AUDREY McAVOY and CLAIRE RUSH
Updated Sun, August 13, 2023
Updated Sun, August 13, 2023
LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Richy Palalay so closely identifies with his Maui hometown that he had a tattoo artist permanently ink “Lahaina Grown” on his forearms when he was 16.
But a chronic housing shortage and an influx of second-home buyers and wealthy transplants have been displacing residents like Palalay who give Lahaina its spirit and identity.
A fast-moving wildfire that incinerated much of the compact coastal settlement last week has multiplied concerns that any homes rebuilt there will be targeted at affluent outsiders seeking a tropical haven. That would turbo-charge what is already one of Hawaii’s gravest and biggest challenges: the exodus and displacement of Native Hawaiian and local-born residents who can no longer afford to live in their homeland.
“I’m more concerned of big land developers coming in and seeing this charred land as an opportunity to rebuild,” Palalay said Saturday at a shelter for evacuees.
Hotels and condos “that we can’t afford, that we can’t afford to live in — that’s what we’re afraid of,” he said.
Palalay, 25, was born and raised in Lahaina. He started working at an oceanfront seafood restaurant in town when he was 16 and worked his way up to be kitchen supervisor. He was training to be a sous chef.
Then came Tuesday’s wildfire, which lay waste to its wooden homes and historic streets in just a few hours, killing at least 93 people to become the deadliest wildfire in the U.S. in a century.
Maui County estimates more than 80% of the more than 2,700 structures in the town were damaged or destroyed and 4,500 residents are newly in need of shelter.
The blaze torched Palalay’s restaurant, his neighborhood, his friends’ homes and possibly even the four-bedroom house where he pays $1,000 monthly to rent one room. He and his housemates haven’t had an opportunity to return to examine it themselves, though they’ve seen images showing their neighborhood in ruins.
He said the town, which was once the capital of the former Hawaiian kingdom in the 1800s, made him the man he is today.
“Lahaina is my home. Lahaina is my pride. My life. My joy,” he said in a text message, adding that the town has taught him “lessons of love, struggle, discrimination, passion, division and unity you could not fathom.”
The median price of a Maui home is $1.2 million, putting a single-family home out of reach for the typical wage earner. It’s not possible for many to even buy a condo, with the median condo price at $850,000.
Sterling Higa, the executive director of Housing Hawaii’s Future, a nonprofit organization that advocates for more housing in Hawaii, said the town is host to many houses that have been in the hands of local families for generations. But it’s also been subject to gentrification.
“So a lot of more recent arrivals — typically from the American mainland who have more money and can buy homes at a higher price — were to some extent displacing local families in Lahaina,” Higa said. It’s a phenomenon he has seen all along Maui’s west coast where a modest starter home two decades ago now sells for $1 million.
Residents with insurance or government aid may get funds to rebuild, but those payouts could take years and recipients may find it won’t be enough to pay rent or buy an alternate property in the interim.
Many on Kauai spent years fighting for insurance payments after Hurricane Iniki slammed into the island in 1992 and said the same could happen in Lahaina, Higa said.
“As they deal with this — the frustration of fighting insurance companies or fighting (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) — many of them may well leave because there are no other options,” Higa said.
Palalay vows to stay.
“I don’t have any money to help rebuild. I’ll put on a construction hat and help get this ship going. I’m not going to leave this place,” he said. “Where am I going to go?”
Gov. Josh Green, during a visit to Lahaina with FEMA, told journalists that he won’t let Lahaina get too expensive for locals after rebuilding. He said he is thinking about ways for the state to acquire land to use for workforce housing or open space as a memorial for those lost.
“We want Lahaina to be a part of Hawaii forever," Green said. "We don’t want it to be another example of people being priced out of paradise.”
___
McAvoy reported from Wailuku, Hawaii.
But a chronic housing shortage and an influx of second-home buyers and wealthy transplants have been displacing residents like Palalay who give Lahaina its spirit and identity.
A fast-moving wildfire that incinerated much of the compact coastal settlement last week has multiplied concerns that any homes rebuilt there will be targeted at affluent outsiders seeking a tropical haven. That would turbo-charge what is already one of Hawaii’s gravest and biggest challenges: the exodus and displacement of Native Hawaiian and local-born residents who can no longer afford to live in their homeland.
