[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 142 (Tuesday, September 5, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3880-S3881]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Maui Wildfires

  Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, last month, on August 8, people on Maui 
experienced one of the worst days of their lives. What started as a 
bright, sunny, windy summer day turned into a long, hellish nightmare 
as wildfires burned down the town of Lahaina.
  There was little sign of the tragedy to come. People showed up to 
work as usual. Children enjoyed their summer vacation. Tourists 
strolled down Front Street. Snorkeling charters set out for the day. 
Surfers hit the waves. And all of that changed in an instant.
  By now, people around the world have seen the photos and the video 
from that horrific day.
  But the devastation up close, on the ground, is even more chilling. 
It is unlike anything I have ever seen. Whole neighborhoods are 
levelled. Piles of ash and debris sit where homes once stood. Hollowed-
out cars, burnt to a crisp, cover the streets.
  To date, 115 people have been declared dead, and many more are still 
missing. For a tight-knit community like Lahaina where everyone knows 
each other, these losses are crushing. They were mothers and fathers, 
aunties and uncles, friends and neighbors, kids as young as 7, and 
seniors who couldn't escape in time. We mourn every one of them and the 
lives they lived and would have gone on to live.
  Even for those who were lucky enough to survive, their lives will 
never be the same again. They are grieving the loss of their family and 
their friends and confronting the loss of their homes and their 
livelihoods. They are wondering where their kids will go to school and 
how they will get healthcare. Those who still have jobs are trying to 
figure out how to get to them without their cars.
  The people of Maui have had their lives turned upside down, and it 
will be years before their lives return to some semblance of normalcy 
again.
  To understand the scale of this tragedy and how it happened, we need 
to go back to the beginning because what happened in Lahaina on that 
day was not normal. Hawaii is no stranger to natural disasters. We have 
seen floods, and we have seen hurricanes, tsunamis, and volcanic 
eruptions, even small-scale wildfires, but nothing like this.
  The conditions for a disaster had been slowly building. Over the past 
several decades, Lahaina's old sugar plantation land had been replaced 
by dry, invasive grass that was prone to fires. As the area got hotter 
and saw less rain, the grass dried up even more. The air got drier too.
  Under normal circumstances, these conditions are manageable, but the 
final piece of this awfully perfect storm came from hundreds of miles 
away. See, usually in Hawaii when the public is told that a hurricane 
is passing to the south and we won't get any rain, we are grateful to 
avoid the direct hit. No rain, just heavy winds--a good outcome. But 
Hurricane Dora was different. Without making landfall or producing a 
single drop of rain, it whipped up the powerful winds that spread the 
deadly fire. Flames barreled down the hillside, crossed the highway, 
and plowed into town, fueled by 70-mile-an-hour winds. With that kind 
of force, the fires only needed an hour or two to decimate Lahaina 
town.
  The winds also left the fire department without a critical tool: 
helicopters to fight the fires from the air. So all they had were the 
standard firetrucks and water hoses. But this was a whole town on 
fire--not a block, not a home. That wasn't going to cut it.
  The fires spewed ash and embers in every direction. The afternoon 
