Hawaii

A year after Lahaina burned, residents still struggle with housing and job insecurity

Published

2 years ago

August 5, 2024

A year after Lahaina burned, residents still struggle with housing and job insecurity

A year after wildfires tore through Lahaina, Hawaii, restauranteur Qiana Di Bari is still packing up trash bags, each filled with smoke-damaged belongings, and carrying them out of her home one at a time in a painstaking effort to rebuild.

It’s a ritual that continues to play out across west Maui after the Aug. 8 fires killed at least 102 people and destroyed the former capital of the kingdom of Hawaii.

The home Di Bari shares with her husband, Italian-born Michele, and their daughter, 13, was one of only four on their street to survive the inferno, she said.

Di Bari is one of thousands of residents attempting to rebuild her home and business amid a flurry of instability.

NBC News spoke with a dozen people affected by the fire and each described experiencing an unrelenting cycle of housing and job insecurity that has compounded their trauma.

Two families said they have bounced from hotel to hotel, their stays extended through FEMA until next year. Others have moved in with relatives to save money. One person left Maui after being priced out of rental units.

The impact of the fire, one of three that erupted on that windy day last summer, has reached beyond the shores of Maui, devastating Hawaii’s tourism economy and costing the state more than $1 billion in lost revenue.

The road to recovery from a massive fire like the one that leveled Lahaina is never quick. Rubble has to be cleared, remains identified and soil and water tested long before any construction can start. Then there are insurance and legal questions.

After a 2018 fire killed 85 people and destroyed the town of Paradise, California, it took more than four years for some survivors to receive their insurance payouts. Homes and businesses continue to be rebuilt and new foundations laid.

Michele and Qiana Di Bari in their restaurant, Sale Pepe.Courtesy Qiana and Michele Di Bari

Today, many Lahaina residents who lost their homes are still displaced as they scramble from one temporary shelter to another.

“Even a year later, people are still in the unknown,” said Jamie Nahoo’ikaika, a host at Di Bari’s popular restaurant near Front Street, Sale Pepe, which burned to the ground. “Everybody is still waiting, and you wonder why it’s taking so long.”

She is counting the days until Sale Pepe reopens so she can go back to work. In the meantime, she and her husband, Jaret-Levi, a Lahaina native and head custodian at King Kamehameha III Elementary, transformed her mother’s garage into a studio for themselves, their 3-year-old son and 9-month-old daughter.

Sale Pepe will reopen in a new location sometime in the fall, Di Bari said, and she intends to rehire a handful of employees, including Nahoo’ikaika.

The Di Baris have stitched together financing for the restaurant through insurance claims, small business loans and a GoFundMe campaign started by their New York-based creative director.

The Di Bari’s popular restaurant near Front Street, Sale Pepe. — The Di Baris’ popular restaurant near Front Street, Sale Pepe.Courtesy Qiana and Michele Di Bari

“We wanted to send a message that Lahaina is worth staying for,” said Di Bari, who once managed the hip hop group Tribe Called Quest.

The 12 residents interviewed by NBC News all said they intend to return to Lahaina as soon as they can afford to rebuild their businesses and homes.

“The true thing about Lahaina people is you cannot take Lahaina people out of Lahaina,” Nahoo’ikaika said.

Tourism remains down

The fire not only displaced thousands of people, it threatened to erase the cultural and historic center of Hawaii’s former kingdom and those who inherited its legacy.

The sidewalks and corners where generations of families “talked stories,” as locals say, were wiped out in mere hours.

It also devastated Maui’s tourism-dependent economy and caused more than $6 billion in damage, according to a state report.

Many tourists postponed or canceled trips to Maui even as local businesses encouraged people to visit areas not impacted by the fire. The cancellations cost Maui $9 million in revenue each day since the fire, according to Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.

“Lahaina was one of busiest tracts in all of Hawaii,” said James Tokioka, director of the state’s tourism and economic development department. “It went from that to nothing.”

In all, nearly $10.2 million in grants has been awarded to more than 1,000 businesses in Lahaina, his office said.

