Yahoo TV

STORY: "No cell phone coverage, no internet and no way to contact the outside world. And we got to this side of the island about midnight last night," said Brown, a local resident who had to evacuate from the Puamana neighborhood in Lahaina, Maui.

At least 36 people have died after wildfires, fanned by winds from a faraway hurricane, devastated much of the resort city Lahaina on Hawaii's Maui island, the Maui County said in a statement late on Wednesday.

Multiple neighborhoods were burnt to the ground as the western side of the island was nearly cut off, with only one highway open and thousands to evacuate as officials told of widespread devastation to Lahaina, its harbor and surrounding areas.