skies darkened until they were pitch black. The air was heavy with 
thick smoke. Cars exploded, power lines fell, engine blocks melted, and 
homes were ripped apart.
  People were not prepared for this because no one watching a fire a 
mile and a half away from their home thinks that it is going to reach 
their street and, worse, that it can happen in 10 or 15 minutes.
  For those of us who weren't there in that hour of panic and chaos, it 
is hard to fully understand the kind of split-second decision that 
people were forced to make. Many grabbed their kids, their pets, 
whatever they could physically carry, and took off. It was the last 
time they saw their homes.
  In a race against the fires, some of them jumped in their cars to get 
out of town, but the one road out of Lahaina was blocked because of 
downed power lines. So hundreds of cars piled up bumper to bumper on 
the streets with nowhere to go. Many people abandoned their cars to 
escape on foot, but others didn't make it. An entire family and a man 
trying to protect his dog died in their cars. Dozens of people jumped 
into the ocean to escape the flames. They stayed for hours, struggling 
to breathe through the plumes of smoke. Others were crouched by the 
seawall, using wet blankets to shield themselves from the flying 
embers.
  People didn't know how long they would be there or even if they would 
be rescued at all. But many found help in strangers, people like Benny 
Reinicke, who saw an elderly woman, Noni, unable to cross the seawall, 
and he carried her on his back and stayed with her and her daughter in 
the water for hours and hours, or Jubee Bedoya, who found a family of 
seven from California on the shoreline and carried their 2-year-old on 
his shoulders for hours in the water as they floated on a piece of 
plywood. They were among the 17 people the Coast Guard rescued that 
night.
  All across town, heroic first responders put their own lives on the 
line to fight the inferno and bring people to safety. Eighteen 
firefighters lost their own homes while they were fighting the fires, 
and in the weeks since, they have worked around the clock to contain 
fires across Maui. We can't thank them enough. But even a thank-you 
from me or anyone else feels inadequate. They didn't do it for us; they 
did it for each other. They were fighting--they are fighting--for their 
friends, for their families, for their neighbors, for their town.
  Rescue teams have worked day and night to search for remains and 
identify victims using DNA evidence. It is a painstaking process. For 
friends and family, it is an agonizing wait to hear something, anything 
about what happened to their loved ones and where they might be.
  Lahaina was known as a historic town that had been the seat of power 
for the sovereign Hawaiian Kingdom in the 19th century. It had also 
served as a major hub for whaling, with hundreds of ships from around 
the world anchored there. Later, its sugar plantation brought 
immigrants from China, Japan, Portugal, and the Philippines who came to 
work on it and made Lahaina their home.
  Before the fires, you could see symbols of that rich history 
throughout town--Nagasako General Store, Pioneer Inn, Waiola Church--
but it looks like a war zone now. Ash and debris stretch for miles. 
Streets still reek of burnt metal and chemicals. Smoke lingers in the 
air. Two thousand two hundred structures were destroyed. Most of them 
were homes, some of which were passed down through generations. Roads 
and bridges, schools and health centers, historic buildings, the 
harbor--all of it destroyed.
  The people of Maui are mourning unimaginable losses, but they are 
also confronting an uncertain future. How long will it take to find a 
permanent