Image: A man walks past wildfire wreckage on Aug. 9, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. — A man walks past wildfire wreckage in Lahaina, Hawaii, on Aug. 9, 2023.Tiffany Kidder Winn via AP file

Across the island, tourism is still down. The first half of 2024 saw a nearly 24% drop in visitors to Maui from 1.5 million people in 2023 to 1.1 million this year.

Spending slipped from $3.47 billion in the first half of 2023 to $2.64 billion in the same period this year.

Maui’s unemployment rate is higher than neighboring islands at 4.5% compared to 3% statewide.

Residents remain displaced

A recent survey of Maui residents by the Hawaiʻi State Rural Health Association found that 72% of residents said they were either directly or indirectly impacted by the fire.

Of those who were directly affected, 71% said they cut back on groceries to save money, and 59% said they have moved at least three times since the fire.

“It really punctuates the trauma and the sense of uncertainty,” said Lisa Grove, the study’s lead researcher. “It’s lots of folks who have been there for generations — it’s people with the deepest roots.”

Filipinos comprised the largest share of people living in Lahaina. They settled in the area generations earlier while working at the sugar cane plantations and quickly became the second-largest racial group in the state, according to the 2020 census.

The state, FEMA and other agencies are working to build some 1,044 transitional housing units for the more than 3,000 households displaced by the fire, Gov. Josh Green said last week.

A $4 billion settlement of more than 600 lawsuits against the state, county and utilities reached last week will help pay for rebuilding.

Despite the progress, Kalama McEwen, whose neighborhood was ground zero for the deadly inferno, said he’s still trying to piece together his life.

His family of seven moved in with his in-laws after their home was destroyed. His businesses, a mechanic shop and a tow truck company, were underinsured and he was unable to recoup losses, he said.

The combined households can add up to more than 20 people on any given day. Sometimes relatives wait in line to use the bathroom and take turns sleeping on the floor. McEwen built a shack in the backyard and ran an extension cord for electricity to create a small, private space, but he said the accommodations are untenable.

LAHAINA, HI - AUGUST 13:
A rainbow is seen from Put Kukui mountain over burned cars and buildings in Lahaina, Hawaii on Aug. 13, 2023. — A rainbow is seen from Put Kukui mountain over burned cars and buildings in Lahaina, Hawaii, on Aug. 13, 2023.Mengshin Lin for The Washington Post via Getty Images file

One of his sons works at a local resort, and he and his wife escape there with their youngest children every few weeks to get a break.

“We were one of the lucky ones,” he said, speaking poolside from the hotel where his son works. “At least we had somewhere to go. We lost everything but we’re still here.”

Maui resident Cindy Canham worked at Whaler’s Locker on Front Street in Lahaina since 2018, selling rare and collectible items, like hand-carved pocket knives and locally made jewelry. Before that, she worked at a shop across the street for 35 years.

“Lahaina was a loss for everybody on the island,” she said. “Even if you’ve lived here just six months, you’ve got a Lahaina memory.”

She moved to Maui in 1978 from Texas in what was meant to be a summer vacation before starting college. She never left. Canham met her late husband a year later near the historic banyan tree that was nearly destroyed in the fire.

Whaler’s Locker, which opened in 1971, was destroyed in the fire. Although the owner sells items online and at local markets a few times a week, there isn’t enough work to keep Canham on the payroll.

Canham, who lives about 25 miles away in the town of Kihei, wasn’t eligible for federal assistance beyond unemployment benefits because she doesn’t live in Lahaina. Now, for the first time since Jimmy Carter was president, she wonders if she’ll be forced to leave Maui.

“It was my town,” she said of Lahaina. “Yet I wasn’t considered a fire survivor because I didn’t lose my home. It’s hard for some people to understand what I feel.”

