For nearly two weeks, volunteers at a temporary Manaʻe community hub on Molokaʻi's east end have been delivering supplies and checking on neighbors after massive flooding.
“The information that's coming back is, ‘oh, man, like people are still stuck, cannot come out of the home.’ There's mud,” said Mercy Ritte, who’s been helping lead the hub.
They’re still distributing food, cleaning supplies and essentials. But Ritte said there are now other challenges too.
“Structures need to be rebuilt,” she said. “I think that's the phase now that we're going into is repair, rebuild, replacing the bigger things.”
Hub volunteers have played a critical role in sharing resources and information with isolated East Molokaʻi residents. One of those volunteers is Mikiʻala Pescaia.
“Number one struggle for this side of the island will always be accessibility, once that road is compromised, for days we were cut off from the hospital, from the stores, from the gas station,” she said.
With gas prices nearing $7 per gallon on Molokaʻi and the road conditions hazardous following the storm, having supplies and food available nearby for the Manaʻe community has been important.
Education has also been key, especially when it comes to mold.
“We have people grabbing tarps and 3 mil trash bags to cover their wet, soaking mattress to continue to sleep on it, because they know there's no way they're going to be able to order or buy a new mattress and get it in anytime soon, so they're just going to make do,” she said. “And you know it's like, ‘OK, so if you're going to do that, let's pull the mattress off into the sunshine’ [to help kill the mold].”
Many Molokaʻi residents also rely on their gardens for a subsistence lifestyle. Pescaia said a lot of these plants and trees were also destroyed in the floodwaters.
“The realization that that is all gone and now you can't even get it back up and running is going to settle in,” she said. “That means we're going to see a shift — shift in people's diets, the financial strain, some of them have to choose between cleaning up or going to work.”
Pescaia anticipates an increase in residents needing alternative living arrangements.
“I feel like we're going to get more displaced people as the mold and mildew settles in and some of those conditions grow to be unbearable, like it's OK for now and but next week, you might find it harder and harder to live in the space of despair and ruin,” she explained.
Kanoelani Davis and her nonprofit Hoʻaka Mana have been helping displaced residents find temporary housing.
“There's mud blocking driveways. There's no electricity. The flood has taken over the whole entire house. It is dangerous to live in there because of mold issues,” Davis said.
Damage assessments are still coming in. Davis said they are just now learning about families in Hoʻolehua that were also impacted.
Davis said 250 hot meals a day are being cooked on Molokaʻi and distributed across the island hubs to families in need, with the assistance of World Central Kitchen.
“People are working into the evenings. They go to work, they come home, they're going into the mud, they're shoveling, they're cleaning their homes,” she said. “Having food and ready for them is important.”
Davis has organized more than a dozen boat trips to pick up supplies from Maui since the last Kona low storm hit on March 21. Items have been gathered and donated with the support of organizations like Maui United Way, Maui Rapid Response, Lele Aloha and Lahaina Strong.
Now, she’s coordinating vetted volunteers to help clear mud and repair roofing. She urges those interested in volunteering to connect with a trusted local organization to host them, and take careful precautions against the spread of invasive species on their gear before coming to the island.
“We need people licensed to do roofs. We need construction. We need building supplies. We're going to have to tear out a drywall,” Davis said.
Local response group Molokaʻi Cares has been facilitating needs assessments. Volunteer organizer Kui Adolpho said about 150 Molokaʻi households have filled them out.
This week, their headquarters was buzzing with volunteers unloading shipping containers of food, cleaning supplies and tools donated from Maui. Adolpho said barge delivery from Maui takes several days, and by the time the containers were packed and delivered, she had already noticed a shift in community needs.
“It's a little bit more special to live here,” she said of Molokaʻi. “It takes a lot more time for larger quantities of things to arrive, and storage capacity as a whole on our island is not as good, so we're trying to take it slow. But we know that there's a need, so we want to make sure we are doing as much as humanly possible.”
The volunteer-activated organization has been accepting and distributing funds and donations to storm-impacted residents.
“Now we're seeing a lot, like we need guys to fix our roof before the next rain. We need electricians, because some motherboards got compromised. You know, large machinery help, while shovels and wheelbarrows are helpful, nothing really replaces heavy machinery to move mountains of dirt,” she said.
Adolpho said they’re trying to think strategically to address those needs for the longer term.
“Right now, we are trying to build funding to support the skilled labor, and supplies are going to be needed in a couple of months.”
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