[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 184 (Wednesday, December 11, 2024)]
[House]
[Page H7101]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         RECOGNIZING THE KILOHANA TEMPORARY GROUP HOUSING SITE

  (Ms. TOKUDA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. TOKUDA. Mr. Speaker, for millions of our fellow Americans, 
Thanksgiving is about returning home, a time to gather with loved ones 
in a place both familiar and safe.
  On my way back to Hawaii for the Thanksgiving recess, with long 
delays and packed airports and planes, it hit me for too many of our 
Maui ``family,'' ``ohana,'' this is but a sliver of what they have been 
trying to do for the past 16 months. They are just trying to go home.
  A week before Thanksgiving, I joined the Folaumoeloa ``family,'' 
``ohana'' as they became the first family to move into the new Kilohana 
Temporary Group Housing Site in Lahaina. By this spring, 167 modular 
units will house survivors and their families.
  While these housing units can never replace what was lost, we hope 
they will soon be made homes by the people, the love, and the hopes and 
dreams that will fill the space between these walls.
  A big ``thank you,'' ``mahalo'' to FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers, 
the State of Hawaii, Maui County, and all our contractors and community 
partners for their hard work and dedication.
  Thanks to them, families like the Folaumoeloas are moving in months 
ahead of schedule to a place where they can look ahead to the future 
and to what this community will one day be.

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