WASHINGTON (AP) — The International Monetary Fund has upgraded its outlook for the global economy this year, saying the world appears headed for a “soft landing” — reining in inflation without much economic pain and producing steady if modest growth.

The IMF now envisions 3.2% worldwide expansion this year, up a tick from the 3.1% it had predicted in January and matching 2023’s pace. And it foresees a third straight year of 3.2% growth in 2025.

In its latest outlook, the IMF, a 190-country lending organization, notes that the global expansion is being powered by unexpectedly strong growth in the United States, the world’s largest economy. The IMF expects the U.S. economy to grow 2.7% this year, an upgrade from the 2.1% it had predicted in January and faster than a solid 2.5% expansion in 2023.

Though sharp price increases remain an obstacle across the world, the IMF foresees global inflation tumbling from 6.8% last year to 5.9% in 2024 and 4.5% next year. In the world’s advanced economies alone, the organization envisions inflation falling from 4.6% in 2023 to 2.6% this year and 2% in 2025, brought down by the effects of higher interest rates.

The Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England have all sharply raised rates with the aim of slowing inflation to around 2%. In the United States, year-over-year inflation has plummeted from a peak of 9.1% in the summer of 2022 to 3.5%. Still, U.S. inflation remains persistently above the Fed’s target level, which will likely delay any rate cuts by the U.S. central bank.

Globally, higher borrowing rates had been widely expected to cause severe economic pain — even a recession — including in the United States. But it hasn’t happened. Growth and hiring have endured even as inflation has decelerated.

“Despite many gloomy predictions, the global economy has held steady, and inflation has been returning to target,” Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, the IMF’s chief economist, told reporters ahead the release of the fund’s latest World Economic Outlook.

Though the world economy is showing unexpected resilience, it isn’t exactly strong. From 2000 through 2019, global economic growth had averaged 3.8% — much higher than the 3.2% IMF forecasts for this year and next. Keeping a lid on the world’s growth prospects are the continued high interest rates, along with sluggish gains in productivity in much of the world and the withdrawal of government economic aid that was rolled out during the pandemic.

The IMF warns that the economic expansion could be thrown off by the continuing adverse effects of higher rates and by geopolitical tensions, including the war in Gaza, that risk disrupting trade and raising energy and other prices.

China, the world’s No. 2 economy, has been struggling with the collapse of its real estate market, depressed consumer and business confidence and rising trade tensions with other major nations. The IMF expects the Chinese economy, which once regularly generated double-digit annual growth, to slow from 5.2% in 2023 to 4.6% in 2024 to 4.1% next year.

But on Tuesday, Beijing reported that China’s economy expanded at a faster-than-expected pace in the first three months of the year, fueled by policies that are intended to stimulate growth and stronger demand. The Chinese economy expanded at a 5.3% annual pace in January-March, surpassing analysts’ forecasts of about 4.8%, official data show. Compared with the previous quarter, the economy grew 1.6%.

Japan’s economy, the world’s fourth-largest, having lost the No. 3 spot to Germany last year, is expected to slow from 1.9% last year to 0.9% in 2024.

Among the 20 countries that use the euro currency, the IMF expects growth of just 0.8% this year — weak but double the eurozone’s 2023 expansion. The United Kingdom is expected to make slow economic progress, with growth rising from 0.1% last year to 0.5% in 2024 and 1.5% next year.

In the developing world, India is expected to continue outgrowing China, though the expansion in the world’s fifth-largest economy will slow, from 7.8% last year to 6.8% this year and 6.5% in 2025.

The IMF foresees a steady but slow acceleration of growth in sub-Saharan Africa — from 3.4% last year to 3.8% in 2024 to 4.1% next year.

In Latin America, the economies of Brazil and Mexico are expected to decelerate through 2025. Brazil is likely to be hobbled by interest high rates and Mexico by government budget cuts.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s latest plan for student loan cancellation is moving forward as a proposed regulation, offering him a fresh chance to deliver on a campaign promise and energize young voters ahead of the November election.

The Education Department on Tuesday filed paperwork for a new regulation that would deliver the cancellation that Biden announced last week. It still has to go through a 30-day public comment period and another review before it can be finalized.

