Top Photo: FEMA and Hawaii officials survey the fire damage in Lahaina. Photo credit: wikipedia.org
Mother Nature made her presence known across the United States last month, starting with three wildfires that destroyed parts of Maui.
The fires swept across the Hawaiian island, and were fueled by dry conditions, non-native plants and grasses, and wind gusts from a nearby hurricane in the Pacific Ocean. The most destructive of the three wildfires killed at least 114 people and destroyed more than 2,700 structures in a popular area of the island, Lahaina. The Lahaina wildfire is the deadliest wildfire in the United States in more than a century.
The wildfires left thousands of Maui residents homeless, and Hawaii’s governor has estimated that the damage from the fires is roughly $6 billion. Two weeks after the devastating wildfires, President Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited the island and promised that the federal government will help Maui “for as long as it takes” to recover. The Bidens toured the destruction on Maui, met with first responders and state officials, and participated in a blessing by island elders of Biden’s visit.
Shortly after Hawaii was devastated by wildfires, several states in the Southwest were hit by Tropical Storm Hilary. It is the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84, and, after making landfall in Mexico, Hilary brought widespread rain to the state. Hilary toppled trees and flooded roads in California before moving into the northwest.
As a result of Hilary, four states—Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Oregon—broke their rainfall records, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. Since 2017, five other states have broken records because of tropical systems. Scientists continue to LINK heavier rainfall rates with climate change and predict that historic rainfall could become more common in the future.
While the western part of the United States dealt with Tropical Storm Hilary, Texas braced for Tropical Storm Harold. wHarold made landfall on Texas’ Padre Island before being downgraded to a tropical depression and continuing with heavy rain and powerful winds throughout Texas.
Students Rescued from Dangling Cable Car
NORTHERN PAKISTAN—How was your trip to school this morning? Hopefully it went a lot better than for six Pakistani students, a teacher and one other adult on Aug. 22.
In this mountainous region, many students rely on cable cars to get to and from school. Taking the road to school takes about 4 hours, while the cable car usually only takes several minutes. On this morning, the 8 piled into the small gondola suspended by two cables. The group had made it halfway across a deep RAVINE when one of the cables snapped!
The cable car dangled at a dangerous angle 900 feet above the ravine! The students, who range in age from 11–15, and the two adults were terrified. The area is rugged and remote, and it took a military helicopter six hours to get there. Unfortunately, with strong winds and the sun going down, the helicopter crew only managed to pluck one boy from the cable car and fly him to safety.
Meanwhile, another team managed to rig a zip line to the stranded group. Nearby villagers improvised a chairlift for the zip line that could transport a few people at a time. In all, the rescue took 16 hours, but everyone made it to safety!
“All the kids have been successfully and safely rescued. Great teamwork by the military, rescue departments, district administration as well as local people,” Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar posted on social media.