“I’m more concerned of big land developers coming in and seeing this charred land as an opportunity to rebuild,” Palalay said Saturday at a shelter for evacuees.
Hotels and condos “that we can’t afford, that we can’t afford to live in — that’s what we’re afraid of,” he said.
Palalay, 25, was born and raised in Lahaina. He started working at an oceanfront seafood restaurant in town when he was 16 and worked his way up to be kitchen supervisor. He was training to be a sous chef.
Then came Tuesday’s wildfire, which lay waste to its wooden homes and historic streets in just a few hours, killing at least 93 people to become the deadliest wildfire in the U.S. in a century.
Maui County estimates more than 80% of the more than 2,700 structures in the town were damaged or destroyed and 4,500 residents are newly in need of shelter.
The blaze torched Palalay’s restaurant, his neighborhood, his friends’ homes and possibly even the four-bedroom house where he pays $1,000 monthly to rent one room. He and his housemates haven’t had an opportunity to return to examine it themselves, though they’ve seen images showing their neighborhood in ruins.
He said the town, which was once the capital of the former Hawaiian kingdom in the 1800s, made him the man he is today.
“Lahaina is my home. Lahaina is my pride. My life. My joy,” he said in a text message, adding that the town has taught him “lessons of love, struggle, discrimination, passion, division and unity you could not fathom.”
The median price of a Maui home is $1.2 million, putting a single-family home out of reach for the typical wage earner. It’s not possible for many to even buy a condo, with the median condo price at $850,000.
Sterling Higa, the executive director of Housing Hawaii’s Future, a nonprofit organization that advocates for more housing in Hawaii, said the town is host to many houses that have been in the hands of local families for generations. But it’s also been subject to gentrification.
“So a lot of more recent arrivals — typically from the American mainland who have more money and can buy homes at a higher price — were to some extent displacing local families in Lahaina,” Higa said. It’s a phenomenon he has seen all along Maui’s west coast where a modest starter home two decades ago now sells for $1 million.
Residents with insurance or government aid may get funds to rebuild, but those payouts could take years and recipients may find it won’t be enough to pay rent or buy an alternate property in the interim.
Many on Kauai spent years fighting for insurance payments after Hurricane Iniki slammed into the island in 1992 and said the same could happen in Lahaina, Higa said.
“As they deal with this — the frustration of fighting insurance companies or fighting (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) — many of them may well leave because there are no other options,” Higa said.
Palalay vows to stay.
“I don’t have any money to help rebuild. I’ll put on a construction hat and help get this ship going. I’m not going to leave this place,” he said. “Where am I going to go?”
Gov. Josh Green, during a visit to Lahaina with FEMA, told journalists that he won’t let Lahaina get too expensive for locals after rebuilding. He said he is thinking about ways for the state to acquire land to use for workforce housing or open space as a memorial for those lost.
“We want Lahaina to be a part of Hawaii forever," Green said. "We don’t want it to be another example of people being priced out of paradise.”
___
McAvoy reported from Wailuku, Hawaii.
Hawaii Wildfire damage is shown, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii.
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
Maui fires: 'We're self-reliant people - but where's the help?'
John Sudworth in Maui - BBC News
Sun, August 13, 2023
For those still living inside Hawaii's disaster zone on the western side of the island of Maui, there's one vital lifeline to the outside world: volunteer effort.
Standing at the wheel of the Ocean Spirit, a boat operated by marine conservation charity the Pacific Whale Foundation, is Captain Emily Johnston.
From day one, along with her crew of volunteers, she's been making multiple daily trips, taking supplies of food, water, fuel and clothing to the devastated town of Lahaina and the surrounding communities left without power or phone coverage.
"These islands they go through hurricanes, tsunamis, fires, everything and we're often having to be very self-reliant because we are isolated," Emily tells me.
"But that said, we're all wondering why there was no help sent from Oahu? Pearl Harbour is a twenty-minute flight away."
"Why are the limited resources of the police on this island left alone, where's the support for them? Why are we taking supplies on a boat instead of a helicopter?"
An hour into the journey, the devastation along the Maui shoreline comes into view. First the scorched grass and palm trees, then the charred remains of the Lahaina itself and the remnants of the shattered lives and livelihoods.
