Half of young survivors of the 2023 Maui wildfires show symptoms of depression two years after the disaster, 20% reported severe symptoms and 4.2% considered killing themselves,
according to a ongoing study that’s running out of funding and staff.
Researchers who continue to monitor the health effects of the fires told the state House Public Safety Committee that Hawaii needs to keep tracking and treating over 2,000 adult and juvenile survivors — including a 6-year-old who said they don’t care whether they live or die.
The initial results of the first study to look at the effects of Hawaii’s worst natural disaster were shared with investigators from around the world in Lahaina in December 2024.
A month later, Los Angeles officials told Maui researchers that their work helped them immediately respond to their January wildfires by establishing baseline testing data much sooner than in Hawaii and provide physical and mental health treatment data.
On Maui, over 60% of fire survivors did not get their first health screenings and assessments until six months to 18 months after the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires, which killed 102 people.
Monday’s briefing was presented by Christopher Knightsbridge of the MauiWES &Lahaina Comprehensive Health Center; Ruben Juarez, a professor at the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization; and Alika Maunakea, a professor at UH’s John A. Burns School of Medicine.
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State Rep. Kim Coco
Iwamoto, vice chair of
the House Public Safety Committee, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the study raised disturbing concerns about the need for continued research and long-term treatment for fire survivors — especially the youngest victims.
Juarez and Maunakea commute to Maui from Oahu, underscoring the need for mental health
workers and researchers on the Valley Isle, Iwamoto said, “especially for the kids that are suffering.”
“It’s one thing to read the stories and use your empathy,” she said. “It’s another thing to look at the numbers. It really hit a lot of people really hard. The data was sobering. It was a wake-up call, a reality check of what kind of investments the state of Hawaii needs to make and that includes mental health services.”
Iwamoto said she was impressed that the research did much more than log patients’ responses and instead provided them with instant access to health care, which needs to continue and expand to more survivors.
Juarez and Maunakea told the Star-Advertiser that Kaiser Permanente and HMSA each contributed $250,000 initially, the state provided $2.2 million and the National Institutes for Health provided $500,000 to get their study running.
But the funding will dry up in July.
Building a proper clinic and hiring 10 to 12 long-term health care workers will take $25 million at a time when federal funding also has been drying up since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, they said.
“We need the federal government on this,” Juarez said.
They said they want to continue to monitor heavy metals in Maui’s soil and water and track the levels in fire survivors to better assess long-term risks and trends. The researchers wish they would have begun measuring heavy metals in Maui fire survivors and in the soil and water immediately to get a solid baseline of data that could be tracked over time to better inform leaders after the next natural disaster strikes Hawaii.
“The treatment’s needed right there and then,” Maunakea said. “Instead, there was a six-month delay getting them into care when the initial exposure could have been really critical. I’m afraid it may already have been too late to help those people.”
Since August 2023, officials have sent a series
of alerts about wildfires across the state and even a tsunami threat triggered by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake along the Russian coast in July.
“This is an investment of the health care infrastructure that’s needed on Maui, but could reflect a model for other rural areas of the state,” Maunakea said.
He’s haunted by what happened on the East Coast following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“During 9/11, more people died as a result of the exposure rather than from the disaster itself,” Maunakea said. “In Hawaii, we’ve been through so many different disasters like (Hurricane) Iniki (in 1982) but we don’t know what impacts they may have had. We don’t know how many more people perished from the
aftereffects.
“We really need for the policymakers to understand there are these ongoing issues that need to be prioritized up there along with the rebuilding of
Lahaina.”
