A wildfire burned through the town of Lahaina on Aug. 8, causing loss of life, property and cultural landmarks. Hawaiʻi Public Radio continues to cover Maui's community efforts to heal and rebuild.
HPR's latest Maui fire stories
Martha Guzman heads up the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 9, covering the southwestern states as well as Pacific islands like Hawaiʻi and Guam. The Conversation talked with Guzman about this particular phase of assessing the infrastructure critical to building Maui back better.
-
State lawmakers appropriated funds for more firefighting equipment and a state fire marshal after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century ripped through the historic Maui town of Lahaina and exposed shortcomings in the state’s readiness for such flames.
-
The policy, announced by Mayor Richard Bissen and grassroots advocacy group Lahaina Strong, is intended to free up housing for displaced families devastated by the August wildfires. The county will have the authority to enact this policy due to the state Legislature's final approval of Senate Bill 2919.
-
The County of Maui filed the complaint saying carriers failed to give proper notification about the widespread cellular service outages during the height of emergency response to the August wildfires.
-
Two temporary housing projects on Maui will help house those displaced by the wildfires. One will be completed in July, while the other just broke ground.
-
One of the bills dying in this legislative session would have allowed Hawaiian Electric to issue ratepayer-backed bonds — a process called securitization — to pay for wildfire mitigation efforts. State Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole spoke with The Conversation about the measure, as well as HECO's future.
-
The One ʻOhana fund is a $175 million settlement program for families of the 101 people who were killed in last year’s Maui wildfires, or for people who were hospitalized and severely injured from the disaster.
-
Last Friday was the deadline for lawmakers to move bills out of their final committee hearings. But Gov. Josh Green tried to resurrect a key wildfire mitigation measure over the weekend.