Plumes of smoke still occasionally rise from the rubble of the former town of Lahaina, ten days after the Maui island fire that reduced it to a handful of ash. The death toll rises to 114, although rescue teams have already completed searching more than 60% of the burned area. While the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii was reduced to a lunar landscape—a black space between the blue sea and the green mountain two miles to the north—; In a luxury tourism area, sprinklers irrigate an immaculate golf course, with fountains gushing torrents of water as if nothing had happened.
Hawaii, and the island of Maui in particular, is sold in tourist brochures and cartoons as a tropical paradise. The Lahaina disaster, which has left thousands homeless and an as yet undetermined number missing, has exposed the serious problems underlying this idyllic picture and reopened old wounds in native populations, who lament that colonization is the first and then tourism has made them second-class citizens.
“Mauiikakai; Maui strong” (“Maui strong” in Hawaiian and in English). Someone has painted over the tunnel marking the entrance to the island’s west — where Lahaina is — with the encouraging slogan, which went viral after the worst fire in the United States in more than a century. A few kilometers later, a traffic sign posted long before the fire warned in vain: “Dry area. Avoid fires.” The signs of the disaster are visible long before they arrive: tents on the beaches where some of the displaced took refuge; a burned out car; Police vehicles block access. And at the entrance to Lahaina, there’s a large aid distribution center in a mall parking lot, where rows and rows of vehicles from displaced residents receive aid: food, diapers, toiletries. Beyond, police and army cordons block access to the former urban area, now a plain of gray ash and blackened rubble.
Windelle Aguinaldo, a Lahaina-born and raised Filipino chef, waits with her five-year-old daughter to receive a charger and cord for her cellphone. The Disaster Management Agency (FEMA) has just placed Aguinaldo and his family in a hotel room in the luxury district, along with thousands of other people. “We don’t know how long we can stay there,” he claims. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green has made sure the displaced can stay for as long as needed, which he estimates at six to seven months. Like many others who have been left homeless, Aguinaldo has heard rumors of developers trying to buy cheap land from affected families.
“It would be frightening. There was already a major homelessness problem, and that can make it worse. Up to five families usually lived in the lost houses [que compartían la residencia heredada]. Where would these people go? They say everything will be rebuilt, but it will take years. “Many people will have to leave in the end,” predicts Aguinaldo.
If his fears come true, it would continue a trend that has been ongoing for some time: Some of the 87,000 workers who make up Maui’s workforce have migrated to the continental United States, forced by a lack of job prospects — “tourism.” , army or construction. “There isn’t much else,” summed up a local resident – and the high cost of living. Las Vegas, Nevada is also called “the ninth island of Hawaii” because of its large island community.
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In addition to word of mouth, social media these days is filled with warnings from some members of the local community to others about possible speculators looking to acquire land in an area with strong tourist demand but central to Hawaiian history and identity.
This fear touches a very sensitive nerve and has very old roots in the local population. In 1893, a Washington-backed coup dethroned Queen Lli’uokalani and eventually brought the land of the Hawaiian Islands and the vast pineapple and sugar plantations established there by American businessmen under control. “Our family, like many others on Maui, was forced to sell our home as well, even though there was no fire. Tragedies like the Maui fires just accelerate that process,” wrote politician Kaniela Ing, a community organizer and former member of the Hawaii House of Representatives, on social media.
Plantations, unable to compete with cheaper produce from other countries, gave way in the late 20th century to tourism as the major engine of Hawaii’s economy: 80% of Maui’s annual wealth comes from visitors from outside the archipelago. Hotels, apartment buildings and tourist lodgings were built to meet the demand for second and third homes from continental American visitors and investors.
This process was exacerbated during the pandemic, when lockdowns and remote work suddenly made working from the beach possible and much more appealing. Since 2019, the value of Maui’s built-up area has increased by more than 35%. As anywhere where tourism dominates the economy, the local population is crowded out and crowded out.
Aerial view of the city of Lahaina, last day 10. MARCO GARCIA (Portal)
Favorable treatment for the tourist
In many cases, the impression prevails that the tourist, especially the one with big budgets, gets preferential treatment compared to the locals, who feel like second-class citizens in their own country. Among other things, they cite the large water usage of luxury hotels — up to 500,000 gallons per day (1,890,000 liters) for the 400 gallons of an average single-family home — while in times of drought fines limit its use. Use for the local population in less visited areas. Before the fire, it was not uncommon to see Hawaiian flags flying upside down on the island’s streets in protest.
Images of a tour boat bringing a group of snorkelers ashore 11 miles from Lahaina last week sparked widespread outrage among evacuated residents and the Indigenous community. “Don’t come to Maui,” Hawaiian actor Jason Momoa insisted on Instagram, “don’t be fooled into thinking your presence on an island that is suffering so much is necessary.”
In the devastated city, local communities have organized alongside FEMA and other major aid organizations to distribute relief supplies to evacuees. Lahaina’s coalition civic groups are urging Gov. Green to look to the residents and their culture as he plans what will likely be a long and expensive reconstruction. Washington estimates the damage from the fire at about $5.6 billion.
Lahaina residents need “time to mourn” but also want to be “part of the discussion” about recovery needs and to have the ideas of local people and other residents heard, says community organizer Ke’eaumoku Kapu, who attended a joint this Friday Statement by the coalition to the press on the outskirts of the burnt-out city. “Give us the time and opportunity to participate in the recovery plans to be part of the solution and not the problem.”
For his part, the governor of Hawaii promised in a speech before the state this Friday that the local community would be relied on to “do the reconstruction the way they want.” And he announced “heavy penalties” for those who try to take advantage of the circumstances to buy cheap land from residents who have lost their homes. But he also insisted that no expense will be spared to rebuild a city that is as important to the island’s tourism economy as it is to Hawaiian identity.
“Lahaina will rise again,” Green said.
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