Over 3,000 homes could need to be replaced on Maui

LAHAINA, Hawaii — The swift and deadly blaze that burned down close to all of Lahaina overnight Tuesday into Wednesday displaced a community with a 2020 population of about 12,000 and may have destroyed around 3,000 or more homes.

It likely will be many months — in some cases years — for residents whose homes were destroyed to rebuild and repopulate the devastated area.

Many of those displaced have found temporary living arrangements that include emergency shelters and staying with friends or family, though longer-term interim accommodations are needed.

To that end, Gov. Josh Green, who walked among the charred ruins of the seaside town Thursday, issued a public “call to action” during an afternoon news conference streamed on his Facebook page asking hotel operators and homeowners, even on other islands, for help initially providing 2,000 rooms for people from Maui displaced by fire.

“If you have additional space in your home, if you have the capacity to take someone in from West Maui, please do,” he said. “We’ll find a way to connect you.”

[Lahaina residents got little warning before wildfire swept in. At least 55 people are dead.]

Green said a program will be set up to provide public funding to hotels and homeowners who help.

Maui Economic Opportunity, a nonprofit organization, also creating a list of available homes and rooms to help rehouse those in need.

The governor and Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen were sober about how long it will take for residents, and destroyed businesses in Lahaina, to return to the area that once was the capital of the Hawaiian kingdom. But both vowed, “We will rebuild.”

While the spirit in the community for rebuilding is strong, the physical feat is expected to be challenged by issues that include time needed to repair infrastructure followed by the availability of enough materials, labor and even housing for laborers in extreme demand.

[Lahaina confronts unbearable reality as hometown refugees band together]

Robert J. Fenton Jr., a regional Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator who also participated in Thursday’s news conference on Maui, said it can take months to a year to just clear the debris from such disasters.

Green added that it could be weeks or months to restore electricity given the widespread loss of utility poles.

“It is going to take many years to rebuild Lahaina,” he said, also estimating the cost in the billions of dollars.

Some other factors affecting residents and business owners in their efforts to rebuild will be the insurance claims process, permitting and federal financial aid.

People with losses could start to receive financial assistance as early as next week, Fenton said.

State Farm Insurance reported on Thursday receiving an initial 213 home loss claims on Maui, and the number is expected to climb for State Farm and other carriers as more customers are allowed back into Lahaina to confirm whether their homes were destroyed or damaged.

Green estimated for CNN Thursday morning that 80% of Lahaina was gone. Bissen’s estimate later in the day was higher, saying, “It’s all gone.”

The most recent U.S. Census estimate for housing units in Lahaina was 4,049 in 2010.

Darryl Oliveira, a former Hawaii County Civil Defense administrator and fire chief who now heads risk management for Hilo-based construction and home building firm HPM Building Supply, said the magnitude of property destruction from the Maui fires appears closer to the aftermath of Hurricane Iniki on Kauai in 1992 and easily far greater than Kilauea’s lower east rift zone eruption on Hawaii island in 2018.

About 4,000 homes on Kauai were destroyed or sustained major damage by Iniki, according to FEMA.

The eruption in Puna five years ago claimed 612 residences, though the slow- moving destruction lasted close to four months. As a result, the Red Cross operated shelters for as many as 500 lava evacuees over 138 days, making it the longest-running disaster shelter operation in Hawaii history.

In both of these disasters, the county, state, federal government and private industry helped support rebuilding and repairing homes, though recovery was gradual and partial. Today, not everything that was lost in either disaster has been replaced, moreso on Hawaii island where some vast areas were covered by lava dozens of feet deep.

One thing Kauai County did after Iniki was to make it easier to rebuild by waiving permitting fees, expediting permits and allowing wrecked homes that didn’t conform with one or more regulations to be rebuilt as they were before.

These special regulations that became known as the “Iniki Ordinances” facilitated rebuilding hurricane- damaged property.

According to Kauai County, the permit processing procedure returned to normal about three years after the disaster, though some of the special ordinances were kept in place for over two decades because some property owners had longtime challenges with rebuilding.

Lyle Tabata, a former Kauai County public works administrator who now runs construction firm B&T Contractors LLC, said doing something similar for Lahaina would be a big help.

“This will be instrumental in the rebuilding process to get through delays of the planning and building permit process,” he said in an email.

Oliveira also mentioned the Iniki Ordinances as something to do on Maui, and said HPM, which has four stores and lumberyards on Maui, is assessing how it can shift more resources to the island.

“In the construction industry, everyone including HPM is going to be lending support for a recovery,” he said.

Bissen said better assessments of the scope of property damage will need time to be made because first responders are still focused on protecting lives, recovering remains of those who perished and extinguishing fires.

The next phase will be rebuilding. “We know that’s going to be a long process,” he said.

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Star-Advertiser staff writer Christie Wilson contributed to this report.