On August 8, 2023, the trajectory of Maui’s historic Lahaina town was forever altered. A place of archeological and cultural significance as the first capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom, and later a whaling port turned tourist destination, Lahaina was quickly consumed by an early morning wildfire fueled by drought conditions. Fanned by strong winds from Hurricane Dora several hundred miles offshore, the wildfire engulfed the town and overwhelmed first responders in an unprecedented chain of events. At the same time, three other major wildfires scorched other parts of the island. In the aftermath, over 2,000 buildings were destroyed and over 100 lives were lost. Hawai‘i Governor Josh Green described it as the “largest natural disaster in Hawai‘i’s state history.”
Behind the scenes, teams of University of Hawai‘i (UH) researchers sprung in action during the wildfire and shortly thereafter to provide first responders and decision-makers with threat assessments and situational updates. Later, UH teams helped conduct health and environmental impact studies, and undertook research to improve wildfire mitigation and prevention.
Situational Awareness
The true nature of the destruction to Lahaina was not readily apparent to emergency officials until the morning of August 9th, as aerial and ground reports began to trickle in. Within hours, preliminary scientific estimates of the wildfires damages and impact were provided by the Pacific Disaster Center Global (PDC Global), a UH research center based in Kihei, Maui that provides disaster management tools and analysis to improve disaster preparedness, response and recovery in the US and other countries. In partnership with the Maui County Enterprise Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Team, PDC Global was able to collect, map, and update emergency information to its DisasterAWARE platform. DisasterAWARE is a risk intelligence and situational awareness tool that provides decision makers with information to effectively direct emergency and humanitarian assistance.
“As soon as the impacts of the wildfires became known, we basically dropped everything and concentrated our efforts to provide the best and most accurate information on the wildfires. The scale of the event was tremendous, leaving impacts on a large portion of the community including several members of our staff,” said PDC Global Executive Director Ray Shirkhodai. “While contending with our own impacts from the wildfire, PDC was still able to provide real-time situational assessments to assist emergency efforts on all levels, including the first impact estimates and satellite images of affected areas for Governor Green’s initial press conference.”
During and over the course of the next six weeks after the wildfire, PDC Global staff worked around the clock to provide up-to-date information at 84 shift changes/briefings to five emergency operations centers, including Maui County, Hawai‘i Emergency Management Agency, US Army Pacific, US Indo-Pacific Command and the Hawai‘i National Guard’s Joint Task Force 5-0, providing over 600 situation reports, and thousands of updates to over 800 responders.
UH’s RAPID Response
In the immediate aftermath, teams of UH researchers began to mobilize their efforts to study and address the impacts of the wildfire disaster. Through $2.1 million in funding by the National Science Foundation’s Rapid Response Research (RAPID) program, UH led 12 multidisciplinary, multi-organizational projects involving more than 30 researchers employing the latest technology and expertise, including AI-enhanced data collection and computational modeling to study air and water quality, health, ecosystem resilience and emergency response strategies.
All UH projects were coordinated by the Water Resources Research Center (WRRC) at UH Mānoa, whose experience with large-scale, emergency research efforts like the ongoing Red Hill water crisis on O‘ahu, made the unit the logical choice to take the lead role.
“The University of Hawai‘i will continue to play a critical role in conducting research on the wide-ranging effects of wildfires on both human health and the environment, facilitating informed decision-making and effective disaster response strategies,” said Thomas Giambelluca, former Director of the WRRC. “Proper coordination of our research efforts is vital to ensure effective and successful collaboration among stakeholders, including researchers, government agencies, community groups, and nonprofits in Maui’s post-fire recovery, resiliency and future disaster response initiatives.”
Health and Social Impacts
The first comprehensive results from UH Mānoa’s Maui Wildfire Exposure Cohort Study (MauiWES), indicate that of the Maui residents affected by the wildfires, half are in worse health compared to the previous year and many continue to face food insecurity and difficulties in accessing medical care. These are just two of many key findings resulting from comprehensive cohort study funded by the Hawai‘i Community Foundation, Maui Strong Fund and Kaiser Permanente.
Over the next decade, the study led by Professors Ruben Juarez of the University of Hawai‘i Economic Research Organization and Alika Maunakea of the UH Mānoa John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM), will continue to document the acute and chronic health and social impacts stemming from the disaster. Community based partners include Maui Medic Healers Hui, Roots Reborn and Tagnawa for Maui. The study recently received $2.3 million from the State of Hawai‘i to include children and to start a survivor’s registry.
“While other issues like housing are at the forefront, it is equally important to prioritize health to prevent further disparities, especially among our underserved and minority communities,” said the study’s authors. “By addressing these health issues alongside other critical needs, we can work towards a more equitable and resilient recovery.”
The government’s wildfire response and its impact on the physical and mental health of affected individuals is the subject of a five-year, $3.8 million UH Mānoa study funded by the National Institutes of Health. Led by Alex Ortega, dean of the Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health, and Keawe‘aimoku Kaholokula, professor and chair of the Department of Native Hawaiian Health at JABSOM, the study will collect data on physical and mental health impacts, as well as contributing factors. A second phase of the study will focus on health care barriers, health care utilization before and after the fire, insurance eligibility and other factors.
“The ultimate goal of the study is to strengthen the resiliency of not just our communities and families, but also our governmental agencies and emergency healthcare systems so that we can respond and recover better from future disasters,” said Ortega.
Prevention/Mitigation
In addition to the strong winds generated by Hurricane Dora, another factor contributing to a “perfect storm” for the wildfire was the prevalence of easily ignitable, non-native vegetation in fallow lands surrounding Lahaina and other parts of Maui. Across the entire state, these fire-prone plants have spread to over one million acres and pose a significant challenge to wildfire management.
An ambitious project spearheaded by the UH Mānoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) aims to introduce non-invasive and native plants back into the ecosystem to help restore the landscape and scale up wildfire risk reduction efforts. Researchers will work to store wild seed collections in each county, develop seed sharing protocols and educational resource, and cultivate stock seed plots of these plants for future use on farms and orchards.
“My perspective is that, like land and water, we need to treat seeds and plant lineages as a public trust,” said Extension Specialist Clay Trauernicht, principal investigator of the project. “Having UH be able to document seed sources, provide transparency on geographic representation, and ultimately ensure equitable access to quality plant materials is a major part of the project.”
In the first three years, the CTAHR team will coordinate with local partners to build collections, targeting 1.5 to 2 million seeds across 5 to 8 species to ensure diversity and geographic representation. The five-year, $4.6 million project is being funded by a US Forest Service Community Wildfire Defense Grant.