The boat beaches a few miles north of the town and a waiting team of local residents is there to meet it.
Maui resident Sergio Martinez is among those who have been helping to provide aid to fire victims
Many of those helping, like 36-year-old Sergio Martinez, have also been affected by the fire.
"I was fighting for my life with my four-year-old boy in my hands in the water for eight hours," he tells me.
"There was a point in my head when I was thinking that's it, you know, but my boy kept me going to survive."
Sergio is still struggling, like so many others, to process what he saw that night. He has the same question as Emily.
"Where is the help?" he asks. "We are waiting for it and we need it really bad."
Driving through the disaster zone with one of the volunteer relief workers, we see, for the first time, uniformed soldiers helping to man some of the checkpoints. This is a sign perhaps that national assistance is now beginning to arrive.
Either way, the volunteers are certain their relief service will be needed for some time.
"With the communications down for so many days we haven't been able to coordinate all the supplies that they need," says Kristie Wrigglesworth, executive director of the Pacific Whale Foundation.
"When we do it by word of mouth it's very slow and disorganised. We need communication to coordinate better."
Krisite is calling on those who know people in need to get in touch with her organisation to pass on requests for urgent supplies.
Many of the volunteers have deep roots on Maui and know those suffering personally.
"This community is family," Kristie says.
"The Hawaiian culture has Ohana - which means family - and Aloha. That was what Lahaina was built on."
Map showing where the fires on Maui have been over the past 7 days and which have been burning in the last 24 hours
John Sudworth in Maui - BBC News
Sun, August 13, 2023
For those still living inside Hawaii's disaster zone on the western side of the island of Maui, there's one vital lifeline to the outside world: volunteer effort.
Standing at the wheel of the Ocean Spirit, a boat operated by marine conservation charity the Pacific Whale Foundation, is Captain Emily Johnston.
From day one, along with her crew of volunteers, she's been making multiple daily trips, taking supplies of food, water, fuel and clothing to the devastated town of Lahaina and the surrounding communities left without power or phone coverage.
"These islands they go through hurricanes, tsunamis, fires, everything and we're often having to be very self-reliant because we are isolated," Emily tells me.
"But that said, we're all wondering why there was no help sent from Oahu? Pearl Harbour is a twenty-minute flight away."
"Why are the limited resources of the police on this island left alone, where's the support for them? Why are we taking supplies on a boat instead of a helicopter?"
An hour into the journey, the devastation along the Maui shoreline comes into view. First the scorched grass and palm trees, then the charred remains of the Lahaina itself and the remnants of the shattered lives and livelihoods.
The boat beaches a few miles north of the town and a waiting team of local residents is there to meet it.
Maui resident Sergio Martinez is among those who have been helping to provide aid to fire victims
Many of those helping, like 36-year-old Sergio Martinez, have also been affected by the fire.
"I was fighting for my life with my four-year-old boy in my hands in the water for eight hours," he tells me.
"There was a point in my head when I was thinking that's it, you know, but my boy kept me going to survive."
Sergio is still struggling, like so many others, to process what he saw that night. He has the same question as Emily.
"Where is the help?" he asks. "We are waiting for it and we need it really bad."
Driving through the disaster zone with one of the volunteer relief workers, we see, for the first time, uniformed soldiers helping to man some of the checkpoints. This is a sign perhaps that national assistance is now beginning to arrive.
Either way, the volunteers are certain their relief service will be needed for some time.
"With the communications down for so many days we haven't been able to coordinate all the supplies that they need," says Kristie Wrigglesworth, executive director of the Pacific Whale Foundation.
"When we do it by word of mouth it's very slow and disorganised. We need communication to coordinate better."
Krisite is calling on those who know people in need to get in touch with her organisation to pass on requests for urgent supplies.
Many of the volunteers have deep roots on Maui and know those suffering personally.
"This community is family," Kristie says.
"The Hawaiian culture has Ohana - which means family - and Aloha. That was what Lahaina was built on."
Map showing where the fires on Maui have been over the past 7 days and which have been burning in the last 24 hours
Maui fire survivors describe nighttime looting and rerouted supply drops as local leadership botches emergency response
Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert,Charles R. Davis
Sun, August 13, 2023
At least 36 people died and 11,000 tourists fled Maui as Hurricane Dora winds fanned flames across the island.
