Maui News

Dozens of ships from 25 nations are arriving in Pearl Harbor this month for the 26th Rim of the Pacific exercise 2018.

As a result of the historic flooding event, 532 homes were damaged or destroyed. Residents of Wainiha and Hāʻena on Kauaʻi still have limited access to their communities.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reports that an explosive eruption at Kīlauea summit occurred at 4:49 a.m. There was no tsunami generated from the seismic event that released energy equivalent to a 5.3 (preliminary 5.4) magnitude earthquake.

The brush fire north of Ukumehame continues to burn mauka of the highway. The fire is off the road but traffic leaving Lahaina is backed up to Kai Hele Ku Street. Traffic is also starting to back up coming in to Lahaina.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is providing more than $300,000 to the Hawai‘i Department of Health (DOH) to support beach water quality monitoring and information sharing throughout the state.

Rare silversword plants are taken from Haleakalā, a man goes missing in the Kīlauea lava evacuation zone, an entire island loses power and a new type of smoking ban will soon be in effect on Maui. Learn more in our news headline video with Kiaora Bohlool.

Maui Fire Chief Jeffrey A. Murray retires on June 30th, 2018, after 10 years at the helm of the department. 

Lahaina in West Maui was ranked #1; and Kīhei in South Maui was ranked #8 on the list compiled by the personal-finance website WalletHub.

Liquid Robotics has deployed two Wave Gliders, autonomous ocean robots, to capture live ocean data close to where lava is flowing into the ocean from Hawaiʻi’s Kīlauea Volcano.

Hawaiʻi Attorney General Doug Chin called the ruling “utterly-misguided and disturbing.” US Senator Brian Schatz said the ruling could mean smaller payckecks and fewer benefits for teachers, fire fighters, police officers and others. Those in support of the ruling say it forces unions to be more accountable.

Public Aerial 4th of July Firework Displays:  The first will occur on the Fourth of July at around 8 p.m. from an offshore barge along Front Street in Lahaina.  A separate display is planned for Saturday, July 7, 2018, at around 9 p.m., as part of the 26th annual Lānaʻi Pineapple Festival.

Maui police have launched an arson investigation into fires that destroyed a home and burned a derelict vehicle in Kula. Maui police said, “any connection between the arson investigation and murder would be speculation,” but have called the fires “suspicious.”

A brush fire reported near Molokaʻi’s Manawainui Bridge on Tuesday appears to have been sparked by a high voltage power line.  Maui fire officials say the line had been severed and fell to the ground.

Upon arrival, crews reported about a half acre of brush actively burning on the north slope of the gulch adjacent to ʻĀina Lani Drive.  Authorities say the fire was within 20 feet of area homes.

On Monday June 25, 2018, Haleakalā National Park Law Enforcement Rangers and Maui Police Department recovered rare Haleakalā silversword plants or “ahinahina” that had been removed by a visitor from Haleakalā’s summit.

The U.S. Department of Labor has given the State of Hawai‘i  permission to offer Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) in Hawai‘i County as part of the joint state-federal response to the ongoing seismic activity and volcanic eruption on Hawai‘i Island.

Around 10:05 a.m. today (Tuesday, June 26, 2018), an island wide outage was reported, affecting approximately 3,229 customers on Moloka‘i.

“I made unintentional mistakes that hurt me, but I did so while fighting those who profit from intentional mistakes on the backs of working people. All I can do is apologize, correct my problem, face the consequences, make changes so they never happen again, and move forward,” said Rep. Ing.

Maui County hotels reported the highest revenue per available room (RevPAR) for May at $259 (+9.9%), which was bolstered by a strong increase in average daily rate (ADR) to $341 (+9.5%) to offset flat occupancy of 75.9 percent (+0.3 percentage points). 

Traffic is affected at the Papalaua Street intersection and the northwest turn lane is closed. The project started at 8:30 a.m. and should be completed by 2:30 p.m.