It’s a more targeted proposal than the one the U.S. Supreme Court struck down last year. The new plan uses a different legal basis and seeks to cancel or reduce loans for more than 25 million Americans.

Conservative opponents, who see it as an unfair burden for taxpayers who didn’t attend college, have threatened to challenge it in court.

The Democratic president highlighted the the plan during a trip to Wisconsin last week, saying it would provide “life-changing” relief. He laid out five categories of people who would be eligible for help.

The new paperwork filed by the Education Department includes four of those categories, while a separate proposal will be filed later addressing how people facing various kinds of hardship can get relief.

The broadest forgiveness category would help borrowers who owe more than they originally borrowed because of runaway interest. It would eliminate up to $20,000 in interest for anyone in that situation, while those with annual incomes below $120,000 and enrolled in income-driven repayment plans would get all their interest erased with no maximum limit. It would be done automatically.

Another category would cancel loans for people who have been paying back their undergraduate student loans for at least 20 years, and those who have been paying graduate loans at last 25 years.

It would automatically cancel loans for those who went to colleges or programs considered to have low financial value. Borrowers would be eligible for cancellation if they attended a program that leave graduates with earnings no better than those with a high school diploma, for example, or programs that leave graduates with large shares of debt compared with their incomes.

Borrowers who are eligible for other federal forgiveness programs but haven’t applied would also get loans erased. Federal education officials would use existing data to identify those people and offer relief. It’s intended to reach those who don’t know about other programs or have been deterred by complicated application processes.

The proposal was hashed out over the course of several hearings as part of a federal rules process that gathers advice from outside experts. The plan was drafted with the help of students, college officials, state officials, borrower advocates and loan servicers.

During that process, advocates pushed for a fifth category of forgiveness for people who have different kinds of hardship that prevent them from being able to repay their loans. The Education Department said it’s still working on the details of that rule, with a separate proposal to come “in the coming months.”

The department said the hardship proposal will offer cancellation to borrowers who are at high risk of defaulting on their loans along with those who face other hardships, including high medical and caregiving expenses. That proposal will mirror one agreed upon by outside experts during the rulemaking process, the agency said.

It usually takes months for a proposed rule to be finalized, and months more before it can take effect. The Biden administration said it plans to start implementing some parts of the new proposal as soon as this fall, using the education secretary’s authority to implement rules early in certain cases.

Republicans are staunchly opposed to any broad student loan cancellation, saying it’s an unfair bailout for people who went to college. Two coalitions of Republican states have sued the Biden administration to block a separate repayment plan that offers an accelerated path to loan forgiveness.

The White House says it’s confident the new plan is on solid legal ground, saying the Higher Education Act gives the education secretary the power to waive student loans in certain cases.

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The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. single-family homebuilding tumbled in March after hefty gains in the prior month, and while demand for housing remains strong, a resurgence in mortgage rates is pushing potential buyers to the sidelines.

Single-family housing starts, which account for the bulk of homebuilding, dropped 12.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.022 million units last month, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau said on Tuesday. Data for February was revised higher to show single-family starts rebounding to a rate of 1.167 million units instead of the previously reported 1.129 million units.

New construction remains underpinned by a severe shortage of previously owned houses for sale, with the latest government data showing 757,000 housing units on the market in the fourth quarter, well below the 1.145 million units before the COVID-19 pandemic.

A survey from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) on Monday showed confidence among single-family home builders unchanged at an eight-month high in April. The NAHB said “buyers are hesitating until they can better gauge where interest rates are headed.”

The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed mortgage has drifted up towards 7%, data from mortgage finance agency Freddie Mac showed, as strong reports on the labor market and inflation suggested that the Federal Reserve could delay an anticipated rate cut this year. A few economists doubt that the U.S. central bank will lower borrowing costs this year.

The Fed has kept its policy rate in the 5.25%-5.50% range since July. It has raised the benchmark overnight interest rate by 525 basis points since March 2022.

Starts for housing projects with five units or more plunged 20.8% to a rate of 290,000 units. Overall housing starts plummeted 14.7% to a rate of 1.321 million units in March.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast starts falling to a rate 1.487 million units.

Permits for future construction of single-family homes fell 5.7% to a rate of 973,000 units in March. Multi-family building permits were unchanged at a rate of 433,000 units.

