Gov. Josh Green said Friday that most of West Maui will fully open Oct. 8 — exactly two months after a firestorm decimated the heart of Lahaina and killed at least 115 people.
The announcement of the opening of all but the hardest-hit center of Lahaina town came with the governor’s authorization of $100 million in aid that could translate into $3,000 to $4,000 for affected families and $25 million to help businesses survive with grants of $10,000 to $20,000.
Having addressed the state exactly a month after the devastating fire, the governor said Friday he plans to address the United Nations on Sept. 17 when he will connect the Lahaina wildfire to other climate-related disasters around the globe. He likely will challenge governments to invest now or face a similar fate already playing out in Lahaina, Greece and across America.
He challenged governments to wake up to the threat of climate change and suggested that decades of neglect in Hawaii likely contributed to the Aug. 8 devastation that killed 115 people in the worst U.S. wildfire in over a century.
“Smart legislatures and governments will make good investments in fire mitigation,” Green told reporters Friday after delivering a 15-minute speech intended to provide an update of the fire. “Dumb ones will turn their backs.”
Just as 911 led to trillions of dollars spent on global security, Green said he expects that disasters like the one in Lahaina will produce widespread spending on efforts to mitigate future climate- related destruction.
“The fire in Lahaina has shown that we’re not coming to a time of climate crisis,” he said. “It’s happening right now. We’re in the moment.”
Asked who should apologize for the Lahaina fire, Green said, “The world has to apologize for what the world has become.”
The aid the governor pledged will be largely directed toward dislocated survivors.
Since Aug. 16 the American Red Cross, Hawaii Emergency Management Agency and Federal Emergency Management Agency have relocated over 7,500 survivors to 29 hotels “and hundreds” of Airbnbs, Green said.
“However, hotels can’t be our long-term solution to housing in West Maui,” he said. “We have entered into an agreement with the Red Cross to house our people for a minimum of 36 weeks (through May). We are also pursuing relationships with large numbers of homeowners who have historically used their properties as short-term rentals to convert them into longer-term rentals to accommodate displaced residents.”
“For those who would like to provide housing, I have worked with the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation to launch the Hawai‘i Fire Relief Housing Program, which identifies available units to those devastated by the Maui Wildfire tragedy,” he said.
To get involved, contact HHFDC at hhfdcfirereliefhousing@hawaii.gov. A list of available rentals on Maui and all across Hawaii can be found at dbedt.hawaii.gov/hhfdc/hawaii-fire-relief- housing-program.
Green plans to meet with FEMA today to discuss a potential new phase of transitional housing for evacuees who are spread out in hotels and Airbnbs.
He emphasized that the new housing would be aimed at 500 to 1,500 units to be located somewhere on Maui — “if the community would have them” — and are unrelated to whatever the people of Lahaina want for future, permanent housing.
“I would like to build those sooner rather than later because after 18 months it’s not totally clear that we’ll have ongoing resources for people.”
Separate, tiny-home kauhale also are planned for as many as 165 people who were homeless before the fire and do not qualify for relief benefits.
Reopening
Two months after the fire, on Oct. 8, Green plans to open up all of West Maui — except for the primary area destroyed in Lahaina.
“West Maui will be open to visitors again, so people from Hawaii and around the world can resume travel to this special place and help it begin to recover economically,” he said. “This difficult decision is meant to bring hope for recovery to the families and businesses on Maui that have been so deeply affected in every way by the disaster.”
Then he expects the annual Maui Invitational college basketball tournament to be held as usual during Thanksgiving, and plans to use it as an opportunity to continue to ask for help for Maui and Lahaina.
Once the removal of toxic materials begins, residents and businesses will be scheduled — “in the coming weeks” and under supervision — to view what remains of their properties.
“The ash, we are told, is quite toxic, so we need to be careful,” Green said.
The longer-term toxic cleanup will take as long as a year at a proposed cost of over $1 billion to complete.
“We have engaged 25 cultural practitioners to help guide this effort and ensure that Hawaiian traditions are respected during this process, and we will make every effort to use local workers and local companies to complete this work,” Green said.
In between, financial relief will come in several forms, Green said.
Some $100 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families could translate into $3,000 to $4,000 per family. The $25 million available to small businesses of up 50 employees makes them eligible for $10,000, and $20,000 for larger businesses, with the goal of preventing bankruptcies, Green said.
Green again encouraged donors, “To help support the people of Maui, I remind everyone to please give to the American Red Cross or the Hawaii Community Foundation’s Maui Strong Fund, both of which will make sure the resources get to those in need.”
Compensation
In two to three weeks, Green hopes to announce details of a new compensation fund modeled after the U.S. government’s Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund.
Attorney Kenneth Feinberg, who serves as special master of the U.S. government’s Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund, has been consulting with Green’s office pro bono.
Green insisted that anyone can still file a lawsuit over their losses. But he said that a special fund could allow survivors who lost loved ones to receive compensation much faster while avoiding attorney fees.
Some survivors, Green said, might “want to move forward” without years spent in litigation. “We owe it to them to (get them) the most robust settlement we can.”
He also hopes Hawaii attorneys work pro bono or at reduced rates to help survivors instead of “dozens” of attorneys from outside the islands who are not licensed to practice law in Hawaii, including some who arrived the day of the fire and began soliciting clients.
“As we recover, we will be faced by many extraordinary challenges, including finding ways to deliver support to survivors who have lost loved ones and homes, while protecting our people from predatory business practices,” Green said. “However, others have descended on Maui seeking an opportunity to profit. … This kind of opportunism and profiteering on the suffering of our people is not pono, so I am taking action to prevent it.”
Attorney General Anne Lopez said that her office receives complaints every day about non-Hawaii attorneys soliciting for clients.
She declined to describe the nature or number of unsolicited offers to buy survivors’ properties, which is illegal in Hawaii during a disaster.
“I want to emphasize again,” Green said, “the land in Lahaina is reserved for its people as they return and rebuild, and I instructed the attorney general to impose enhanced criminal penalties, including up to a year in prison, on anyone who tries to take advantage of survivors by the unsolicited acquiring of property in affected areas of Maui.”
Lopez also said that the investigation of the fire’s origin and response will include interviews with county and state officials beginning next week.
“So far,” she said, “no one has lawyered up.”
Green said Hawaii’s response to the Lahaina fire will drive much of the upcoming legislative session, and state lawmakers agree.
House Speaker Scott Saiki has created six House working groups looking at various aspects of the fire that Saiki expects will lead to legislation as the session begins. The groups will focus on wildfire prevention; cleaning up ground and ocean contamination; food, water and other supplies distributed to fire evacuees; jobs and business; strategies to educate Maui schoolchildren; and temporary and transitional shelter for evacuees.
Green also expects congressional hearings to be held over the fire, including testimony from the state Energy Office and state Public Utilities Commission.
