'Time of crisis' for Maui fire survivors

Aug. 26—KAHULUI — Hawaii's congressional delegation has asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Serv­ices secretary to provide additional support for mental health, child care and language services for survivors of the Lahaina wildfire.

Secretary Xavier Becerra on Friday spoke to evacuees of the country's deadliest wildfire in more than a century — sometimes in Spanish — and toured the Lahaina Comprehensive Health Center, Maui Family Assistance Center and Royal Lahaina Resort — one of the temporary homes of evacuees — with Gov. Josh Green and U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono. Becerra later told reporters at Maui College that victims have a clear need for mental health support.

Becerra called the second week following the Aug. 8 fire a "time of crisis" that's "going to become worse."

"We're here and we want to be helpful," he said.

Some survivors at the Royal Lahaina Resort remain so traumatized that they won't leave their rooms, Hirono said.

Green said 20% to 30% of Lahaina's estimated pre-fire population of 12,000 likely needed mental health treatment.

In the aftermath of the fire, Green said, "you can imagine the trauma and the magnitude of the needs. ... Virtually everybody's going to need some form of behavioral health, mental heath care support in the coming months.

"It is almost like a one-to-one need at this point, and you can't possibly bring in 12,000 behavioral health care workers," he said. "There are a lot of services that we have to find creative ways to deliver."

Green said he met a 15- year-old boy Friday who had just received his driver's permit.

"His first drive literally was jumping in the car and pulling some of (the) younger kids and his mother into the car to drive away (to escape the fire)," he said. "You could imagine the trauma on that 15-year-old who normally wants to be chasing a new significant other. And now he's dealing with that."

Asked by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser what surprised him among the needs of survivors, Becerra said he was struck that so many parents at the Royal Lahaina Resort wanted their children — many of them the sons and daughters of hotel workers — to be schooled on-site, either remotely by displaced teachers or a combination.

Lahaina's four public schools had an estimated enrollment of 3,000, Hirono said. Since the fire, 500 students have been transferred to other Maui schools while the families of 500 have requested remote learning, Hirono said.

After their visit, Becerra said Hirono spoke to the state Department of Education by phone and said plans were underway to educate children in group settings in their hotels.

Green later emphasized that the idea requires approval by their parents, the hotels, teachers and other affected parties.

But educating children where they are staying, where their parents are working and living, "makes sense," Green said.

"It's going to be a significant amount of time before the (Lahaina) schools will be back up," he said.

On Thursday, Hawaii's congressional delegation wrote a letter to Becerra requesting emergency funding for health care and social services for Lahaina survivors ahead of his visit Friday.

"We appreciate actions taken by the Department so far, including a swift public health emergency declaration in the State of Hawai'i, which unlocked flexibilities in HHS programs," the delegation wrote. "In particular, your Disaster Mortuary Operations Response Team and Victim Identification Team have offered essential expertise to recover and identify victims.

"As you visit Maui, we ask you to take further actions to support the survivors, and ensure sustained access to health care and social services."

The delegation asked Becerra to consider:

>> Deploying additional federal behavioral health personnel. "Demand for crisis counseling has already far surpassed Maui's capacity, which was facing a provider shortage before disaster struck. Mental health providers from across the state are flying to Maui, thus creating gaps in care in other communities."

>> Providing "a streamlined process so that the Hawai'i Department of Human Services can exercise all program waivers and flexibilities to support alternative operations for child care, Head Start, child welfare, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs."

>> Working with state officials to expand programs and interpreters to ensure language services for the 19% of Maui residents who speak a language at home other than English, most commonly Ilocano, Tagalog, Spanish, Hawaiian, Japanese, Tongan and Marshallese.