USA news on Youtube May 31 2018

Lava evacuee volunteers to save others' homes

On a normal day, Heath Dalton would be making phone calls or meeting clients to assess their phone and bandwidth requirements for internet service.

These days, hes rescuing abandoned pets and hauling buckets of water to put out fires started by flowing lava in Leilani Estates, the community hit hardest by an erupting volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii.

The very first thing we do, we drive up to the streets to know which roads are blocked and see if anyone needs help, Dalton, 45, said Wednesday in a phone interview from his temporary home in nearby Keaau.

Daltons life was turned upside down when his sand-colored, one-story dream home became engulfed in flames from the intense heat from a fissure that erupted in his neighbors yard earlier this month.

I never knew that would be the last time that I would see our house, said his wife, Denise Dalton.

Dalton said he heeded a civil defense evacuation warning on May 3 and told his wife and two children to leave, but stayed behind to save what he could.

Denise Dalton, 39, rushed home from her job as an intensive-care nurse at Hilo Medical Center after her husband called her.

I didnt even change out of my scrubs.

I was grabbing things and throwing things into bags, she said.

She took as many toys, clothes, books and DVDs that she could for her children.

The family stayed at a friends house until they were able to secure a rental home in Hawaiian Paradise Park in Keaau.

The pictures on the computer, my kids baby blankets, and the toys that our son got for his third birthday are gone, said Denise Dalton.

Her husband stayed behind and kept packing until the morning of May 4, without any sleep, and brought what he could to the family.

I took a box of cheap toys so that the kids could have something, he said.

He made a few trips back and forth to his home during the time the evacuation order was in effect but when he returned on Sunday, May 6, he saw the front of his house on Kupono Street engulfed in flames, with lava all around.

Lava spread to other areas of the Big Island on Wednesday, forcing officials to order more evacuations, The Associated Press reported.

Overnight, the lava was moving fast enough to cover about six football fields an hour, U.S.

Geological Survey scientist Wendy Stovall told the AP.

As of Friday, lava had destroyed 82 structures on Hawaii Island, including 37 homes.

Denise Dalton said she and her family had received donations from her co-workers at Hilo Medical Center and through a local charity center.

Shes received food, chairs and a coffee maker.

She said her daughter, Elle, 4, and son, A.

, 3, often ask about their home.

All the hot lava got it? her son once asked.

I say yes, she said.

Does he grasp it? I dont think so..

After losing their home, Heath Dalton has found a renewed sense of purpose.

Hes now trying to help his neighbors so that the same fate doesnt befall them.

Ive been able to get into Leilani, he said.

Theres like three of us helping neighbors..

Dalton said he and his friends are helping neighbors move and giving guidance and directions to people who arent familiar with the roads.

Kris Burmeister, one of Daltons friends, lost his home in Leilani Estates on Monday night.

Some of these people are losing everything and Im trying to minimize that for as many people, said Burmeister, 42.

On Wednesday, though, Dalton gave himself the day off.

After a little over three weeks, I want to spend time with family.

I promised my wife that I would do a family day today, he said.

On June 2, their daughter is turning 5, and he has ordered a cake to celebrate.

Her presents were lost in the fire, including special dolls bought on Amazon.

Everything weve been trying to do is to try to keep everything as normal as possible, Dalton said.

For more infomation >> Lava evacuee volunteers to save others' homes - Duration: 6:51.

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White House defends FEMA after study finds Hurricane Maria killed 5,000 in Puerto Rico - Duration: 6:17.

White House defends FEMA after study finds Hurricane Maria killed 5,000 in Puerto Rico

The White House on Wednesday shook off criticism of the emergency response to Hurricane Maria following a Harvard study that estimated the death toll from last years tragedy in Puerto Rico may have reached 5,000.

The official death toll from the storm is listed as 64, but Puerto Rican officials have maintained they believe the number is far higher.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, asked about the startling numbers in the Harvard study, defended FEMAs response to the storm that slammed into the island as a Category 4 hurricane Sept.

20, two weeks after the island was ravaged by Hurricane Irma.

Sanders said the government responded to the storm with the largest FEMA effort in history.

We have been supportive of Gov.

Rosellos efforts to ensure full accounting and transparency, and those who have suffered from this tragedy deserve nothing less, she added. .

National Nurse United, the nations largest union for registered nurses, said the study confirmed what volunteer nurses who went to the island in the days and weeks after the Sept.

20 landfall witnessed — residents left to die by a federal response that failed its own American citizens..

"Nurses on the ground saw that people were dying, said Bonnie Castillo, executive director of the union.

Our volunteer RNs came back to the U.S.

and said again and again, 'The people of Puerto Rico are dying.

Do something!. Rep.

Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who serves on the House Committee on Homeland Security, called the Harvard estimate heartbreaking and blasted the federal response to the storm as woefully inadequate..

FEMA assistant administrator Michael Byrne defended his agencys effort before a House committee two months ago.

Byrne testified more than 19,000 federal staff from 80 agencies were on the ground at the height of the emergency effort.

More than a billion dollars in commodities, such as food, water, tarps, and construction materials were delivered by air, off-road vehicles and on foot, making it the largest and longest commodity delivery mission in FEMA's history, he said.

Maria destroyed thousands of buildings and knocked out power to virtually the entire U.S.

territory of more than 3 million people. Researchers at the Harvard T.H.

Chan School of Public Health released a study this week based on a survey of more than 3,000 households on the battered island.

The researchers determined at least 4,645 excess deaths occurred during the storm and the weeks that followed as the island struggled to provide basic services such as food, water and medical care.

The researchers also said the number was probably conservative, and that the total could have exceeded 5,000.

By comparison, more than 1,800 people died when Katrina roared across the U.S.

Gulf Coast as a Category 5 hurricane in 2005.

Christy Delafield, a spokeswoman for the global humanitarian organization Mercy Corps, has spent time in Puerto Rico since Maria.

She said her group always believed official numbers seemed low, but Harvards numbers are worse than we feared..

The lack of electricity and basic services meant that people couldnt get the help they needed for a long time after the storm, she said.

The elderly, people with health problems and the very young were at particular risk..

Carlos Mercader, executive director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, said the Puerto Rico government welcomed the study and would analyze it further.

He said officials expected the number would be much higher than previous counts, and a team at George Washington University has been conducting a review of the death total that is due soon.

As the world knows, the magnitude of this tragic disaster caused by Hurricane Maria resulted in many fatalities, he said.

Both studies will help us better prepare for future natural disasters and prevent lives from being lost.".