Soon reopening of tourism spurs concerns in Lahaina
Community members say many still dealing with trauma of fire
KAANAPALI — As the state and Maui County work to reopen West Maui to visitors on Oct. 8, Lahaina residents pushed back Wednesday, saying people are still going through trauma after the fire that destroyed the town.
“The opening (of tourism), it’s going to be tough … but you know what? It’s going to be tougher for everybody cause maybe some of us are dealing with it and deal with it better, but there is a lot that I’ve seen that are freaking out in our community and still can’t handle it and still can’t deal with what happened to our town,” Mike Whitehead, a 1984 graduate of Lahainaluna High School, told a Maui County Council committee Wednesday at The Westin Maui Resort and Spa in Kaanapali.
“Should we open? I don’t think so,” Whitehead said as the audience shouted “no.”
Testifier Naiwi Teruya said that “we are not ready for the tourists to come back right now. (Gov.) Josh Green, that’s a bad call. He’s a medical doctor actually, he’s not a psychologist.”
“And that’s what we are doing right now, trauma,” Teruya added. “There are stages in trauma, the keiki are still going through the first stage, I’m still going through the first stage, the kupuna, they might not even recover from the trauma cause we don’t have time, we get choke time for certain things, but little time for the really important things.”
Teruya also pointed out that West Maui will reopen before students are able to go back to the three remaining Lahaina public school campuses in mid-October.
“You going spit the tourists in front of us before the keiki go back to the school is really, really demoralizing, that’s why we angry,” Teruya said.
The governor has said that the state chose Oct. 8 because it marked two months since the fire. He said he understood the concerns of residents not wanting tourists to come back but has also heard from many people worried about losing their jobs and having to relocate out of state if tourism does not return.
On Wednesday, Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen an
nounced a phased reopening for west side properties, starting with The Ritz-Carlton Maui, Kapalua to Kahana Villa on Oct. 8. Phase 2 would include Mahinahina to Maui Kaanapali Villas, and Phase 3 would cover the Royal Lahaina Resort to the Hyatt Regency. With most displaced residents sheltered in the final area, this will be the last phase to allow more time to address housing options, the county said. No timeline has been set yet for the second and third phases.
Hundreds of people, many in red T-shirts that read “Lahaina Strong,” turned out for the Maui County Council’s Government Relations, Ethics and Transparency Committee meeting in the Honoapiilani Ballroom at the Westin on Wednesday. It was the committee’s first meeting in West Maui to take testimony on forming a recovery and resiliency plan in response to the Aug. 8 fires. No legislative action was taken.
By the committee’s lunch break around 12:30 p.m., more than 100 people had registered to testify, many of whom had lost their homes. The meeting continued into Wednesday evening, with most of the crowd, some standing and others sitting on the carpet, leaving after lunch.
Council Member Tamara Paltin, who holds the West Maui residency seat, explained that the committee would pull items from testimony that council members can work on in their committees. Committee Chairwoman Nohelani U‘u-Hodgins also has said there will be more meetings where residents can share their ideas.
Testifiers shed tears and expressed frustrations, with some sharing similar sentiments on what they would like to see for Lahaina, such as burying power lines, establishing evacuation zones, not locating residents in fire-prone areas south of Lahaina, not building near the shoreline, restoring Lahaina’s Native Hawaiian historic places and native plants, barring mansions from Front Street, speeding up the permitting process for residents who want to return and prioritizing residents over tourists.
“My main concern of the rebuild of our town is the future safety of the residents of Lahaina,” said Hawaiian immersion educator Liko Rogers, who has been a resident of Lahaina for 40 years. “We need to be assured this type of thing can never happen again.”
Rogers has been a Hawaiian immersion educator in Lahaina for more than 25 years and was accompanied by other kumu and students.
“We need responsible land management by those who own those fields of dry grass that was the root of the Lahaina fires,” Rogers added. “We need the power lines buried under the ground. I understand this is expensive. Well, so is cleaning up after a fire devastates the whole town.”
Lawrence Cabanilla, who owned Cabanilla Lahaina Shell Service for decades, asked that government officials bring together various ethnic groups that are part of the history of Lahaina, such as Hawaiian, Chinese, Filipino and Japanese residents.
“Gather these minds tougher and build one mind and one body and Lahaina will be what it supposed to be,” the 79-year-old Cabanilla said through sobs as he received encouragement and applause from the audience.
“I love Lahaina. Lahaina is the only place for me,” Cabanilla added.
Puanani Felicilda, who was born and raised in Lahaina, also remembers the old days when it was a plantation camp where families fished.
“It’s so sad we have all these million dollar homes on Front Street where we grew up,” she said.
Felicilda also questioned “who’s responsible for that fire?”
“This has been going on for many years. … 2018, same thing, people lost homes,” she said, referring to the fire during Hurricane Lane. “But this is worse. We lost the whole Lahaina.”
Felicilda said after the fires, her husband had wanted to see the condition of their home that burned down in Lahaina. He “couldn’t take it.”
“Everything he worked for is lost,” she said. “A week later he passed away.”
She asked the council to “back up our Lahaina people.”
Lonopele Cabanilla was worried about housing. He said “there is unclear information” coming to them every day on when they need to move out of their temporary shelters. He was also concerned about rebuilding.
“The most important thing priority wise is getting us all back into our town for build our homes,” he said.
He said estimated timelines such as two years to get back to rebuilding is “crazy, that’s ridiculous.” Bissen told residents at a meeting last week that it could take one and a half to two years for families to get back to their properties to rebuild.
Lonopele Cabanilla added that he is afraid for those trying to rebuild homes, as he knows that even prior to the fires it took a while to get a permit. He said the process should be faster.
“Priority first, let us in there, let us build, no more this too long of a timeline for build, that’s ridiculous,” he said.