Building permits as a whole dropped 4.3% to a rate of 1.458 million units.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration will help 50 countries identify and respond to infectious diseases, with the goal of preventing pandemics like the COVID-19 outbreak that suddenly halted normal life around the globe in 2020.

U.S. government officials will work with the countries to develop better testing, surveillance, communication and preparedness for such outbreaks in those countries, according to a senior Biden administration official who briefed reporters Monday about the program on the condition of anonymity. The official did not share a list of countries that will participate in the program.

The announcement comes as countries have struggled to meet a worldwide accord on responses to future pandemics. Four years after the coronavirus pandemic, the prospects of a pandemic treaty signed by all 194 of the World Health Organization’s members are flailing.

The U.S. program will rely on several government agencies — including the U.S. State Department, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health and Human Services and the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID — to help countries refine their infectious disease response.

Congo is one country where work has already begun, the official told reporters. The U.S. government is helping Congo with its response to an mpox virus outbreak, including with immunizations. Mpox, a virus that’s in the same family as the one that causes smallpox, creates painful skin lesions. Last year, the World Health Organization declared mpox a global emergency, with more than 91,000 cases spanning across 100 countries to date.

The White House on Tuesday is releasing a website with the names of the countries that are participating in the program. Biden officials are seeking to get 100 countries signed onto the program by the end of the year.

The U.S. has devoting billions of dollars to the effort. Biden, a Democrat, is asking for $1.2 billion for global health safety efforts in his yearly budget proposal to Congress.

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — A series of gun safety bills introduced after the deadliest shooting in Maine history appears to be headed toward final passage as the state Legislature races to wrap up its session this week.

The House followed the Senate on Monday in approving the governor’s omnibus gun safety bill that strengthens the state’s yellow flag law, boosts background checks for private sales of guns and makes it a crime to recklessly sell a gun to a prohibited person. The bill also funds violence prevention initiatives and opens a mental health crisis receiving center in Lewiston.

More votes are necessary in the Democratic-controlled Legislature before it adjourns Wednesday. The House also will be voting on two bills approved by the Senate: waiting periods for gun purchases and a ban on bump stocks.

One bill that failed was a proposal to let gun violence victims sue weapon manufacturers. And so far, neither chamber has voted on a proposal for a red flag law that allows family members to petition a judge to remove guns from someone who’s in a psychiatric crisis. That proposal differs from the state’s current yellow flag law that puts police in the lead of the process.

Meanwhile, another measure sponsored by House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross to fund a range of mental health and violence prevention initiatives awaits money in the final budget.

The state has a strong hunting tradition and an active lobby aimed at protecting gun owner rights. Maine voters rejected universal background checks for firearm purchases in 2016.

The Oct. 25 shooting that killed 18 people and injured 13 others in Lewiston prompted lawmakers to act, saying constituents were demanding that they do something that could prevent future attacks.

Police were warned by family members of the shooter, an Army reservist who died by suicide, that he was becoming paranoid and losing his grip on reality before the attack. He was hospitalized last summer while training with his Army Reserve unit, and his best friend, a fellow reservist, warned that the man was going “to snap and do a mass shooting.”

(Reuters) -Trump Media & Technology Group is planning to roll out a live TV streaming platform in phases, the Truth Social-parent said on Tuesday after six months of testing.

The company would launch Truth Social’s content delivery network for streaming live TV on the app for Android, iOS and Web in the first phase.

It plans to release the streaming apps for TV in the final third phase, the company said, without disclosing a timeline.

Shares of former U.S. president Donald Trump’s social media company had slumped 18% on Monday, after the company said it could sell millions of shares in coming months, including the former president’s entire stake.

(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden returns to his childhood hometown of Scranton on Tuesday to open three straight days of campaigning in Pennsylvania, capitalizing on the opportunity to work the battleground state while Donald Trump spends the week in a New York City courtroom for his first criminal trial.

The Democratic president plans to use Scranton, a working class city of roughly 75,000 people, as the backdrop for his pitch for higher taxes on the rich. At the same, he will portray Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee and a billionaire himself, as a tool of wealthy interests.

It’s all aimed at reframing the conversation around the economy, which has left many Americans feeling sour about their financial situations at a time of stubborn inflation and elevated interest rates despite low unemployment.