[[Page S3881]]

home? When will they find a stable job again? Where will their kids go 
to school this fall? But if there is any reason for hope in all of this 
devastation, it is that people aren't carrying this burden alone.
  Anyone who knows Hawaii knows that in a crisis, we all pitch in and 
we help each other. When the fires engulfed the town that terrible day, 
people from the island of Lainai saw the clouds of smoke and drove 
their boats 16 miles across the channel to rescue people. In the days 
and weeks since, even those who have lost their homes or jobs or loved 
ones have given everything they have got to each other to make it all a 
little less painful.

  Everyday people are taking it upon themselves and springing into 
action to help. At the Hawaiian homestead of Leialii, the community 
came together and converted homes into supply distribution centers for 
necessities like water and gas. Another center in Napili set up a power 
and satellite internet station in the back of a truck so that people 
without power or cell service could get in touch with loved ones. At 
the University of Hawaii's Maui College, dozens of volunteers gathered 
to prepare meals for people in shelters. A crew from Oahu brought 
supplies on the sailing canoe Hikianalia, and a group of tour boat 
operators delivered supplies from Maalaea Harbor, while surfers on jet 
skis helped to bring them to shore. These people were not led by a 
nonprofit organization; they just saw the community in crisis and 
mobilized, and that is what Hawaii is all about.
  While the individual stories of generosity and community give us some 
heart, the reality is that everyone in Lahaina needs and deserves help. 
People of every age and every background have been devastated by these 
fires, and their needs are so enormous, they simply cannot do it alone. 
So it is our responsibility here in Congress to provide relief in any 
way that we can for as long as people need it.
  In the past few weeks, following the President's quick disaster 
declaration, we have seen the most robust mobilization of Federal 
resources in Hawaii's history. Over 1,000 FEMA personnel have been on 
the ground assisting survivors, and nearly every Federal Agency, from 
the Small Business Administration, to the Department of Transportation 
to HUD, has taken steps to deliver aid and bring relief to the people 
of Maui.
  My staff and I are in daily communication with our Hawaii 
congressional delegation, State and local officials, senior 
administration officials, and dozens of Federal Agencies who are all-in 
to help Maui recover. Last month, the President and First Lady came to 
Maui to show their support and hear directly from survivors. Speaker 
McCarthy and several bipartisan Members of Congress have also come to 
see the devastation firsthand. Many of my colleagues on both sides of 
the aisle have reached out asking how they can help. It has meant a 
lot, and I want to thank everybody for that.
  But given all that was lost, it will take years for Maui to fully get 
back on its feet, and more help will be needed from Congress in the 
months ahead. Nearly 1,900 homes were destroyed, including an 
affordable housing complex. Over 5,000 people have been displaced and 
are living in temporary housing like hotels and Airbnbs. They will need 
help finding permanent homes.
  Three healthcare clinics, including a federally qualified health 
center's satellite office, were destroyed. They provided critical 
healthcare access to all of West Maui. Adult medicine, pediatric care, 
OB/GYN services, dental and behavioral health--all totally lost. 
Providers are doing the best they can using hotel ballrooms or tents in 
parking lots to get people care. But people need more than just urgent 
care; they need comprehensive care like checkups and counseling, and 
they need to get it in a real clinic.
  King Kamehameha III Elementary School, which educates over 600 K-5 
students, was damaged beyond repair. The cost of a new campus is 
estimated at $175 million. Three other schools in the area are still 
closed and under inspection for air, soil, and water safety. Under 
normal circumstances, we would already be a few weeks into the school 
year by now, but as of last week, 1,200 students have not enrolled in 
another public school. We need resources to get them back into schools 
in-person and quickly.
  Some people still don't have access to clean drinking water, and the 
wastewater treatment plants were knocked offline, creating 
environmental and health risks for the community. We don't yet know 
what the cost of repair for these critical services will be.
  Roads and bridges were torn apart and will also need to be repaired 
so that people can move around. Over 1,000 electrical poles and 500 
transformers are being replaced, and high-speed internet access has 
still not been fully restored to West Maui. Before any of that can 
happen, FEMA will need to complete one of the most complex debris-
removal operations in its history. We are talking about tons and tons 
of waste that we will need to safely clean up off the streets and 
transport out of Hawaii. It may take up to a year and cost up to $1 
billion.
  This is just some of the work ahead, and none of this will be easy. 
While the full extent of the damages is still being assessed, we know 
that the Federal share of costs for recovery will be in the billions of 
dollars.
  Americans all share the responsibility of providing relief to these 
survivors because, while Maui is today's victim of extreme weather, it 
may very well be another State tomorrow. We have already seen so much 
damage this summer in Florida, California, Vermont, Louisiana, and 
more. These catastrophic events are unfortunately becoming more common 
and more severe.
  In the weeks after the fires, I visited Maui every 3 days, and I 
talked to first responders and survivors about what it was like on that 
harrowing afternoon and in the days since. Their resilience and 
determination in spite of their pain and their grief was striking.
  When I asked people ``How are you doing?'' I was struck because I 
often get the same response: ``I lost everything, but I am alive.''
  ``I lost everything, but I am alive.''
  They know that they are the lucky ones, and they are trying to find a 
way to get through this disaster.
  I know that the people of Maui can recover and chart a new future, 
but they cannot do it alone. They need help from everyone--in Hawaii, 
here in Congress, and across the country. With time, scars will heal; 
Lahaina will be restored; and we will be there to support them every 
step of the way. Mahalo.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Kelly). The majority leader.

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