergency sirens that were created to warn people,

to seek shelter and evacuate from the flames. They didn`t sound. Instead local government used a series of social media posts that reach a smaller

number of people. The state is now going to launch a formal review to try to figure out why the emergency sirens were not activated, especially

because they were created for these types of circumstances.

There will be an estimated 6 billion in damage. Thousands of people have been evacuated or displaced. Some having lost everything. Search CNN:

Impact Your World for more information on how you can help. We`ll continue to keep you updated right here on CNN 10.

Let`s go now to Chief Climate Correspondent, Bill Weir, who`s on the ground in Maui.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EDDY GARCIA, FORMER, MAUI RESIDENT: The trees that you guys see behind you right here, this was all from the tornado they came through.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: That`s great.

GARCIA: No, we`ve never even seen a tornado in Hawaii.

WEIR (voice-over): In a place so familiar with weather extremes.

(On camera): Wow. It`s crazy.

(Voice-over): Maui locals have never seen anything like the firestorm that obliterated Lahaina.

DANIEL GOLDBER, BOAT CAPTAIN: You just saw a little like smolder of smoke. Now we`re like, oh, like the house it survived. And now there`s a little

brush fire. And then within like five minutes, the whole thing was the gold just went up plane, really. There`s nobody there to put anything out.

WEIR (voice-over): We`re just pulling into Lahaina now, just getting our first glimpse at this town after hearing these nightmare stories. And it is

worse than you can imagine. It looks like a World War II set, like a bomb went off here. There`s putter, 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, including Bill

Wyland`s famous art gallery. And he says he escaped the flames on his Harley-Davidson, riding around evacuate trapped between fire and ocean.

BILL WYLAND, ART GALLERY OWNER: I took the car instead of motorcycle I probably been with everybody else jumping into water. It was -- it was -- I

mean, it was flames were shooting over the top coming out. I didn`t want to look behind me because I knew they were behind me.

WEIR (on camera): And there`s nowhere to go, you`re pen between --

WYLAND: Just pen in that fire happened --

WEIR: -- fire and ocean?

WYLAND: That`s what happened. All the people I think is, all those cars that were sitting waiting for someone to move in front of them, no one was

moving anywhere, you are -- you`re dead in the water.

WEIR: This is the historic banyan tree, 150-year-old majestic tree at the center of Lahaina town. It looks like it may have survived. It needs water

desperately to survive right now. But for the locals who are coming down and looking at the damage, this is such a sign of hope that maybe their

iconic tree will have lived when, when so much else is gone here, but the history can never be replaced.

Right here, this is the first hotel in Hawaii. The pioneer hotel, pioneer theater it`s completely gone. Right over here was the library. It`s just

now a stone shell of scorched blocks around front street there, Fleetwood, Mick Fleetwood of -- of the band Fleetwood Mac. His place is gutted out

with flames. It`s just unrecognizable. One of the most charming beloved port cities anywhere in the world is just scorched like a bomb went off.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIRE: 10 second trivia. Accra is the capital city of what African nation?

Angola, Ghana, Botswana or Rwanda?

Answer is going to be Ghana, located in Western Africa, translating to warrior king. Let`s travel to Ghana now to meet one of our CNN heroes.

After watching many family members and neighbors struggle with access to basic healthcare, they decided to make it their life`s mission to bring

medical care to remote communities in Ghana, through his doctor`s office on wheels. Now, their hope health man has served more than 4,000 people in the

community.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OSEI BOATENG, CNN HERO: In Ghana, many people don`t have access to healthcare. We`ve designed the van like a clinic when we are traveling,

especially in long distances. There`s a lot of potholes. There have been a lot of times where our car got stuck in the mud. This is our daily

experience.

Sometimes because of the poor network, we can get home as late as 12:00 a.m. We bring healthcare to the doorstep of rural and unserved communities

in Ghana.

I grew up in a very small community in Ghana. We grew up where people had to walk several miles to go to the nearest hospital, which is located in

the urban areas.

There were a lot of people who lost the lives due to diseases that could have been easily prevented or at a bare minimum managed. Early screenings

wasn`t an option for us. I lost my grandmother and my auntie. My grandmother was a very big part of my life. It was very hard when we lost

her and it was due to something that could have been easily prevented. That is the painful part.

This is my family. And I said that once I come of age, I`m going to ensure that people have access to healthcare. I took my education very seriously.

So in 2016, I got in a scholarship to study at Cornell and really learned about how diseases affected the human body.

I realized that these people don`t have the luxury of time. The food that they put on the table is determined by what they sell in the market. If I

tell them to go to the hospital, there was no way they`re going to go.

Thank you so much for coming. It`s going to be a long day.

So then, I had to think like, how do I bring healthcare to them? And that was the birth of the mobile health van. So, we just arrived at one of the

rural communities that we`ve been working with. Currently, we are setting up our PPEs, disinfected, taking out our diagnostics and also medications.

(Through translator) As you are all aware we came here from time to time for this health outreach.

90 to 95% everyone that comes through has one health issue or the other. And the first person they meet is our operation director, so he will

collect the demographics like name, age. And then the person will move on to the nurse. The nurse will collect the vitals. And once the nurse is

done, the patient will move onto the doctor.

We`ve been to communities where they haven`t seen a doctor before. Literally, they haven`t been to the hospital before. Seeing how the moms,

the fathers, the grandmothers, the children are really excited and really grateful. Words cannot describe the feeling that you get providing care for

someone who otherwise wouldn`t be alive if your mobile health van wasn`t there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIRE: And today`s story, getting a 10 out of 10, a story that made some zoo goers bubble with laughter rub, dub, dub. That`s a huge bear in that

tub. meat fin, a 450-pound black bear swimming around in all sorts of suds at a zoo in Knoxville, Tennessee getting so fresh and so clean, clean. It`s

actually a small pond that was being cleaned with soap one day. And when they filled it up, there were bubbles galore and honey fin jumped right, in

loving it. Very cute.

Now onto my favorite part of the day, I want to give a special shout out to Summit Academy, North Middle School in Romulus, Michigan, we see you. Today

is August 15th, it`s National Relaxation Day, so smell the flowers and cool a soup, shoot. Maybe even go take a bubble bath. I`m Coy Wire. And we are

CNN 10.

END