AS SEEN YESTERDAY ON FREE HAWAI`I TV - "THREE QUESTIONS WE NEED TO ASK NOW ABOUT THE MAUI FIRES"
Honolulu Civil Beat - By Naka Nathaniel - October 11, 2023
Now that we are two months beyond the horrific fires that devastated Maui, a lot of the national and international attention has moved on. I’ve been a part of those news caravans in the past. The urgency to cover the breaking news is always there and, given the world we live in, there is always news breaking somewhere.
I remain reluctant to keep making 9/11 parallels, but I am sincere in wanting the lessons learned from previous catastrophes to be applied to current crisis here in Hawaii. Here are three questions that concern me the most:
First, are we making sure that the people of Maui are being heard?
Debating the decision to open West Maui to tourism does little good. West Maui is now open to tourism and hotels are taking bookings.
The more helpful question going forward is whether — and how — the wishes of the people of Maui will be heard. The Maui County Council voted unanimously to ask Gov. Josh Green to delay the opening and a petition with thousands of signatures was delivered to the governor’s office last week.
I asked Green’s office how he is planning on making sure the people on Maui are heard.
“In 20 visits to Maui in the first 53 days following the disaster, Gov. Green met with hundreds of working-class people as well as owners and operators of businesses large and small to learn from them and understand the recovery steps they want to see,” wrote Erika Engle, the governor’s spokesperson. “He further continues to engage with Mayor Richard Bissen as well as community members across West Maui as recovery efforts continue across several fronts.”
I wrote a few weeks ago about how I saw this play out in New York in the aftermath of Sept. 11. The initial attempts to bring back lower Manhattan by New York’s governor and the developer in charge of the site was met with stiff resistance by citizens who were angry that they weren’t being heard.
Instead of ignoring those voices, “Listening to City” sessions were conducted in New York, and ultimately went a long distance to making Lower Manhattan a better place than it was before the attacks.
There should be paths, going forward, for the people of Maui to be better heard.
Second, who is in charge of the phased opening of Maui?
There are so many interested parties. I was reviewing how New York brought back Wall Street.
Following the attacks, the stock exchanges were closed for the remainder of the week, but they reopened on Sept. 17. It was meant to be a quick rebound for the city and the financial markets. The NYSE also learned its lesson and built a second emergency trading floor in case of another attack.
The leaders were motivated by the money. There was no time to process. The economy needed to keep humming and Americans were being encouraged to help by shopping.
The pressure to get West Maui’s economy back up and running feels similar, as does the lack of clarity on who is in charge of the phased opening and how West Maui recovers.
“Governor Green and Mayor Bissen have regular conversations with one another and with federal and non-profit recovery partners in order to make informed decisions about next steps,” wrote Engle in response to my question.
My third concern is the health risks concerning the reopening of West Maui.
As I see the images of Lahaina and read Paula Dobbyn’s story about toxins, I’m worried that we aren’t taking into full account of what’s in the air, in the soil and in the water.
In early September 2002, I was in a helicopter hovering a couple thousand feet above the holes where the two towers had been. Most of the rubble had been cleared from the site and preparations were being made for the anniversary commemorations.
What I remember from then is the hole in the city and feeling the urge, like most others, to rush in and fill it.
Sadly, those urges to rush in and quickly build back had dire consequences.
Last month, the New York City Fire Department announced the deaths of an EMT and a fire firefighter from illnesses contracted from their exposure to Ground Zero. The two deaths meant more NYFD first responders were killed in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, than were killed on the day of the attacks.
There are fears that Lahaina will become a future cancer cluster. It’ll be terrible to think that enough precautions weren’t taken to safely bring people back to a place rife with illness-causing chemicals and debris.
I’m hoping we can resist the urge to rush a return before we understand the full scope of what needs to be dealt with and the best ways to mitigate those future health risks.
Those are the conversations that should be happening now. Listening to concerns, sharing what is known and unknown about how to make a return to Maui that happens in a prudent and pono way.
