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Floor Speech
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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 Over the past several decades, Lahaina's old sugar plantation land had been replaced by dry, invasive grass that was prone to fires.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 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.
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