Hawaii

Growing number of Maui residents are ‘barely surviving,’ new report finds

Published

2 years ago

July 30, 2024

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Growing number of Maui residents are ‘barely surviving,’ new report finds

Jessica Terell
| Honolulu Civil Beat

Nearly half of Maui residents say their financial situation has worsened since the Lahaina fire.
More than two-thirds of fire survivors have struggled to afford groceries in the last year.
Nearly half – 45% – of fire survivors said they were “very seriously” or “somewhat seriously” thinking about leaving themselves.

Nearly half of Maui residents say their financial situation has worsened since the Lahaina fire and 1 in 5 are “seriously considering” leaving the state, according to a new report that paints a troubling picture of the challenges facing fire survivors – and the county as a whole.

More than two-thirds of fire survivors have struggled to afford groceries in the last year, and half have cut back on medical care for financial reasons.

“We don’t use the word ‘poverty’ very often to talk about the situations in Maui County and we should,” said Lisa Grove, lead researcher of the Maui Together Wildfire Assessment.

More than 2,000 county residents and 1,000 fire survivors participated in the assessment, which is being published by the Hawaii State Rural Health Association and drew on both written surveys and in-person and online focus groups.

The vast majority of respondents – whether they lived in West Maui or Lanai or Molokai – said they were more worried than hopeful about their future in Hawaii.

Perhaps most troubling, it’s the people with the deepest roots in Hawaii who expressed the most uncertainty about their future here, Grove said.

“It’s our Native Hawaiian community. It’s our kupuna. It’s the long-time residents,” Grove said during a presentation Thursday on the survey. “And that is tragic.”

‘A phoenix from the ashes’: How the landmark tree is faring a year after Maui wildfire

Fire Impacts Wide, But Unequal

The percentage of residents across the county who said they had been directly and indirectly impacted by the fires – 72% – was startling, said Grove, a Lanai resident who has been conducting polls and surveys in Hawaii since 1990.

“Those who have been directly impacted by the fires have experienced greater financial, mental and physical hardship than the rest of the county, though circumstances on all three islands have worsened over the past two years,” the assessment points out.

The mood of people surveyed across the county was grim. “Stress,” “uncertain” and “stressful” were among the most common words respondents countywide selected to describe their life. For fire survivors, “concerned,” “struggling” and “frustrated” were some of the most-used descriptors.

Fire survivors reported higher rates of being unemployed or under-employed than the rest of the county. They also tend to be younger, more likely to have children living with them and were less likely to have a college degree.

Just over half of fire survivors surveyed were living in West Maui, and those who had been able to stay on that side of the island appeared to be faring better than those housed in other places.

Housing instability was, unsurprisingly, a top issue for people displaced by the fire. Roughly 50% of fire survivors said they had moved at least three times since last August, and 11% had moved six or more times.

Mental health is also a significant issue, Grove said, and is something that needs to be prioritized in recovery efforts.

An Exodus Coming?

Though there is no definitive data on how many people have left Maui since the fire, the exodus of residents is a significant concern for many in the county.

A majority of people – 81% of fire survivors and 65% of county residents – have had friends move away from Maui since the fire, while 30% of fire survivors had family members leave.

Nearly half – 45% – of fire survivors said they were “very seriously” or “somewhat seriously” thinking about leaving themselves.

While people of all socioeconomic backgrounds said they were contemplating leaving the state, fire survivors who moved in the last year are more likely to be white, older and in a higher income bracket. People who had only been in the state a short time were also more likely to have departed after the fire.

Grove said that in past statewide surveys she’s conducted, there are generally three things people say keep them in Hawaii: ohana, a sense of aloha and the multi-ethnic and diverse nature of the state.

There’s going to be a tipping point, Grove believes, where those wonderful things are outweighed by the struggles of trying to live here.

“I feel like we can only go so far with those intangibles when you’re talking about people saying that they’re barely surviving,” she said.

This story was published in partnership with Honolulu Civil Beat, a nonprofit newsroom doing investigative and watchdog journalism relating to the state of Hawaii.

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation. Civil Beat’s community health coverage is supported by the Cooke Foundation, Atherton Family Foundation and Papa Ola Lokahi.

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Hawaii

Hawaii Foodbank Kauai provides help for TSA workers – The Garden Island

Published

10 hours ago

March 6, 2026

Press Room

Hawaii Foodbank Kauai provides help for TSA workers – The Garden Island

The Hawaii Foodbank Kauai rolled out its recently dedicated Mobile Pantry refrigerated transporter to provide more than 150 emergency food packages for local Transportation Security Administration and U.S. Coast Guard workers caught up in a partial government shutdown.

The two agencies are part of the Department of Homeland Security, whose budget is frozen by congressional concerns over controversial actions by two other DHS agencies, ICE and CBP. Workers will not be paid until the budget is approved, although many are still required to work in essential positions.

In the meantime, some Kauai workers are struggling to keep their families fed without a full paycheck, and amid uncertainty as to how long the shutdown will last.

