Hot dry winds from a nearby ocean hurricane swirled across Lahaina on Aug. 8, 2023, downing power lines that ignited dry grass. The brush fire on the island of Maui would become a wind-lashed inferno destroying much of the history- drenched town where Hawaiian kings and queens once presided, and whalers and missionaries clashed — a place beloved by visitors and residents at the edge of the Pacific.

The fire, which grew at terrifying speed, took the lives of 102 people. It destroyed 2,200 buildings and displaced 8,000 in a town of 13,000. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and local officials moved displaced people to hotel rooms in unharmed resorts, but many remain without adequate shelter.

Last November, five-truck convoys began arriving in town from the port of Kahului across the

See Full Page