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Hawaii

Blood moon to dazzle Hawaii skies tonight

Published

7 hours ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

Blood moon to dazzle Hawaii skies tonight | Local | kitv.com

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Hawaii

Everyone Says Oahu’s Overcrowded. We Drove 20 Minutes Past Haleiwa And Found Beautiful Empty Beaches

Published

19 hours ago

March 2, 2026

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Everyone Says Oahu’s Overcrowded. We Drove 20 Minutes Past Haleiwa And Found Beautiful Empty Beaches

Most visitors think Oahu’s North Shore stops at Haleiwa because that is where traffic builds to pandemonium, where beach parking fills earlier than you can imagine, and where sitting in your car between the familiar lineup of surf breaks and food trucks largely defines the experience. Once people have crawled through and found a place to stand at Waimea or Sunset, the mental box gets checked, and the car points back toward Honolulu fast, as if everything worth seeing has already been seen. But it hasn’t.

Instead of turning around at Haleiwa, we continued west on Farrington Highway and watched the storefronts fall away in the rearview mirror. The line of rental cars thinned fast as the road narrowed and the mountains got closer to the pavement. On the ocean side, long stretches of sand opened up, and within a few miles, we were seeing more wind in the ironwood trees than cars on the road or people on the beach.

Most visitors leaving Haleiwa head east toward Sunset Beach and Pipeline, where traffic stacks up endlessly and parking lots overflow. We went the other way. Out toward Mokuleia, the commercial North Shore disappears fast, and what replaces it is space. There are no visitors circling for stalls and no steady lines at food trucks. You can pull over without searching for the one open spot in a packed lot, and entire sections of beach sit quietly without the usual cluster.

Dillingham Airfield and the working North Shore.

One of the first landmarks after Mokule’ia Beach (which we will write about soon) is what most people still call Dillingham Airfield, though its official name is Kawaihapai Airfield. It is owned by the U.S. Army and managed by the State of Hawaii Department of Transportation under a 50-year lease, and it has been operated as a military installation since the 1920s, with HDOT taking over management in 1962. HDOT leases 272 acres of the 650-acre Dillingham Military Reservation and operates the single 9,000-foot runway, with the civilian side used heavily for gliders and skydiving while the Army retains first priority for air/land operations and uses the field for helicopter night-vision training.

As we drove past, it did not feel like a visitor attraction at all, even though you can spot the roadside signs for glider rides and skydiving. A small single-engine plane rolled down the runway and lifted off against the Waianae Mountains, then a glider followed, towed upward before separating and moving almost silently above the coastline. It is one of those North Shore scenes that makes you slow down without thinking about it, because it looks like real working Oahu rather than the marketed version, with runway, mountains, and open water all in the same frame and very few people around to make it feel like a production.

Camps that have been here for generations.

Close to the airfield are two oceanfront camps that rarely enter any typical Oahu visitor’s plans. The first is Camp Mokuleia, which sits along the shoreline and is owned by the Episcopal Church. If you’re not on a retreat, you can rent a campsite or tentalo on the beach. A little farther west is YMCA Camp Erdman, which opened in 1926 and is approaching its 100th anniversary, still renting oceanfront cabins and yurts to the public.

The accommodations are straightforward, with sand steps away from the doors and long views of the horizon. This is not a resort strip, and you won’t find any valet stands or infinity pools. Families gather around grills, kids move freely between cabins and the beach, while the ocean feels part of the daily backdrop more than it is an Instagram photo opportunity.

Camp Mokuleia tentalos start at $100 a night. Camp Erdman yurts and cabins range from $250-$450 per night for up to 6 guests. For context, the average vacation rental in the Mokuleia area lists above $500 a night.

The shoreline here is not known for calm, protected swimming, and currents can be strong without lifeguard towers stationed every few hundred yards. The beach also has a lot of coral, which keeps swimmers more limited than some other beaches. And that fact alone keeps casual beach traffic lighter, and it helps explain why this stretch feels so different from busier Oahu North Shore stops. The camps and the character of the water belong to the same landscape, shaped more by geography than by commercial branding.

Parking at Kaena Point State Park – Oahu

Where the pavement ends.