Biden plans to spend Tuesday night in Scranton before continuing to Pittsburgh on Wednesday morning. He then goes back to the White House, only to return to Pennsylvania on Thursday, this time visiting Philadelphia.

By the time the week is over, Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris will have visited the state eight times this year, reflecting its importance to Biden’s hopes for a second term.

“It’s hard to draw paths to Biden winning the White House that don’t involve Pennsylvania,” said Daniel Hopkins, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania. No Democrat has become president without winning the state since Harry Truman in 1948.

Scranton, the president’s first destination, will blend the personal and the political for Biden. He grew up in a three-story colonial home in the Green Ridge neighborhood until his father struggled to find work and moved the family to Delaware when the future president was 10.

Although Delaware eventually became the launching pad for Biden’s political career, he often returned to Scranton and grounded his autobiography in the city. He visited so often, he was sometimes called “Pennsylvania’s third senator.”

In 2020, Biden described the presidential campaign as “Scranton versus Park Avenue,” and his reelection team is framing this year’s race in a similar way.

“You’ve got Joe Biden, who sees the world from the kitchen table where he grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Donald Trump, who sees the world from his country club down in Mar-a-Lago,” said Michael Tyler, the campaign’s communications director.

Christopher Borick, director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion, described Scranton as a “mythical place in political culture,” and it will provide a test for Biden’s political appeal.

“It’s an area that, on paper, aligns perfectly with the populist gains of the Republican Party during the Trump era,” Borick said.

However, Biden won the city and the surrounding county in 2020. If he’s able to carry Scranton and similar places again this year, as well as limit Trump’s winning margins in rural areas, Biden may be able to secure another victory in Pennsylvania.

“Everything is on the margin. Everything that we talk about are small shifts,” Borick said.

Biden’s pitch on taxes is a key part of his effort to blunt Trump’s populist allure.

When Trump was president, he signed into law a series of tax breaks in 2017 that disproportionately benefit the rich. Many of the cuts expire at the end of 2025, and Biden wants to keep a majority of them to fulfill his promise that no one earning less than $400,000 will pay more taxes.

However, he also wants to raise $4.9 trillion in revenue over 10 years with higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations. His platform includes a “billionaire’s tax,” which would set a minimum rate of 25% on the income of the richest Americans.

Biden’s travels in Pennsylvania overlap with the start of Trump’s first criminal trial, presenting an opportunity and a challenge for the president’s campaign.

Trump is defending himself against criminal charges for a scheme to suppress allegations of affairs with a porn actress and a Playboy model. Biden’s team has quietly embraced the contrast of the former president sequestered in a courtroom while the current president has free rein to focus on economic issues that are top of mind for voters.

However, the juxtaposition becomes less helpful if Trump soaks up the country’s attention during the first-ever criminal trial of a former president.

Biden campaign officials said they weren’t worried about the trial.

“No matter where Donald Trump is, whether it’s in Mar-a-Lago or a courtroom or anywhere else, he’ll be focused on himself, his toxic agenda, his campaign of revenge and retribution,” Tyler said. “That’s going to be a continuation of the contrast the American people have been able to see since this campaign began.”

Sam DeMarco, chair of the Republican Party in Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, said Democrats’ message is that “the economy is good, we’re just not smart enough to realize it.”

However, DeMarco said, “across the board, it costs more to live today than it did when Joe Biden came to office.”

“These are the things that families feel,” he said. “And a scripted appearance by the president is not going to change that.”

Trump was last in Pennsylvania on Saturday night in Schnecksville, where he described Biden as a “demented tyrant” and blamed him for all of the country’s problems, in addition to his own legal woes.

“All of America knows that the real blame for this nightmare lies with one person, Crooked Joe Biden,” Trump said.

He attacked Biden’s tax plans, falsely claiming that “they’re going to raise your taxes by four times.”

Trump also went on an extended riff about the Civil War battle in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, calling it “so vicious and horrible, and so beautiful in so many different ways,” and suggesting that the Confederate General Robert E. Lee is “no longer in favor.”

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Associated Press writers Josh Boak and Will Weissert contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Every U.S. national election, a cottage industry of strategists, pollsters and organizers craft brand-new words and phrases to describe the mood of American voters and the politicking aimed at influencing them. 

