After losing nearly everything in wildfires, Maui family makes heartbreaking decision to leave island
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Without permanent homes, Lahaina fire survivors have been forced to float from shelters to hotels to temporary housing.
Now, some have made the tough call to pack up and leave the island.
Hawaii News Now met Maui natives Viliami and Chelsea Mailau as they sorted through memories ahead of their life-changing move to Tennessee. They’re starting over for the 2nd time after losing their home last August.
“It’s just, we had to do it once. We can do it again,” Viliami Mailau told HNN. “It hurts, but we can keep all the Hawaii stuff.”
MAUI WILDFIRES DISASTER: ONE YEAR LATER
Before the fires, Viliami worked five jobs to provide for his family. They lost nearly everything in the disaster, then struggled to find an affordable rental.
Viliami said FEMA offered free flights to leave. He initially felt he was being pushed out.
“It kind of seemed like, ‘go off island, get off island,’ so I mean we took that, kept it in the back pocket, and then tried to figure out everything from there hopefully not needing to pull or use that card. But when we decided in June to move to Tennessee, that’s when we’re kind of like, ‘hey, maybe we could. It’ll benefit us if we can use this,’” he said.
The University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization estimates that Maui’s lost 4,000 residents since the fires.
For many, the recovery and rebuilding are too much to endure. It’s easier and cheaper to leave.
“The main problem was that both the FEMA and the state moved much too slowly on solutions which ended up delaying our ability to temporarily house our families by months,” said data and technology consultant Matt Jachowski. “And fundamentally, it led to our families experiencing housing instability, mental health struggles and forcing families to move away.”
The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement helped Viliami obtain a commercial driver’s license to start a new career on the continent.
The Mailaus know the move makes sense, but their hearts are breaking. Their oldest son wants to stay.
“I kind of feel like that I’m failing him in a way,” Chelsea Mailau said, in tears.
“Like, he wants to stay here and grow up with his cousins here because I’m born and raised here. And for rip that opportunity away from him it sucks. And just as he gets closer, that’s all he does is cry. I can’t help because the only way I can help is move away where it’s cheaper or there is housing, like places that we can afford.”
“No matter how far we go, we know we can come back. We know we can come back,” Viliami Mailau said. “We know the aloha, the love, always gonna be here because we’re deeply rooted in this island.”
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