The fires began burning early August 8, scorching thousands of acres and putting homes, businesses and 35,000 lives at risk on Maui, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said in a statement.PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
The emergency response to the fires that have left at least 93 dead is being botched, locals say.
Displaced residents told Insider they are increasingly desperate for first aid, food, and water.
Locals describe rerouted supply drops, looting, and near riot-level confrontations with police.
Maui residents are becoming increasingly desperate for local leadership to take control of the emergency response to the catastrophic fires that leveled parts of the Hawaiian island and left at least 93 dead.
While rescue crews make their way across the island with water, food, and first aid, locals told Insider supply drops are being rerouted and anguished residents are taking matters into their own hands.
"There's some police presence. There's some small military presence, but at night people are being robbed at gunpoint," Matt Robb, co-owner of a Lāhainā bar called The Dirty Monkey, told Insider. "People are raped and pillaged. I mean, they're going through houses — and then by day it's hunky dory. So where is the support? I don't think our government and our leaders, at this point, know how to handle this or what to do."
The Honolulu Star Register reported a near riot broke out between police and about 100 residents after officers closed off access to a highway leading to Lāhainā, one of the most impacted areas on the island, preventing people from returning home to gather items that could be salvaged.
Members of the staff of The Dirty Monkey said they have been coordinating with local authorities and community members, organizing and trying to direct supply drops and shipments of essential medications like insulin to families in need.
Brook Cretton (L) holds a stack of dishes that he salvaged from the rubble of a home that was destroyed by wildfire on August 12, 2023 in Kula, Hawaii.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
But, as a small crew with no formal training in handling emergency response, Robb and co-owner Alen Aivazian said they're left feeling like they've been abandoned by local leadership, who they say have not communicated effectively with community members about what's going on or how the response is being handled.
"It's just been really interesting to see how, when you have a full truck of a pallet of water or feminine products or whatever, and you're trying to help people — that you're being turned away," Robb said. "And I think there's a better way to organize that to be done, I just don't think it's been done the correct way. I think it comes down to the lack of leadership and the lack of knowledge of how to handle this."
Representatives for the Maui Police Department and the office of Mayor Richard Bissen did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.
Aivazian and Robb told Insider they believe the mayor, who has offered limited public comments regarding the tragedy, has floundered in response to the emergency.
"I think it's the mayor's fault," Aivazian told Insider. "If he would've asked, they had Marines, Coast Guards sitting there waiting, ready to go, and he didn't send them over. Why wouldn't the feds send them over? The mayor didn't ask and the governor didn't push. I mean, what the hell are they doing over there? They're just hanging out at the beach."
Robb added that "a lot of blood was shed because of the way the streets were closed by the police department."
Volunteers sort out donations for those affected by a wildfire, at a parking lot in Lahaina, western Maui, Hawaii on August 12, 2023.YUKI IWAMURA/AFP via Getty Images
Kami Irwin, a Maui resident helping to coordinate relief efforts at the Maui Brewing Company location in Kihei, told Insider that locals are working around the clock, forgoing sleep and creating neighborhood patrols to help keep each other safe and find essentials like clean drinking water and medications.
"I had to deal with a situation that wasn't even part of who I am or what I do," Irwin said. "I had to talk to pilots that got grounded with our medical supplies who were stuck on the Big Island because the Department of Health stopped them from transporting insulin. And we have people all over the island that need insulin."
She said residents chose to take matters into their own hands after realizing they were repeatedly seeing the same local volunteers, not government officials, coordinating aid efforts.
"We literally have no idea because we are not hearing answers from anybody," Irwin told Insider. "We are still left without knowing what to do. And we just got word that they stopped all air and ground transportation to drop more supplies to the west side of Lāhainā today."
While Irwin said she is heartened by the way Maui residents are stepping up to take care of each other, she said she can't put into words how devastating the fires have been, which she said has been worsened by the "lack of leadership" being displayed by local government officials.
"I haven't even had time to watch the news, but people are telling me on the mainland that, from the videos that I'm sharing, that it is way worse than what the news is even sharing," Irwin said. "We have so many people that are missing and unaccounted for. It's an actual horrific nightmare that you just cannot wake up from. It's beyond words."
Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert,Charles R. Davis
Sun, August 13, 2023
At least 36 people died and 11,000 tourists fled Maui as Hurricane Dora winds fanned flames across the island.
