Hawaii was pummeled by four federally recognized disasters in short succession this year, leaving a long road ahead for repairing much damage to public facilities after initial emergency responses.

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Hawaii was pummeled by four federally recognized disasters in short succession this year, leaving a long road ahead for repairing much damage to public facilities after initial emergency responses.

Gov. Josh Green on Sept. 23 announced a patchwork plan for the state to front an estimated $686 million in spending to repair public buildings and infrastructure damaged by Kona-low storms in March, a magnitude-6.0 earthquake in May, Hurricane Lala in August and Hurricane Lowell in September.

The governor’s funding strategy included scraping close to $175 million from accounts of nearly every state department under an emergency proclamation he issued following the Kona lows and using $121 million of it on recovery efforts for the March storms that affected multiple islands and the May earthquake on Hawaii island.

Green subsequently drew nearly $50 million more from the state’s major disaster fund, which received the $54 million balance from his emergency shifting of departmental funds plus $100 million the Legislature appropriated in May. The disaster fund now has a $105 million balance.

To cover more anticipated recovery expenses, much of which are expected to be reimbursed to a high degree by the federal government, the governor has proposed withdrawing $300 million from the state’s emergency budget and reserve fund, also known as the Rainy Day fund.

Still, it could be many months or even years for a lot of major damage to be fixed in cases where funding from state and federal sources is slow to be approved and released, including expected aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“A lot of assistance comes but sometimes takes months or years,” Green said during his Sept. 23 disaster recovery briefing.

FEMA announced on Thursday that President Donald Trump approved a Sept. 9 request from Green to cover at least 75% of $200 million in estimated damage to public buildings and infrastructure from Lala and Lowell. FEMA previously granted similar requests for the Kona lows and earthquake.

But FEMA funding depends on further assessments on a project-by-project basis and can take months or years to be delivered.

For instance, FEMA on Sept. 29 announced its approval to provide Kauai County with nearly $1.4 million for permanent repairs to public infrastructure needed as a result of severe storms, flooding, landslides and mudslides in 2018.

“A lot of this is multiyear recovery efforts,” said Carl Bonham, executive director of the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, during a recent media briefing on the state economy in the wake of the disasters.

To be sure, much recovery work after each disaster this year was immediate. It included debris removal, emergency road repairs, filling a giant sinkhole at Lanai’s only commercial harbor, and fixing extensive damage to airport roofs and ceilings.

According to Ed Sniffen, state Department of Transportation director, the agency spent $55 million on airport building repairs, $30 million to stabilize hillsides above roads in Waimea on Oahu, $9 million for similar hillside work on Maui and $6 million for the same thing along Oahu’s Pali Highway — all caused by the Kona-low storms.

A significant amount of debris clearing also was done by the Hawaii National Guard, which was activated for all the storms at a cost of about $3 million to the state, with an expected future 75% reimbursement from the federal government.

Lengthy
repair delays

Repairing other major damage to public facilities has longer-term or uncertain timetables, in part because they may rely on appropriations from the Legislature or aid from FEMA.

For example, Green said the March storms caused $162 million in damage to 54 public schools, and that Hurricane Lala caused $12.5 million in damage to 38 public schools in addition to inflicting so much damage on two schools on Hawaii Island in Konawaena and Naalehu that they have to be rebuilt.

The state Department of Education for more than a week hasn’t been able to say how much it has spent to date fixing damage from disasters this year, or when it might be able to begin rebuilding the two Big Island schools. Green said DOE has received $50 million for repair work and needs an additional $112 million to fix damage just from the Kona lows.

On Kauai, Port Allen Small Boat Harbor also faces an uncertain timetable for repairs after suffering an estimated $19 million in damage from Hurricane Lowell, which swept by the island Sept. 7.

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources announced on Oct. 2 that it had reopened the harbor’s boat launch ramp after surveys found no underwater hazards or ramp safety issues. However, it has no projected timetable to restore use of 34 berths and six moorings in the harbor where tenants include fishing tour operators.

“We understand the importance of this facility to the people of Kauai and are using all available resources to ensure that their access to the ocean from Port Allen will be restored as quickly as possible,” DLNR Director Ryan Kanaka‘ole said in a statement announcing the ramp reopening.

