Tokuda, Schatz work to fill gaps in Maui fire aid

KIHEI >> U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda and U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz worked on Saturday to fill gaps in federal, state and county assistance for victims of the Aug. 8 Lahaina fire, some of whom showed up hours early for a one-day resource fair hastily organized to assist survivors still in search of information on replacing passports, Social Security cards and other personal documents.

Tokuda had planned to hold a Congressional town hall meeting at the Maui Economic Development Board complex but pivoted to connect various governmental agencies with fire victims. As a sign of the need for help, the first participants began showing up at 6 a.m. for the 1 p.m. event — the line continuing to grow throughout the day.

“We didn’t know what to expect,” said Tokuda, who represents the neighbor islands and rural Oahu.

Several of the evacuees who turned out already had applied for assistance with the Federal Emergency Management Agency but remained in limbo without word on the status of their applications. Some clearly remained traumatized by what they’ve gone through since high winds, dry vegetation and low humidity combined to create the worst wildfire in the country in over a century.

The steady breeze that blew throughout the event at one point grew so strong that survivors told Tokuda they were reliving the trauma of the wind-whipped fire.

Schatz on Saturday released a “resources guide” available at schatz.senate.gov/fires.

“There’s some confusion out there about what FEMA is and isn’t doing,” Schatz told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “It’s a team effort and everybody needs to spread the message. It’s the most robust federal response that Hawaii’s ever seen but that’s appropriate because this is the worst natural disaster that Hawaii’s ever seen.”

The death toll from the inferno remained at 114 on Saturday, with only 10 victims officially identified. The death toll is expected to grow, to include some children who were home from school because of an ongoing power outage that began Aug. 7.

Estimates of the missing remain around 1,000 people, Adam Weintraub, spokesperson Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said last week, acknowledging there’s no “reliable, comprehensive list.”

An unofficial, crowdsourced Google Doc lists 5,217 people as “found,” 882 “not located” and 20 “deceased”; however, there are challenges to verifying such information, including duplication and some entries that include more than one person.

About 85% of the fire zone had been searched as of Saturday, and no new information on search efforts was shared Saturday.

Nearly two weeks after the remnants of Hurricane Dora whipped up the unprecedented blaze, concerns grow that the remnants of former tropical cyclone Fernanda will pass south of Hawaii through Monday night and bring heavy rainfall to windward areas of the Big island and Maui — further hampering search efforts while degrading the remains of victims that have yet to be discovered and retrieved.

The Family Assistance Center, where DNA samples are being collected, has moved to the Hyatt Regency at 200 Nohea Kai Drive in Kaanapali, operating from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

Some applicants at the resource fair and at the “FEMA-State Disaster Recovery Center” at the University of Hawaii-Maui on Saturday were retelling their harrowing stories of escaping the inferno and of their losses.

“You want to look up and think this was all a dream,” Angela Espinoza. 70, told the Star-Advertiser after applying for FEMA aid. Her husband, Jerry Eisenberg, 70, was being counseled on what assistance might be available to him as a self-employed wood worker.

They lost both Eisenberg’s shop and their three-bedroom, one-bath, 75-year-old home they owned on Luakini Street.

Darrell Habisch, a FEMA spokesperson at UH-Maui, said 35 “individual assistance specialists” have come to Maui from all over the country and have helped more than 200 survivors apply for benefits each day.

“Everybody grieves differently and this is a grieving process,” said Habisch, a FEMA reservist from Minnesota.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said that $7 million has been distributed directly to fire victims through one-time payments of $700 each.

Mokihana Gushi, 50, said that her mother, June Shipe, 79, has been approved for the payment.

Shipe’s single-family, three-bed, two-bath house on Komo Mai Street burned down. The winds were so strong as the fire broke out that “they almost lifted me up,” Shipe said while finishing her lunch outside the resource fair in Kihei with her daughter and grandchildren.

She was lucky because her daughter had the wherewithal to pack up necessary documents when an earlier fire mauka near Lahainaluna High School attracted earlier attention.

Levis Sanchez, 37, fled with his passport and driver’s license but his girlfriend, Mary Contla, 34, the mother of their two boys — ages 7 and 3 — lost her passport as their two-bedroom, one-bath apartment burned on Front Street.

Both are Mexican immigrants who worked at the same restaurant, Lahaina Fish Co., that burned, leaving them without a home or incomes.

“Right now I’m down,” Sanchez said outside Tokuda’s fair as Contla applied for a new passport. “That’s why we came over.”

He applied for FEMA benefits in the early days of the fire at the Maui War Memorial but, Sanchez said, “I’m still waiting.”

The “Disaster Area” remains off limits and continues to smolder — the water and air contaminated, Maui County officials said Saturday.

Hawaiian Telcom announced that it has restored service to more than 1,500 customers in West Maui, including the Maui Police Department, banks and hotels.

A total of 11,000 customer “communication services” have been restored in Napili, Kaanapali, Kapalua and Makawao, Hawaiian Telcom said. Phone service has been restored in Kula, also hit with wildfires on Aug. 8, and crews continue to work on restoring internet service there.

The Maui Humane Society continues to search the perimeter of Lahaina for stray animals, especially cats, and Maui County announced Saturday that any stray animals should be reported to the Maui County Emergency Operations Center, which will alert the Humane Society.

“Surviving pets and animals from the burn site may have burns, physical injuries, and exposure to hazardous materials and may have inhaled, absorbed through injured skin, or ingested ash and hazardous substances, such as asbestos or hazardous chemicals,” the county said. “If you encounter a stray animal impacted by one of the fires, it should first be stabilized if severely dehydrated, unable to walk, in shock, or appears otherwise severely ill. Once stabilized, pets and animals should be decontaminated by responders, including bathing with water and a mild shampoo until all visible ash is removed. After decontamination, some pets may need to be hospitalized, but most will be able to be returned to the owner or to an emergency pet shelter.

Maui Humane Society has provided shelter and emergency care to 88 animals that survived the fires and has cleared its 300-space kennels for more by fostering the pre-fire animals it held.

Criswell told reporters during a conference call Saturday that FEMA plans to keep all 1,000 of its workers on Maui and in Honolulu despite the threat of Hurricane Hilary to states that are in the same western region as Hawaii.

FEMA support for potential wind and rain damage to states such as California, Nevada and Arizona would come from other FEMA regions, she said. Criswell had no specifics on Monday’s visit to Lahaina by President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, such as whether they will fly over the damage or tour it from the ground. The White House previously announced that Biden will meet with survivors and first responders.