All posts tagged "Lahaina"

This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat. You can sign up for Civil Beat's newsletter here and support the nonprofit newsroom here.

With the trailer on a barge en route to Hawaii, two business partners plan to set up a makeshift home on the now-cleared property.

For three weeks, heaping piles of gravel sat untouched on the dirt lot where Mario Siatris’ house once stood.

The gravel, a form of erosion control, needed to be spread out over the dirt, the final step in an intricate process overseen by the federal government to clear fire-ravaged Lahaina properties of hazards and toxic waste. ...

This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat. You can sign up for Civil Beat's newsletter here and support the nonprofit newsroom here.

The Attorney General's much-anticipated report provides new insight into the fire response but does not address the cause of the fire.

As fires spread in Lahaina, Hawaii, on Aug. 8, Maui firefighters reported troubling news to their commander. At 4:25 p.m., the advancing fire was engulfing homes and businesses near the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Ulupono Street and nearby Kahoma Stream was unlikely to stop the flames....

This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat. You can sign up for Civil Beat's newsletter here and support the nonprofit newsroom here.

KIHEI, Hawaii — Ron Proctor donned the red suit for the first time in 1996.

He was a waiter at a Napa Valley restaurant in need of a fair weather Santa for an employee Christmas party. No one else on staff could be coaxed to plop the children of chefs and food runners onto his lap. But Proctor figured what the heck....

This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat. You can sign up for Civil Beat's newsletter here and support the nonprofit newsroom here.

PORTLAND, Ore. — On an autumn-chilled Saturday seven weeks after the fire, U‘i Kahue-Cabanting awoke under crisp, white hotel sheets in the shadow of a snow-capped Mount Hood. Thousands of miles from her FEMA-funded room at the Westin on Maui, she found herself nevertheless surrounded by generic stand-ins for the basic things she’d lost: bath towels, her bed, bar soap.

Kahue-Cabanting had flown to Portland during the rainy tail of September to teach Hawaii expats how to weave coconut fronds into durable hats and baskets. More than half of all Native Hawaiians reside outside of Hawaii, according to the U.S. Census, many of them driven away by the astronomical cost of island living. It was her third trip to the mainland this year to share the ancient craft as a balm for identity loss....

This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat. You can sign up for Civil Beat's newsletter here and support the nonprofit newsroom here.

Maui County officials are preparing to allow property owners and tenants who lost homes in the Aug. 8 blaze to re-enter the burn zone later this month.

Darryl Oliveira, interim administrator of the Maui Emergency Management Agency, said at a press conference on Thursday that residents should be able to apply for passes starting on Sept. 22. Passes will grant them access to the disaster area, initially on supervised visits to begin Sept. 25....

Lahaina (United States) (AFP) - When Anthony La Puente made it back to the place he had called home for the last 16 years, there was almost nothing left. His house, like most in Lahaina, had been razed by the wildfire that swept through this slice of Hawaiian paradise. "The only thing I can say is that it hurts. It takes a toll on you emotionally," the 44-year old said. "It sucks not being able to find the things you grew up with, or the things you remember." La Puente was one of dozens of people who were allowed back into what used to be Lahaina on Friday. The 12,000-strong town, which has st......