To give a perspective of how long repairs can take at a harbor that isn’t needed to transport food or other essential supplies, consider Lahaina Small Boat Harbor that was destroyed by a wildfire in 2023 along with most of the West Maui town during a disaster that triggered massive federal aid.

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DLNR has been relying on appropriations from the Legislature, special boating fees and other sources to finance at least $26 million in repair work that has included dredging and replacement of pilings, piers, docks and wharves often requiring extensive permitting.

The Lahaina harbor remains closed, though loading pier use has resumed. At least $18 million in work has yet to begin, and some of it is estimated to be finished in 2028.

That ‘Rainy
Day’ is now

A quicker repair and reopening is projected for the state-owned Kula Hospital in Upcountry Maui, which was damaged during the Kona-low storms and has been closed since.

Repairing the historic building is estimated to cost $65 million, and work is anticipated to begin at the outset of 2027 and finish by the end of the year.

Maui Health, an affiliate of Kaiser Permanente that operates the hospital, agreed to cover $23 million. The state will contribute up to $42 million and expects to receive $20 million back from insurance proceeds.

An estimate of total insurance coverage on state buildings damaged by disasters this year was not available, but the sum would reduce the state’s ultimate cost for recovery work.

Because the receipt of insurance proceeds and FEMA aid can take a long time, Green proposes tapping $300 million from the Rainy Day fund, which has a balance of over $1.6 billion.

Use of any money from the fund requires two-thirds approval by the state House and Senate. The Legislature doesn’t reconvene until January and could make a decision by May.

Bonham can’t imagine why lawmakers wouldn’t grant such approval.

“If you’re not going to tap the Rainy Day fund now, when would you ever use it?” he said.

To Green, the need is obvious and could be made worse if any more storms hit Hawaii this year.

“It has rained,” he said. “I think it would be irresponsible to not take monies from that saved Rainy Day fund … .”

It’s expected that most state money fronted for disaster recovery will be reimbursed by FEMA aid that then can be used to refill various state coffers or used by the state for other needs.

Individual assistance

Such FEMA “public assistance” doesn’t help residents with private property damage, but separate FEMA “individual assistance” has been made available to qualified applicants with such needs.

Across all four disasters, 74 homes were destroyed, 451 suffered major damage, 514 had minor damage that can be fixed relatively quickly to make them habitable, and 251 received damage but were still habitable, according to the state.

State and federal assistance for residents impacted by the disasters has been provided in several ways, including efforts by the Hawaii National Guard that rescued or evacuated more than 140 people, delivered more than 44,000 gallons of potable water and distributed 2,045 meals over the three storms, during which around 250 to 500 personnel were activated each time.

DOE distributed 3,800 meals to families in Ka‘u on Big Island after Lala. And the state Department of Human Services received $20.5 million from the federal government that it used to provide roughly 69,000 households with new Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to replace SNAP-funded food that spoiled after long-lasting power outages mostly on Kauai following Lala, but also after the Kona lows and Lowell.

More food aid was provided by DHS, which used $2.3 million from the state disaster fund and $1.4 million from another state agency to help fund Hawai‘i Foodbank operations in the storms’ wake this year.

DHS also has received money from the state disaster fund to pay for $1.9 million in hotel costs to house residents displaced by the four disasters, $5 million for other housing assistance that includes rent and home repair, and $6 million to prepare and equip a site in Naalehu with 12 modular homes already owned by the state for use by displaced elderly residents.

DHS expects the Naalehu homes to be ready by the end of October.

Special unemployment benefits are another thing the state has distributed and can be reimbursed by the federal government. The state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations has requested $999,814 tied to the Kona lows and $113,000 tied to the earthquake, and plans to request additional funding for Lala and Lowell.

Special approval also was given by the military to use two Air Force C-17 cargo planes to pick up trucks, equipment and personnel from the Southern California Edison utility company and transport them to Hawaii Island after Lala to help Hawaiian Electric restore power. The equipment and crews were then airlifted from Hawaii Island to Kauai after Lowell to provide the same help to the Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative, a nonprofit.

A spokesman for the state Department of Defense said Hawaiian Electric may have to reimburse the state for the $567,652 cost of the federal flight service.

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