West Maui residents ask to delay reopening as officials look to restart tourist economy

Read the Full Transcript

• Geoff Bennett:

  Children can return to schools in Lahaina, Hawaii, next month, and tourists will also be allowed back into parts of West Maui weeks after the devastating fires there.

  Officials are trying to help restart an economy that ground to a halt on parts of the island.

  William Brangham is in West Maui and has been talking with residents about these plans.

  William, it's good to see you.

  On Tuesday, you and the team gave us a glimpse of how people are still dealing with the aftermath of these fires nearly two months on. Officials there are now putting out some more concrete plans, as I understand it, for when places will start to reopen. What exactly are they proposing?

• William Brangham:

  Well, Geoff, as you mentioned, schools will reopen the middle of next month. And since this inferno tore through this community, thousands of students have either been having to go to school in other counties or doing remote schooling or not going to school at all.

  And that just puts an incredible stress on the parents who are also dealing with all the other aspects of disaster recovery. So there were four schools in Lahaina. One of them burned so badly it cannot be recovered. The other three were damaged. And so they think that they can reopen those.

  So they have been cleaning them, doing all sorts of safety testing on the soil and air and the water to make sure it's OK for the kids to come back. And that is supposed to happen starting next month.

  On this issue of tourism, October 8 is the date that the governor set. And so local officials have been trying to figure out what that really looks like. And so they have got this phased-in plan where hotels will start to be opened, not immediately in Lahaina, but in areas adjacent to it. And tourists will be able to start to come back in.

  And the hope is, is that more jobs, more money will start to flow into this economy, which desperately needs it.

• Geoff Bennett:

  What do local residents there make of these plans? Are they prepared for tourists to return?

• William Brangham:

  The residents that we have heard from are not happy with this at all.

  Yesterday, we attended the Maui County Council meeting, and hundreds of people showed up. It was standing room only, many people expressing a sense of anger and frustration and grief and solidarity. This was local Hawaiians and native Hawaiians, many of them speaking native Hawaiian language in this.

  And they were expressing all manner of things, that they don't want to keep feeling like second-class citizens in their own community, that they don't want to feel like they are subservient to a tourist economy. They argue that they don't have to rely solely on tourism here, that you can diversify this economy.

  They want to be more in control of the decisions that are being made about how we go forward. And that is how they feel is not the case right now.

  I want to play a little bit of sound of what we heard yesterday. This is Tiare Lawrence. She is a community organizer in the area. Here's what she had to say.

• Tiare Lawrence, Community Organizer:

  I keep thinking that I ran out of tears. I — it just keeps coming, but I'm asking the council to do whatever it takes to keep Lahaina in Lahaina. I know, for myself, I live in Pukalani because I couldn't afford to live at home.

  And I would love so much to be able to move back home one day. And I know a lot of my family feel the same sentiment. So, I'm asking you guys to stand behind the people, the multigenerational families, most importantly.

• William Brangham:

  So it was just a very, very powerful meeting, lots of expressions like that.

  And, in some ways, Geoff, it reminded me of other tragic, galvanizing experiences that I have covered. I think of things like Katrina or Newtown or Standing Rock, where a tragedy falls on a community and people feel galvanized to action by that.

  And that is absolutely what it feels like is happening in Lahaina right now.

• Geoff Bennett:

  What's the response been from local officials to that prevailing sentiment, William?

• William Brangham:

  Well, on this very specific issue of tourism, I talked to the mayor earlier this week, the mayor of Maui County, and he is very sensitive to the idea that tourists would come here and treat the burned devastation of Lahaina as another tourist attraction. He does not want to see that.

  In fact, as you drive around here, you will see miles and miles of black fabric that they have strung up to try to create a privacy screen, so that tourists do not stop and take pictures of the devastation. The governor has similarly argued that tourism, done respectfully, can honor the people who are still dealing with this tragedy every single day, but can also bring people back to help boost this economy.

  I mean, it is estimated that $13 million a day have been lost since this fire swept through this area.

  But despite those arguments, the community does not seem sold on it. I think it's something like 9,000 people signed a petition saying, please delay the reopening. But officials are not heeding that call. They're going forward.

• Geoff Bennett:

  William Brangham reporting for us tonight from West Maui, alongside "NewsHour" producers Sam Lane and Maea Lenei Buhre.

  William, thank you.

• William Brangham:

  Thanks, Geoff.