A Kiwi living in Maui is revealing the extent of the damage from the deadly wildfires which are tearing through the island.
The Hawaiian island of Maui has been decimated with wildfires still burning. A major national disaster has been declared and authorities expect the current death toll of 36 to rise significantly as searchers comb ruined buildings.
The US Drought Monitor indicates more than 14 percent of the island state is suffering from severe or moderate drought.
The historic old whaling town of Lahaina has suffered what some say is "apocalyptic" damage in the fires - which have been burning for two days now
Kiwi Devin Gallagher is currently in California but he's desperate to get back to his home in Lahaina on Maui.
Gallagher told AM there are "significant gaps in the communications" making it difficult to communicate with loved ones.
"It's an extremely difficult situation at this time. Information is still coming back. A lot of it's not good, I guess we just continue to stand by and absorb what we can."
Gallagher said there is no access to where he lives. He attempted to fly home on Thursday but shutdown airports wouldn't allow it.
If he were to fly back home anyway, he would only join the other 2000 people who are being housed at the airport.
"There's no point going until we can get to the other side of the island and have power and hopefully get in a position where we can house some of these people."
Local resident Clint Hanson told AM the wind has luckily died down giving the community a "fighting chance to put a lot of these fires out".
"So it's been some good news. Obviously, the tragedy of finding out 36 people passed away is awful, but everybody is expecting that number to be significantly higher."
He described the events of the fire as "disastrous" with much of his community "feeling hollow inside".
Watch the video above for more.
