12-Month Recap since the fires

It's been exactly a year since the fires devastated most of Lahaina and much of Kula. We still feel the pain, loss, and anger. Here’s a brief overview of what life has been like over the past 12 months on Maui.

Personally, we watched the fires from our bedroom window in Upcountry and prepared to evacuate. We were on edge for days, and we're immensely grateful to still have our health and home. A mere 20-minute shift in the wind could have changed everything.

During the first week, no external help arrived. All the relief efforts came from Maui residents. We made multiple boat trips daily from Kīhei and Mā?alaea to deliver supplies to the isolated residents of West Maui, as the police wouldn't allow us to drive through with them. Each boat trip took 1.5-2 hours each way. We delivered essentials like water, food, pet supplies, medicine, tents, tables, diapers—everything a community needs to survive. Although I strive to live with gratitude, I still feel immense anger. A half-day trip from Pearl Harbor on O?ahu with a fully loaded military ship could have provided substantial help. Where was the assistance?

Many people forget or are unaware that Upcountry also had fires. The fires in Kula persisted, and a small group of local residents worked daily to extinguish hotspots and help others by cutting back trees and protecting homes.

For over three months, we dedicated our time to volunteering and fundraising. It was emotionally and physically exhausting, but our community's spirit and gratitude kept the island going. We had very little outside help, and when it did come, much was mishandled.

We opened our home to multiple families, but fortunately, the displaced fire victims found accommodations. FEMA helped place people in hotels, homes, etc., but their approach was short-sighted. We know people receiving $9,000/month in rent from FEMA for a single woman and her dog in a 4-bedroom home. Others who had to move for reasons unrelated to the fire, or whose leases ended, struggled to find housing. Everything became outrageously expensive because FEMA offered so much money. Friends of ours have been living in a basement with four kids and a dog for a year because they were forced to move out of their home the same month as the fires and couldn't afford anywhere else. Many generational local Maui residents had to leave the island. FEMA's misallocation of funds has harmed Maui's culture.

After 3.5 months, we had to return to work to try and save our devastated and neglected Maui businesses. With tourism shut down, it was difficult to generate any income. Financial support from grants was being formulated, but it didn’t help those of us who rely on tourism and were affected by the shutdown. Grants and aid went to businesses directly impacted by the fires, but we were affected by secondary issues. No tourists were coming to any part of Maui.

We continued to fundraise, donate our own items and money, and solicit more donations from the mainland. We also replanted native trees in Kula and worked on mitigating and removing invasive species.

Since then, we've been trying to survive financially while watching tourism slowly return. This has been the slowest summer we've ever experienced. For those who dislike tourism on Maui, we ask for an alternative industry to take over. These changes don’t happen overnight, and the majority of our island depends on tourism directly or indirectly.

Our government was aware of the fire risks in Lahaina and elsewhere. Upcountry, many hydrants were empty with non-functioning pumps. In Lahaina, the dangerous state of our power grid was well known. Since moving away from the ahupua?a system, the land has dried out due to water diversions. This disaster was inevitable.

There is still so much to be done to prevent this from happening again. Just as I began uploading this video yesterday, a new brush fire started at the bottom of our street. Our next-door neighbor, a fire victim, lost her home. We were all on high alert and ready to evacuate. Thankfully, the fire was extinguished before reaching our homes. There is still so much work left to do.

Since then, clean up is pretty much done, and some homes in Lahaina have begun construction. The Lahaina Banyan tree is recovering, but there's so much left to do.