I wrote last week about how Lahaina and Maui residents have to be at the forefront when the times comes to rebuild the city.
I’m happy to see a community group has been formed to make sure that happens, and I’m also happy to see that the governor of Hawai’i and U.S. President Joe Biden (VERY late to the game, by the way) agree.
The Maui News reports that a group called Na Ohana o Lele is calling on Governor Josh Green to ensure that “all decisions about rebuilding Lahaina” are made in the open and with the “full participation” of the Lahaina community.
{The governor should ensure that all decisions about the rebuilding of Lahaina are made in the open and with the full participation of our Lahaina community,” said Tiare Lawrence, who grew up on West Maui and went to high school in Lahaina. “We need time to gather all of us together to engage in important conversations that will be needed.”
“We will rebuild Lahaina, it will take years of work and billions of dollars. But we are committed to this effort and together we will meet this challenge,” the governor said following the community event. “Let me be clear, Lahaina belongs to its people, and we are committed to rebuilding and restoring it the way they want it. The land in Lahaina is reserved for its people as they return and rebuild. And I have instructed the attorney general to impose enhanced criminal penalties on anyone that tries to take advantage of the victims by acquiring property in the affected areas.”
BIDEN VISITS MAUI – ABOUT TIME
Biden finally visited Maui on Monday (a good eight to ten days too late if you ask me) and said all the right things.
Reuters reports that Biden promised to work together with local residents to rebuild the city.
He also said he’ll make sure “your voices are heard” and that local traditions and wishes will be respected.
“I will do everything in my power to help Maui recover and rebuild from this tragedy,” Biden said in a weekend statement. “And throughout our efforts, we are focused on respecting sacred lands, cultures, and traditions.”
“For as long as it takes, we’re going to be with you,” Biden said on Monday.
Nice words, but that’s all they are.
Every government says this after a tragedy, but how often do they stick to their word? How do you even know where to start? And whose culture and traditions are honoured?
A city like Lahaina, any city for that matter, is made up of an immense variety of people, many with different or conflicting ideals. The owners of the historic Pioneer Inn hotel might want to make it a bigger, more modern property. But historians will likely want it remade to look like it was, assuming it gets rebuilt at all.
What about the old Baldwin house, the long-time home of one of Maui’s first missionary families? It was a lovely property in a pretty park setting on Front Street, but to some it might have been seen an offensive symbol of European/white control.
No doubt whatever replaces it will be criticized in some quarters.
Lahaina and Front Street before the fire. PHOTO COURTESY HAWAII TOURISM AUTHORITY
If you haven’t already, PLEASE donate to the charity of your choice. I like the Maui Food Bank and also the Hawai’i Community Foundation.
I worry about Front Street, as well. The reason it was so charming was because of its worn, weathered and mostly wooden storefronts. Can you make it look like that again? Do locals want it to? I would guess the answer is yes, but I don’t know. And I don’t know that it’s a good idea to build wooden shops in an area where it’s so dry.
(On a separate note, I keep seeing headlines that question how a wildfire of this magnitude could occur in a “lush” landscape. Much of Maui is quite lush and damp, and likely not prone to fires. But not Lahaina. If you drive to the city from the airport you pass dry lava rock fields studded with bone-dry kiawe trees and cactus. Lahaina might have been lush in the days of sugar cane growing, but it’s been dry and hot – Lahaina means “merciless sun” in Hawaiian – for all the 55 years I’ve been going. On the other hand, I’ve been reading stories about streams that used to exist in West Maui that were diverted for the growing of sugar cane. This area probably was somewhat lush 100 years ago.)
Maybe new buildings will have concrete or steel skeletons and false wood fronts of some kind. That would seemingly be the best, but I’m not an engineer or architect, and I’m certainly not a fire safety expert.
The Los Angeles Times has a very good story on this subject. The Times story suggests solar panels, more local plants, and more fire-proofing, as well as open-air markets and other improvements.
REBUILDING LAHAINA: IT’S COMPLICATED
I’m also wondering how long it will take to rebuild. The damage is so horrific, and there must be tons of chemicals in the soil that have to be cleaned up. And where do they take the burned out cars?
“The daunting (cleanup) process can take years even in mainland settings where logistics are far less complicated and systems are already in place to manage large-scale disasters,” The Guardian newspaper in the UK noted recently.
When you have limited resources on one of the most isolated island chains in the world, it’s that much harder.
Front Street in Lahaina before the fire. JIM BYERS PHOTO
“It will be a very challenging phase for an island and they will have to figure out where they can transport all this toxic material,” said Brian Ferguson, a deputy director for the California governor’s office of emergency services, which manages “the complicated layers of recovery that follow catastrophic wildfire.”
The other Hawaiian islands certainly don’t want Lahaina’s ash and debris, and I can’t think of a place to put it on Maui. Which means it has to go onto a barge and be sent somewhere else.
Poor Nevada seems to take a lot of California’s wildfire debris, The Guardian noted.
But who knows?
Of course, all of this pales in comparison to losing a loved one. The latest death toll stands at 114, but they haven’t searched all of the city. And there are reports that 1,000 people are still missing nearly two weeks after the fire. I fear many will never be found, which is another layer of personal hell for survivors.
There are also are many people without a job, including hundreds no doubt thousands of folks who work at hotels and restaurants in West Maui, which is still closed to tourists. How does the young woman who served us lunch at the Napili Kai Beach Resort earlier this year make ends meet if she can’t work? What about the people who clean rooms at the condos in Kahana? Or the guy manning the desk at the rental car shop in Ka’anapali?
I have many questions. But I don’t have any answers. And I don’t know if anyone else does.
It’s a terrible, terrible feeling. And such a senseless loss.
