The world has been watching as wildfires burn across Canada, France, Spain, Greece and Washington state, where evacuations have been ordered as fire there spreads.
These headlines hit close to home as the Maui community marks three years since a deadly wildfire devastated Lahaina.
U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda recently visited the Valley Isle to attend Lahaina Homecoming. She joined HPR to discuss her experience there and her efforts to help the community rebuild and recover.
Interview Highlights
On her time during the July 2026 Lahaina Homecoming
U.S. REP. JILL TOKUDA: Every time I'm back on Maui, first of all, I'm just struck with the perseverance, the aloha that everyone has. Everyone banding together to try to make things better, to try to bring back some sense of normalcy, to care for each other. … I was sitting at a fold-out table with some chairs with business and landowners from Front Street in this now open-air building, because it burned in the fire, and talking about how they come back and the challenges that they've seen now three years later. … There's a lot of frustration and anger. And since I had that meeting out there, I've been meeting with different people from the state historic preservation office, talking to the county and others about how we bring people back. And it's not just rebuilding the homes; it's also the economic engine that really created jobs, brought community together, and I think that's important to remember too. There's so many aspects of life in Lahaina that we have to make sure that we support not just in the immediate aftermath of the fire, but in the years and generations, quite frankly, to come.
On recovering three years after the wildfires
TOKUDA: We have to be looking at how do we treat the disaster that comes after the disaster. Because even after the debris is removed, that doesn't mean you can immediately snap your fingers and pop up your house. … One of the bipartisan things that I've been working on for the past few years since the fires has been to work with what I call our group of disaster Dems and disaster Republicans, those of us whose districts have been hit by fire, by hurricane, making sure we pass a disaster tax relief package that ensures, for example, that when those Maui wildfire survivors get any kind of settlement, they don't get federal tax on that. They should not be paying tax on that. … They deserve tax-free help. Every dollar they can keep in their wallet. That's what we need to make sure that we're able to do.
On the proposed End Birthright Citizenship for Territories Act
TOKUDA: It's an insult. It's a slap in the face … I think it's absolutely offensive, and this bill needs to be stopped. There needs to be outrage expressed, not just in the territories. The outrage needs to be expressed when we get back to Congress in September.
… I often do a lot with our territorial delegates, quite a bit, in fact. And it's, to me, one of the bipartisan bright lights that we have in Congress. And I, you know, we often remind each other that as island people, we have to stick together because too often we've been ignored or overlooked the needs of our community, the culture, the history, the heritage, who we were, what we were before the United States showed up on our shores. That matters, and we have to stick together and stand together.
This story aired on The Conversation on August 4, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