Eventually, Farrington Highway reaches a gravel lot where the pavement stops and a locked gate marks the entrance to the Mokuleia section of Kaena Point State Park. There is no visitor center funneling people through an entrance plaza. Instead, there is open sky, steady trade winds, and a handful of parked cars facing a dirt road that continues on foot toward the westernmost tip of Oahu, where you can meet the road that comes from the other side. This is truly a part of Oahu that most visitors never see.

Hikers follow the old railroad route for roughly 2.7 miles to Kaena Point itself, where seabirds nest behind protective fencing and monk seals are sometimes seen along the shore. The trail is exposed, hot, and largely flat, with no services and little shade, which naturally limits casual foot traffic. Consider not trying it in the middle of the day. But, standing at the end of the paved road, with the Waianae Mountains behind you and nothing but raw coastline ahead, feels less like arriving at any Oahu attraction and more like standing at the literal end of the island.

What stood out most was how little competition there was for space. There were only a few cars in the lot when we arrived, and long portions of the beach were untouched compared with the chaotic churn nearby at Haleiwa. It was a bit windy, the mountains anchored one side of the horizon, and the coastline extended westward without any indication that you were sharing it with scattered other people.

If you have been to the North Shore more than once and believe you have already seen it, have you ever kept driving past Haleiwa until the pavement runs out? It’s worth the drive.

Photo Credits: © Beat of Hawaii at Kaena Point State Park, Oahu.

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Hawaii County Weather Forecast for March 02, 2026 | Big Island Now

Published

1 day ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Hawaii County Weather Forecast for March 02, 2026 | Big Island Now

Photo Credit: James Grenz

Hilo

Tonight: Cloudy. Scattered showers in the evening, then isolated showers after midnight. Lows 59 to 66 near the shore to 48 to 54 at 4000 feet. Southeast winds up to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.

Monday: Cloudy with isolated showers. Highs 75 to 80 near the shore to around 65 at 4000 feet. East winds up to 10 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.

Monday Night: Cloudy with scattered showers. Lows 59 to 65 near the shore to 48 to 54 at 4000 feet. East winds around 10 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.

Kona

Tonight: Cloudy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows around 69 near the shore to 45 to 52 near 5000 feet. Light winds. Chance of rain 20 percent.

Monday: Cloudy. Highs 81 to 86 near the shore to around 67 near 5000 feet. Light winds becoming west up to 10 mph in the afternoon.

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Monday Night: Mostly cloudy. Lows around 69 near the shore to 44 to 51 near 5000 feet. Northwest winds around 10 mph in the evening becoming light.

Waimea

Tonight: Cloudy and breezy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows 59 to 68 near the shore to 53 to 59 near 3000 feet. East winds up to 10 mph increasing to up to 20 mph after midnight. Chance of rain 20 percent.

Monday: Cloudy and breezy. Isolated showers in the morning. Highs 72 to 78 near the shore to 67 to 75 near 3000 feet. East winds up to 20 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.

Monday Night: Mostly cloudy. Breezy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows 59 to 67 near the shore to 52 to 58 near 3000 feet. East winds 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.

Kohala

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Monday: Cloudy and breezy. Isolated showers in the morning. Highs 72 to 78 near the shore to 67 to 75 near 3000 feet. East winds up to 20 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.

Monday Night: Mostly cloudy. Breezy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows 59 to 67 near the shore to 52 to 58 near 3000 feet. East winds 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.

South Big Island

Tonight: Cloudy. Isolated showers in the evening. Lows around 71 near the shore to around 51 near 5000 feet. Northeast winds up to 15 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.

Monday: Cloudy and breezy. Highs around 83 near the shore to around 64 near 5000 feet. East winds up to 20 mph.

Monday Night: Mostly cloudy. Breezy. Lows around 70 near the shore to around 50 near 5000 feet. East winds 10 to 20 mph.

Puna

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Monday: Cloudy with isolated showers. Highs 75 to 80 near the shore to around 65 at 4000 feet. East winds up to 10 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.

Monday Night: Cloudy with scattered showers. Lows 59 to 65 near the shore to 48 to 54 at 4000 feet. East winds around 10 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.