To help out, Hawaii Foodbank Kauai vehicles rolled up to the TSA administrative offices in Lihue, equipped to provide more than 150 emergency food packages. The packages included fresh milk, eggs, bread and produce, including apples, oranges, eggplants and cucumber. There was also frozen chicken and an assortment of canned goods.

“With the current socioeconomic landscape, many families are still struggling to make ends meet,” stated the 2024 Hunger Report that was released by the Hawaii Foodbank on Wednesday, coinciding with the launch of the statewide food drive by Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke.”Hawaii has seen an increase of roughly 25 percent in prices for food at home — making it more difficult for families to access nourishing meals.”

The Hunger Report said during the last fiscal year, an average of more than 154,000 people on Oahu and Kauai turned to Hawaii Foodbank for help each month.

Tisha Remigio, the Hawaii Foodbank Kauai assistant manager who was helping with the emergency food distribution, was uncertain if there would be more food distributions for TSA workers and the USCG team.

“It’s up to them,” Remigio said.

For more information on the services available, and to donate to the Hawaii Foodbank, visit the website at www.hawaiifoodbank.org.

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Hawaii

Kay’s Crackseed: The Manoa shop preserving Hawaii’s favorite childhood snack

Published

22 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Kay’s Crackseed: The Manoa shop preserving Hawaii’s favorite childhood snack

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – If you grew up in Hawaii, a visit to your local Crackseed shop is likely a core childhood memory.

Let’s go holoholo to one of the oldest shops in Honolulu, Kay’s Crackseed.

Any time Lanette Mahelona of Kaneohe is in Manoa, a stop at Kay’s Crackseed is a must!

“I stop by here, and I always grab two pounds of this seedless creamy ume because it’s hard to find on our end of the island, Kaneohe,” said Mahelona.

Kay’s Crackseed sits in a four-hundred-square-foot shop at Manoa Marketplace.

The original owner, Kay, opened the shop in 1978 and ran it for 18 years.

Mei Chang now runs the shop. Her family took it over in 1996. They’ve been selling an assortment of crack seed and products, which Mei says is a healthy snack in the eyes of the Chinese.

“Yeah, so like the ginger, the Chinese always say it’s Chinese medicine, so they help your motion sickness, the stomach, and even the kumquat,” said Chang. “It’s like honey lime ball, if you catch a cold, sore throat, they help a lot.”

Customers are encouraged to sample the different treats.

Now working in a crack seed shop isn’t anything new for Chang.

She said these kinds of shops are in common in Taiwan that her grandparents used to sell different kinds of li hing mui.

Chang lived right above her grandparents’ shop and was in the second grade when she started helping them with the business.

“Every day when I finish school first thing open a jar,” said Chang. “I really like the football seed, so every day I eat a football seed for my snack.”

And talk about a full circle moment, her daughter would also help around the Manoa shop.

Through Kay’s Crackseed, Chang hopes to carry on traditional recipes she learned from her grandparents.

“Crack seed for us is not only the snack, but it’s like childhood memory, yeah, the happiness, so we try to keep doing the tradition. So, all the juice we make here is from our grandpa and grandma’s recipe,” said Chang. “So, a special yeah, secret sauce, so we have some customers that live far away, the other side of the island, drive so far to come here to get the li hing one. The wet li hing mui, the rock salt palm, is really popular.”

“The li hing mui ones are not as sweet, sweet as other places, and it’s soft,” said Crystal Kaluna of Kauai.

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Hawaii

Kolekole Pass cleared for emergency evacuations out of West Oahu

Published

1 day ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Kolekole Pass cleared for emergency evacuations out of West Oahu

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The Kolekole Pass is officially allowed to be used as an evacuation route in the event of an emergency on West Oahu.

U.S. military and civilian officials signed an updated official memorandum of understanding Wednesday, opening Kolekole Pass for emergency use.

The first document was signed just prior to July 29, 2025, when Hawaii faced a tsunami warning, and the pass was opened for West Oahu residents to evacuate.

Nearly 500 vehicles made their way through the pass that day as many evacuated the Leeward Coast, officials said.

Maj. Gen. James Batholomees, U.S. Army Commander, Hawaii, was joined by his counterparts from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and the state Department of Transportation officers for Wednesday’s signing.

Batholomees said he took command the day before the tsunami warning.

“The next day, the first order that I had the blessing of giving was in conjunction with the Navy opening the pass during the tsunami,” he said.

Kupuna from the Leeward Coast also attended the signing, saying they were happy for a much-needed secondary route in the event that Farrington Highway is shut down.

Leeward Coast resident William Aila recalled when Farrington Highway was closed for 11 days due to Hurricane Iwa in 1982.

“We need an opportunity to bring in first aid, to bring in food, and to bring in other emergency supplies,” said Aila.

Officials say they are committed to conducting a mass evacuation rehearsal using Kolekole Pass every year.

Ed Sniffen, director of the state Department of Transportation, said it’s the key to a successful activation to use the route.

“The road is safe,” said Sniffen. “When we rode through this, and we did this twice with large operations, the road is safe.”

He added, “That being said, there are improvements that we still want to make.”

HDOT continues to work with the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy on upgrading the roadway, which may total $20 million in improvements.

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