State of the Union: Interview With Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
Interview
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The entire historic town of Lahaina burned to the ground, and the images of cars totally in -- they have been demolished.
And we saw a group of cars near the ocean, and it's quite clear that the occupants of those cars probably fled into the ocean. And I was told that at least 12 people were rescued from the ocean in that location. But to see all of these charred, totally demolished cars, but the scenes of devotions will stay with me.
And that is why I really thank the president for declaring an emergency declaration within hours of being asked to do that by the state of Hawaii. And I was there with the family of federal agencies, including the administrator of FEMA, SBA, U.S. Fire. And 150 FEMA people are there.
They brought in, sadly, cadaver dogs to continue the search.
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Many of us have in Lahaina. I did too. And it is an iconic town. And so many people went there because it's very, very historic. It was the seat of the monarchy, the capital of the monarchy.
And there are many historic buildings, including, I have to say, this, massive banyan tree, 150 years old, the oldest banyan tree in the country. And it is -- my hope is that it will be restored. But, very importantly, yes, as I said yesterday, we are in a period of
mourning and loss as we search for more people who are still unaccounted for. Some of them have been found in the shelters. I visited one with some 400 residents sleeping on cots.
And we are going to need to provide them with short-term and long-term housing. But we are all there en masse to do that.
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I can understand why there is frustration, because, as I said, we are in a period of shock and loss.
From what I can see, the government agencies are there. They are going to set up areas where people can come and get their driver's license restored, all of those kinds of things. But, yes, they are going to need a lot of help. And, from what I saw, there is a pledge. President Biden called me directly to pledge his support, because we know that recovery will be long and the resources will be necessary.
I have also heard from my Senate colleagues, Chuck Schumer and others, pledging their support. Recovery will be -- take a lot of resources. And the focus right now is truly on the recovery. There are still people who are unaccounted for. They need to be identified. There is a call for people to come in to provide DNA.
So we are in the -- still, I would say, the initial phases, but we're going to do everything we can to provide the kind of support that people will need.
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I'm not going to make any excuses for this tragedy, but the attorney general has launched a review of what happened with those sirens and some of the other actions that were taken.
So that is happening. And there will be time enough, I would say, for those kinds of reviews and investigations to occur. But we are really focused, as far as I'm concerned, on the need for rescue and, well, location of, we know, sadly, more bodies.
And as I talk with the people who are at this large place where the residents were, that, yes, we're going to need to provide a lot of support. And that is why I'm asking for and I expect to receive bipartisan support for additional funds that will enable us to recover.
That recovery is going to take time. It is not going to be overnight, by any means. It will take years. This is an entire town that has burned to the ground. Some 11,000 residents live there. And of the tourists who were there, thousands were evacuated to Oahu mainly. And the airlines really stepped up to lower their fees. And of -- the hotels have also stepped up to provide lodging for our visitors.
So I think that we are doing a lot in order to provide the kind of support we need to be providing, but there will always be the call for more. And my hope and expectation is that all of that will come.
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Yes.
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I think that we very much need to acknowledge that climate change is upon us.
There are whole states, by the way, Jake, where you can't even use the words climate change because they still have a head-in-the-sand attitude.
But, for example, the Inflation Reduction Act provided some $300 billion to combat climate change and to move us away from continuing reliance on fossil fuels. Yes, there is more that needs to be done. And there will be lessons learned from this ongoing tragedy for the other counties, as well as the county of Maui.
Clearly, wildfires is an occurrence in Hawaii. People don't realize that acres are burned in Hawaii, as in so many other states. And in terms of the percentage of acreage burned, Hawaii is on a par with other states. There is not enough recognition that we are going to need to combat these kinds of wildfires.
And we have situations where the tremendously high winds that were attendant to Hurricane Dora just resulted in these flames just leaping and spreading in just -- just -- I can't even tell you how fast the flames spread. So, we need to be assessing our ability to contend with these kinds of natural occurring disasters which we are seeing more of and the frequency and the damage that is done.
Clearly, this is happening all across the world.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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