Waikoloa

Tonight: Cloudy. Lows around 70 near the shore to 48 to 54 above 4000 feet. Light winds.

Monday: Cloudy. Highs around 83 near the shore to 65 to 71 above 4000 feet. Light winds becoming northwest up to 15 mph in the afternoon.

Monday Night: Mostly cloudy. Lows around 70 near the shore to 47 to 54 above 4000 feet. North winds 10 to 15 mph shifting to the east after midnight.

Synopsis

The cold front has dissipated into a trough and remains northwest of the Hawaiian Islands this evening. High pressure will build in from the north and allow the trade winds to strengthen from Monday through Wednesday. Brief passing showers will favor windward and mountain areas in the overnight to early morning hours through Wednesday and then over southeastern slopes and island interior sections from Thursday onward. Winds will weaken and veer slightly from a more east-southeast direction from Thursday on into the weekend. Shower activity will remain limited during this time period.

Short term update

The large band of high level cirrus clouds and mid level alto stratus clouds currently over the islands will continue to slowly diminish through Monday. The cold front approaching the islands has stalled and diminished into a trough just northwest of the island of Kauai.
Trade winds blow into the region and strengthen into the moderate to locally breezy range from Monday through Wednesday. A slight decrease in wind speeds and a shift from a more east- southeast direction remains in the forecast from Thursday onward as another cold front approaches the islands from the northwest, weakening and lifting the ridge north of the state. Local scale sea breeze winds will develop along terrain sheltered slopes of each island as the large scale winds weaken. Limited shower activity will prevail into next weekend with only brief showers possible.
The afternoon forecast looks good. No evening updates.

Previous discussion

Issued at 302 PM HST Sun Mar 1 2026.
Expectations for this afternoon remain on track. The boundary upstream of Kauai has made little to no forward progress today, sea breezes have struggled to establish owing to abundant high clouds, and showers southwest of Kauai and Oahu have essentially remained in place while stratiform elements peel off to the northeast. In addition, regenerating showers over Windward Oahu have dissipated in response to backing low-level flow. All told, an uneventful, cloudy, and mostly dry day across the state. Going forward, building heights over the N Central Pacific will maintain strengthening, but progressive high pressure at the surface. This in turn ensures the return of trades tonight which then become breezy during mid-week. Winds diminish slightly by late week as trades veer to ESE in advance of another round of upstream height falls. Typical trade wind weather anticipated throughout this time with showers focused windward and mauka. High clouds gradually clear from west to east Monday into Tuesday before exiting the area altogether by Wednesday.

Aviation

A weakening stationary boundary will allow for abundant high clouds and relatively light land/sea breezes to prevail across most TAF sites. This front will also allow for disorganized showers across Kauai and Oahu tonight, however confidence was on the lower end based on weather model guidance, so made use of VCSH and PROB30 where rain chances were felt to be the highest. MVFR conditions may prevail under shower activity, otherwise VFR is expected across most sites for the period.
AIRMET Tango remains in effect across the islands due to upper- level turbulence from FL200-400 due to this front, with conditions expected to improve into tomorrow as this system continues to weaken. Patchy mountain obscuration may occur due to the presence of this front, however observations and webcams suggest that the threat is not widespread enough to warrant an AIRMET at this time. Light icing is also possible in cloud layer 120-180.

Marine

Issued at 302 PM HST Sun Mar 1 2026.
A dissipated front will linger into Monday just northwest of the area. Fresh to locally strong easterly trades will build in by Tuesday as surface ridge strengthens to the north. Winds will maintain strength but veer east southeast towards the end of the week as another system approaches from the west.
Surf along north and west-facing shores will be above seasonal average as a northwest swell (310 degrees) is expected to impact through Monday. Surf should remain small though the week with a small northwest bump expected next weekend.
Surf along exposed east-facing shores will be a bit elevated due to a short-to medium-period northeast (40 degrees) swell, then decline Tuesday. However, period and choppy conditions are expected to return by Tuesday as fresh trade winds redevelop and expand upstream of the state.
Surf along south-facing shores will remain near the seasonal average into March.