Hurricane largely wipes out tiny Hawaiian island

Marine debris teams were dispatched to assess the damage this week after a tiny, remote Hawaiian island was largely wiped off the map when a raging hurricane passed through, officials said. East Island was a low-lying island composed mainly of loose sand and gravel, and was home to threatened nesting green sea turtles and endangered Hawaiian monk seals. All but a couple of slivers of sand were erased from the already tiny island -- about 400 feet (120 meters) wide and a half mile (0.8 kilometers long)-- when Hurricane Walaka tore through earlier this month, satellite images from the US Fish and Wildlife Service showed.