Hawaii's governor says most residents displaced by wildfire now have long-term housing
Nine months after a deadly wildfire burned Lahaina, Hawaii, to the ground, the number of people living in hotels and other short-term housing has been reduced by 80%, Gov.
Nine months after a deadly wildfire burned Lahaina, Hawaii, to the ground, the number of people living in hotels and other short-term housing has been reduced by 80%, Gov. Josh Green said this week.
Housing for local residents was already extremely tight when the Aug. 8 fire — one of three on Maui that day — killed at least 102 people and destroyed 2,173 homes. It left 3,071 households without permanent shelter, a number that has been reduced to 628, Green said, adding that 1,596 people are still transitioning to long-term housing.
Green, a Democrat and former emergency room doctor who later tended to the medical care of families on the Big Island of Hawaii, said that in the immediate aftermath he paid a visit to the place no family wants to have to go to.
“I went personally into the morgue to see, as a governor, the people that we had lost,” he said. “I have to be kind of a father figure to everyone that I’m with, or an uncle or brother to them. So it was devastating.”
Green, 54, said he has seen tragedy his whole life as a physician, “but this was very different” as he came face-to-face with the enormity of the loss to the people of Hawaii. He said the state's residents had no choice but to move forward.
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