From the 2000 election’s “Nader traders” (ask a Generation X voter) to 2004’s “Swift Boating,” to the 2008 “Obama coalition,” these terms provide a sort of snapshot of the U.S., illuminating unique, often temporary phenomena related to the battle to lead the world’s most powerful democracy. 

This year is no exception. Here are some terms you need to know:

BANNON LINE: First coined during the 2020 election cycle, in response to a comment made by political strategist and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, the Bannon Line is being invoked heavily in 2024. It describes the path in which a Democratic candidate could defeat former President Donald Trump if a certain threshold of Republican voters did not support Trump. 

“It’s clear to me that the Bannon Line has grown. It’s no longer 6-7%; it can be as much as 20-25% so far of people who voted in the Republican primaries,” a Democratic strategist said in an interview.  

DOBBS DADS: Fathers of girls or young women who may have traditionally voted Republican, but who Democrats think will switch parties in November out of concern about their daughters’ reproductive rights after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. That ruling overturned the constitutional right to have an abortion and ushered in a string of restrictive state abortion measures.      

The Supreme Court decision is a big factor motivating not only women voters, but also fathers of girls – the “Dobbs dads” who worry about the decisions their daughters would face when they grow up – Rick Wilson, a former Republican strategist and co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, told reporters in Iowa earlier this year.

FETTERMAN DEMOCRATS: Democrats who distance themselves from the party’s progressive and moderate flanks, offering unpredictable policy positions that are often rooted in populist politics. The term was inspired by first-term U.S. Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.

“A lot of local Democrats at the local level are embracing being a ‘Fetterman Democrat,” said one political adviser. “Fetterman has really given them political cover to speak their minds and not be beholden to any orthodoxy.”

LAWFARE: The strategic use of legal proceedings to intimidate or hinder an opponent, not to be confused with Lawfare Media, a popular national security-focused website. 

Trump, his supporters and right-wing media, have increasingly claimed the Democrats are engaged in lawfare against the Republican presidential candidate, who faces multiple criminal cases. “All of this weaponization and lawfare that you’re watching … they’re being run by the DOJ, they put their people in there” Trump said in a video released in April.

NO-NO VOTERS: Voters who have a negative view of both Trump and Democratic President Joe Biden.

The “no-no” voter chunk of the electorate “is really broad and really diverse” this election, one strategist said.

No-no voters have also been referred to as “double haters.”   

(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly, Andrea Shalal, Alexandra Ulmer, andJarrett Renshaw; Writing by Heather Timmons; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

By Jarrett Renshaw

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden kicks off a multi-city tour of the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Tuesday with a stop in his hometown of Scranton where he will renew calls to increase taxes on wealthy Americans and large corporations.

With 19 electoral votes, one of the highest counts among all 50 U.S. states, and voters who swing between backing Democrats and Republicans, Pennsylvania is a top prize in the 2024 presidential election that features a rematch between Biden and his Republican rival, former President Donald Trump.

Biden, who spent part of his childhood in Scranton before his family moved to Delaware, won Pennsylvania in 2020 by less than 1.5%, or roughly 80,000 votes. Trump beat Hillary Clinton there by fewer than 45,000 votes in 2016. Polls show another close race.

Biden will head to Pittsburgh on Wednesday and Philadelphia on Thursday as part of an effort to draw contrasts with Trump on tax and economic policies. Trump was in Eastern Pennsylvania on Saturday for a campaign rally that drew thousands of supporters.

“You got Joe Biden, a candidate who sees the world in the kitchen table where he grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Donald Trump, who sees the world from his country club down at Mar-a-Lago,” said Michael Tyler, the Biden campaign’s communications director.

Biden is grappling with voter concerns about the U.S. economy despite job growth, healthy spending and better-than-expected GDP increases. Voters blame Biden for rising costs on an array of items from groceries to construction supplies, along with high interest rates.

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll found that voters trust Trump more than Biden to better manage the economy and jobs by a 39% to 33% margin.

