As we reported last August, the origins of the fires trace back hundreds of years ago: 19th-century plantation agriculture, driven by American and European colonists, depleted the once verdant Lahaina, turning streams and forests into a “tinderbox”, priming it for disaster.
Months later, our on-the-ground dispatches showed that survivors who had lost their homes were being displaced over and over again, as the hotels they were sheltering in sought to make space for tourists. And with soaring rent prices and so much of Maui housing stock serving as short-term vacation rentals, permanent housing became almost impossible to find.
Meanwhile, there is a land grab for the charred remains of Lahaina – once the capital of the sovereign Hawaiian Kingdom – as real estate investors and developers inundate cash-strapped survivors with offers to buy their burnt-out homes.
The stress and trauma sparked a mental health crisis among children, while health studies showed soaring rates of depression and respiratory problems among adults.
There have been some reasons for hope. The Guardian has also reported on the creative ways the community is meeting these challenges, from community land trusts to traditional foods. And Hawaii has taken some small steps to address the housing crisis, such as limiting short-term rentals.
For many, though, the devastation has simply been too great. To mark the one-year anniversary, we’re reporting not from Maui, but from Las Vegas, Nevada, where many survivors are moving.
More than 4,000 Maui residents, including wildfire survivors, have left the island since last year.
It’s part of a bigger trend of climate migration. In the past three years alone, it’s estimated that more than 3 million people in the US have been displaced because of climate events, such as floods, storms and wildfires. That number is expected to increase in the coming years.
In many cases, they’re moving from one climate disaster to another.
Las Vegas, for instance, is experiencing extreme heat: last month, the city had an unprecedented seven consecutive days of temperatures over 115F (46C), the most extreme heatwave since the National Weather Service began keeping records there in 1937.
“Longer, worse and more frequent heatwaves are exactly what we expect to continue to occur in Nevada due to climate change,” said Joanne Leovy of Nevada Clinicians for Climate Change.
Yet many people fleeing catastrophic events are lured to these wildfire- and extreme heat-prone areas because of lower housing costs. “It’s really impossible to disentangle climate change effects on mobility from the housing crisis,” Elizabeth Fussell, professor of population studies and environment and society at Brown University, told the Guardian. “Increasing flood, wildfire and hurricane events are making this a much more acute situation.”
Our reporter, Erika Hayasaki, travelled to Las Vegas during this heatwave – when temperatures reached 120F (49C) – to speak to Lahaina residents who had recently moved there.
One of them was Remedios Ramos, an 83-year-old great-grandmother who lost everything in the fires. While she didn’t want to leave her friends and family behind, she also knew that she may not have time to wait for Lahaina to rebuild. So she made the painful decision to leave, and now lives with her daughter in a newly built, sand-coloured home.
During the heatwave, Ramos – who was accustomed to outdoor island life – found herself trapped inside where the air conditioning was, afraid that the heat outside might kill her.
What does starting over at 83 mean?
“I can see it hurts,” her daughter, Arlyn Garcia, told Hayasaki.
Read more on the Maui wildfires:
