The staggering consequences of the fiery August destruction of Lahaina continue to shape the future of Hawaii.

There is more tragedy and destruction than any county, state or federal officials could imagine.

Only now, the money needed for leases, rents and emergency grants to shelter the thousands of homeless Maui residents is becoming a clear, if grim, picture.

The total is moving costs from the millions to a billion or more state dollars.

As the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Wednesday: “Gov. Josh Green’s administration had budgeted $199 million for … expenses but are now expecting they may need $561 million (more) under a “worst-case” scenario.

First, the scope of the blaze could not have been anticipated, but is still one that has to be tallied and paid.

Of course, the federal government and insurance programs linked to the major institutions suffering the most damage are in the accounting.

Luis Salaveria, director of the state Department of Budget and Finance, told the state Legislature in testimony last week that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will not pay for temporary hotel accommodations for 820 fire survivors who didn’t qualify for federal help, so the state is expected to pay. Also the county government of Maui wants the state to pay $402 million in repairs to roads, water works and sewers, the so-called infrastructure destroyed in the blaze.

The Star-Advertiser report noted that it is not certain that “actual expenses will get as big as feared, because the state is challenging the vast majority of FEMA eligibility determinations.”

The money will be needed to build “3,000 new temporary homes for fire survivors and alleviate hotel sheltering that costs $1,000 a day per household, including food and services.”

The problem is that no one has ever said that the one thing Hawaii is really good at is quickly building first-rate new housing.

Now, as the Legislature starts to sort through the rental and lease bills accumulating to shelter the thousands of displaced Maui residents, the same Hawaii criticisms of too many regulations, unsympathetic bureaucrats and not enough public money come to the forefront.

The Senate Ways and Means chairman, Donovan Dela Cruz, estimated last week that with the federal money, the state is spending $1 million a day housing fire victims.

Already the reaction from legislators has been to search for ways to cut the state budget.

Under consideration is a 15% cut to the rest of the state’s budget. That sort of a reduction would sweep away all thinking about new school programs, additional social service support and increase to local welfare grants.

Meanwhile for survivors, their daily lives are filled with problems. The government-subsidized hotel provides a roof over their heads, but if they are in a hotel, they can’t cook in their rooms and in some, there are no refrigerators or they are just plain tiny.

What is needed is the leadership of state and county leaders, working with construction and labor leaders, to say this is not the time to talk labor rights, profits and attracting investors; it is time to honestly help the survivors.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.