Biden is betting his economic populist message, which includes a new billionaire’s tax and closing corporate loopholes, will animate voters in a blue-collar region of Pennsylvania that Democrats dominated before Trump emerged. Scranton sits in Lackawanna County, which is whiter, poorer and less-educated, on average, than the rest of the state, the latest U.S. Census figures show.

Biden must stem the defections of white, non-college educated voters in Pennsylvania and other rust-belt battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin if he hopes to stay in the White House, campaign aides have said.

Former President Barack Obama won Lackawanna county by roughly 62% in 2008 and 2012, while Hillary Clinton eked out a victory with 49.8% of the vote. Biden won the county by 53%.

The state’s Republican and Democratic primary contests take place on April 23.

Biden faces a loosely organized effort by critics who say he has not done enough to stop the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where Israel’s air and ground campaign has led to widespread disease and famine in the Palestinian enclave.

Amber Viola, a 38-year-old Scranton resident who runs a popular local political podcast, said she was invited by the Biden campaign to attend the Scranton event but turned it down.

“I don’t feel comfortable posing for campaign photos when there are people dying,” Viola said.

Voters mounted opposition efforts in Democratic primaries in other battleground states like Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina to register their protest. Biden has faced protests at many public events in recent months.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw; editing by Jeff Mason and Richard Chang)

HONOLULU (AP) — The Maui Fire Department is expected to release a report Tuesday detailing how the agency responded to a series of wildfires that burned on the island during a windstorm last August — including one that killed 101 people in the historic town of Lahaina and became the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century.

The release comes one day before the Hawaii Attorney General is expected to release the first phase of a separate comprehensive investigation about the events before, during and after the Aug. 8 fires.

The reports could help officials understand exactly what happened when the wind-whipped fire overtook the historic Maui town of Lahaina, destroying roughly 3,000 properties and causing more than $5.5 billion in estimated damage, according to state officials.

The Western Fire Chiefs Association produced the after-action report for the Maui Fire Department. After-action reports are frequently used by military organizations, emergency response agencies, government entities and even companies to help identify the strengths and weaknesses of the organization’s response to an emergency.

A similar after-action report was released by the Maui Police Department in February. It included 32 recommendations to improve the law enforcement agency’s response to future tragedies, including that the department obtain better equipment and that it station a high-ranking officer in the island’s communications center during emergencies.

Hawaiian Electric has acknowledged that one of its power lines fell and caused a fire in Lahaina the morning of Aug. 8, but the utility company denies that the morning fire caused the flames that burned through the town later that day. But dozens of lawsuits filed by survivors and victims’ families claim otherwise, saying entities like Hawaiian Electric, Maui County, large property owners or others should be held responsible for the damage caused by the inferno.

Many of the factors that contributed to the disaster are already known: Strong winds from a hurricane passing far offshore had downed power lines and blown off parts of rooftops, and debris blocked roads throughout Lahaina. Later those same winds rained embers and whipped flames through the heart of the town.

The vast majority of the county’s fire crews were already tied up fighting other wildfires on a different part of the island, their efforts sometimes hindered by a critical loss of water pressure after the winds knocked out electricity for the water pumps normally used to load firefighting tanks and reservoirs. County officials have acknowledged that a lack of backup power for critical pumps made it significantly harder for crews to battle the Upcountry fires.

A small firefighting team was tasked with handling any outbreaks in Lahaina. That crew brought the morning fire under control and even declared it extinguished, then broke for lunch. By the time they returned, flames had erupted in the same area and were quickly moving into a major subdivision. The fire in Lahaina burned so hot that thousands of water pipes melted, making it unlikely that backup power for pumps would have made a significant impact.

Cellphone and internet service was also down in the area, so it was difficult for some to call for help or to get information about the spreading fire — including any evacuation announcements. And emergency officials did not use Hawaii’s extensive network of emergency sirens to warn Lahaina residents.

The high winds made it hard at times for first responders to communicate on their radios, and 911 operators and emergency dispatchers were overwhelmed with hundreds of calls.

Police and electricity crews tried to direct people away from roads that were partially or completely blocked by downed power lines. Meanwhile, people trying to flee burning neighborhoods packed the few thoroughfares leading in and out of town.

The traffic jam left some trapped in their cars when the fire overtook them. Others who were close to the ocean jumped into the choppy waters to escape the flames.

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Boone reported from Boise, Idaho.