The fires began burning early August 8, scorching thousands of acres and putting homes, businesses and 35,000 lives at risk on Maui, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said in a statement.PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
The emergency response to the fires that have left at least 93 dead is being botched, locals say.
Displaced residents told Insider they are increasingly desperate for first aid, food, and water.
Locals describe rerouted supply drops, looting, and near riot-level confrontations with police.
Maui residents are becoming increasingly desperate for local leadership to take control of the emergency response to the catastrophic fires that leveled parts of the Hawaiian island and left at least 93 dead.
While rescue crews make their way across the island with water, food, and first aid, locals told Insider supply drops are being rerouted and anguished residents are taking matters into their own hands.
"There's some police presence. There's some small military presence, but at night people are being robbed at gunpoint," Matt Robb, co-owner of a Lāhainā bar called The Dirty Monkey, told Insider. "People are raped and pillaged. I mean, they're going through houses — and then by day it's hunky dory. So where is the support? I don't think our government and our leaders, at this point, know how to handle this or what to do."
The Honolulu Star Register reported a near riot broke out between police and about 100 residents after officers closed off access to a highway leading to Lāhainā, one of the most impacted areas on the island, preventing people from returning home to gather items that could be salvaged.
Members of the staff of The Dirty Monkey said they have been coordinating with local authorities and community members, organizing and trying to direct supply drops and shipments of essential medications like insulin to families in need.
Brook Cretton (L) holds a stack of dishes that he salvaged from the rubble of a home that was destroyed by wildfire on August 12, 2023 in Kula, Hawaii.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
But, as a small crew with no formal training in handling emergency response, Robb and co-owner Alen Aivazian said they're left feeling like they've been abandoned by local leadership, who they say have not communicated effectively with community members about what's going on or how the response is being handled.
"It's just been really interesting to see how, when you have a full truck of a pallet of water or feminine products or whatever, and you're trying to help people — that you're being turned away," Robb said. "And I think there's a better way to organize that to be done, I just don't think it's been done the correct way. I think it comes down to the lack of leadership and the lack of knowledge of how to handle this."
Representatives for the Maui Police Department and the office of Mayor Richard Bissen did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.
Aivazian and Robb told Insider they believe the mayor, who has offered limited public comments regarding the tragedy, has floundered in response to the emergency.
"I think it's the mayor's fault," Aivazian told Insider. "If he would've asked, they had Marines, Coast Guards sitting there waiting, ready to go, and he didn't send them over. Why wouldn't the feds send them over? The mayor didn't ask and the governor didn't push. I mean, what the hell are they doing over there? They're just hanging out at the beach."
Robb added that "a lot of blood was shed because of the way the streets were closed by the police department."
Volunteers sort out donations for those affected by a wildfire, at a parking lot in Lahaina, western Maui, Hawaii on August 12, 2023.YUKI IWAMURA/AFP via Getty Images
Kami Irwin, a Maui resident helping to coordinate relief efforts at the Maui Brewing Company location in Kihei, told Insider that locals are working around the clock, forgoing sleep and creating neighborhood patrols to help keep each other safe and find essentials like clean drinking water and medications.
"I had to deal with a situation that wasn't even part of who I am or what I do," Irwin said. "I had to talk to pilots that got grounded with our medical supplies who were stuck on the Big Island because the Department of Health stopped them from transporting insulin. And we have people all over the island that need insulin."
She said residents chose to take matters into their own hands after realizing they were repeatedly seeing the same local volunteers, not government officials, coordinating aid efforts.
"We literally have no idea because we are not hearing answers from anybody," Irwin told Insider. "We are still left without knowing what to do. And we just got word that they stopped all air and ground transportation to drop more supplies to the west side of Lāhainā today."
While Irwin said she is heartened by the way Maui residents are stepping up to take care of each other, she said she can't put into words how devastating the fires have been, which she said has been worsened by the "lack of leadership" being displayed by local government officials.
"I haven't even had time to watch the news, but people are telling me on the mainland that, from the videos that I'm sharing, that it is way worse than what the news is even sharing," Irwin said. "We have so many people that are missing and unaccounted for. It's an actual horrific nightmare that you just cannot wake up from. It's beyond words."
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