Hawaii wildfires aftermath: What’s next for Maui

Last week, wildfires quickly engulfed thousands of structures on Maui, forcing residents to flee their homes with few to none of their belongings. As of Tuesday, 99 people have been confirmed dead, while at least 1,300 remain missing. Speaking last Thursday, Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke said the road to Hawaii’s recovery from the “unprecedented” wildfires “will be long.” An official from Homeland Security’s emergency agency told a White House briefing that the “coming days and weeks” will be “tough” for Hawaiians.

“They're going to be difficult as people process what they have lost and what the road ahead looks like,” FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell said on Monday.

But what does the road to recovery look like?

Fires extinguished

Firefighters on Maui are still attempting to contain wildfires in Upcountry and Lahaina. Officials from Maui County said that as of Monday, 65% of the fire in the Upcountry had been contained — roughly 678 acres of land. Air support had been called in earlier in the day to fight hot spots in the area. The fire in Lahaina, which began on Aug. 8, has been 85% contained. Another fire, in the Pulehu area, remains fully contained — meaning the fires have been surrounded by firefighters but not yet extinguished.

Recovery missions

It could take another 9 days to discover the extent of lives lost in the wildfires, Gov. Josh Green said. As of Monday, recovery crews had been searching through the remains of Lahaina, where an estimated 13,000 people lived. Only 25% of the affected area has been searched so far, meaning the death toll is likely to jump in the coming days as workers sift through rubble. Green added that crews are likely to find between 10 and 20 bodies per day. He followed up by asking that people stay away from Lahaina, adding that anyone who enters the town will likely be walking on bones.

Bodies to be ID’ed

Only three bodies of those discovered have been identified, Maui’s police chief John Pelletier revealed. He asked those with missing relatives missing provide DNA samples to police. This could speed up the identification process.

Maui rebuild to cost $5 billion

Government officials estimated that the cost of rebuilding Maui after days of catastrophic wildfires could be more than $5 billion. Preliminary estimates released by FEMA and the University of Hawaii's Pacific Disaster Center found that all affected residential and commercial properties could cost $5.52 billion to reconstruct. Most of the buildings affected were located in Lahaina, a popular tourist destination and an important historical landmark.

Fear over Maui’s future

Locals who survived the wildfires are being contacted by wealthy investors attempting to buy damaged land, a nonprofit revealed on Monday. In a video posted to Instagram, a person associated with the charity, Kāko'o Haleakalā, said that realtors had called families who had lost their homes and offered to buy the land. “How dare you do that to our community right now,” the unidentified woman said.

Another Lahaina local, Richy Palalay, told the Associated Press that he was worried about developers using the devastation of the wildfires as a way to poach land on the island. “I’m more concerned of big land developers coming in and seeing this charred land as an opportunity to rebuild,” Palalay, who is currently residing in a shelter, said.

The tourism issue

Hawaiians have long been vocal about the issues they have with the ever-growing tourism industry on its archipelago, which is the state’s largest industry. Last Thursday, Hawaii’s Tourism Authority asked tourists to leave Maui and asked all those who plan to visit the island to cancel or postpone their plans. "In the weeks ahead, the collective resources and attention of the federal, state, and county government, the West Maui community, and the travel industry must be focused on the recovery of residents who lost loved ones, homes, their belongings, and businesses," the authority said in a statement released on Monday.

Many Hawaiians have complained on social media about the insensitivity of tourists who have remained on the island or arrived in recent days, straining resources and hurting feelings by making demands on traumatized service workers and swimming in waters where residents jumped to their death fleeing fires only days earlier.

However, some business owners have expressed concern over the anti-tourism comments that have been made. "What I'm afraid of is that if people keep seeing 'Maui's closed', and 'Don't come to Maui,' what little business is left is going to be gone," food truck owner Daniel Kalahiki said.

Since the wildfires began, 46,000 people have flown out of West Maui. Around 1,000 hotel rooms that have been left vacant by tourists, are currently being used to house those who have been forced to flee their homes.