Regular weekend gatherings at the Hyatt Regency Maui and Royal Lahaina Hotel have become part of the healing process for survivors of the August wildfires on Maui. In partnership with Hui Ho‘omalu and Laukanaka, Kamehameha Schools, Maui Arts & Cultural Center, and the hotel shel­ters, the Office of Wellness and Resilience has been coordinating the gatherings since early October.

Throughout January, veteran-owned Fire Dept. Coffee is donating a portion of its coffee and shirt sales to support the 18 Maui firefighters who lost their homes during the Aug. 8 fires.

“He saved lives that day and for this l believe John [Miyamoto] deserves to be Employee of the Month,” said his nominator, who remained anonymous.

A team of University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers are asking Maui residents to participate in a study to analyze the short- and long-term health effects of exposure to the deadly wildfires that destroyed Lahaina and parts of Kula. Registration begins Jan. 5, 2024.

The site is designed for 600 students and features 30 planned classrooms. As of Christmas, 17 classrooms were already in place. The entrance to the 10 acre site is via Akahele Street below the Kapalua Airport.

Treecovery Hawaii has been working with the Army Corps to help keep surviving trees in the Lahaina and Kula burn zones healthy while also providing soil remediation in the area.

Hana Hou Hospitality announced its Māla Ocean Tavern is set to reopen in February of 2024. The restaurant is one of five West Maui establishments run by the group, two of which were destroyed by the Aug. 8, 2023 wildfire in Lahaina.

The Maui County Department of Transportation announced that the hotel circulator shuttles in West Maui will be discontinued effective 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024.

Amos Lonokailua-Hewett has been selected as the new administrator of the Maui Emergency Management Agency, effective Jan. 1, 2024. He brings to the position 25 years of service with Maui Fire Department before retiring in 2019 as a battalion chief.

The Hawaiʻi State Legislature announced that the Grants-In-Aid process for the 2024 Legislative Session is now open, and interested parties are asked to submit their applications to the Legislature by the Jan. 19, 2024 deadline.

Maui County residents impacted by the Aug. 8 wildfires who relocated to Kaua‘i, O‘ahu or Hawai‘i Island may apply for the Maui Relief TANF Program for families with dependent children through Community Action Programs on those islands.

Celebrated chef and TV personality Guy Fieri teamed up with the Hawaiʻi Restaurant Association, American Savings Bank and Fiserv, Inc., to distribute $600 prepaid debit cards to Lahaina restaurant workers who lost their job when their workplace was destroyed in the tragic wildfires on Aug. 8.

“The impact of the Maui wildfires continues to be felt in November’s figures, but with most of West Maui now reopened to tourism, there is a concerted effort to reinvigorate job opportunities and facilitate the economic recovery of Maui,” said DBEDT Director James Kunane Tokioka.

Kaleo Manuel, the First Deputy on the state Commission on Water Resource Management is apparently leaving his post after being reassigned following the August wildfires, and then reinstated two months later following an investigation by the Attorney General.

“These devices play a crucial role in facilitating the processing of FEMA paperwork, unemployment claims, insurance matters, as well as aiding in education, housing, and employment searches, accessing support services, and maintaining connections with family and friends,” according to organization leaders.

The petition from a family on Olowalu Village Road says even temporary storage of these substances from the Aug. 8 wildfires “poses great risk of causing irreversible damage to soil, water, air, the ocean and people.”

Effective Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024, operational hours will be modified for the Lahaina Disaster Recovery Center. 

Hui O Ka Wai Ola, a community-based water-quality monitoring organization, was awarded funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to increase its collection of West Maui water quality data in response to the Lahaina wildfire.

On Nov. 1, 2023, the final phases of reopening West Maui (except Lahaina) after the Aug. 8 wildfires started, resulting in increased unit night supply and unit night demand in Kā‘anapali, Nāpili and Kapalua when compared to the previous month.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency warns the public of online classified advertisements that are luring Maui wildfire survivors with false offers of available rental units. “People are learning too late that the cash they paid for a security deposit went to a scammer instead,” according to a FEMA news release.