Maui Kona Storm Rapid Response

It looks like a hurricane is upon us again. While the map has changed from a direct hit to just under us, it's still going to significantly impact us here on Maui. 

Almost exactly three years after hurricane level winds contributed to our devastating fires. Four months after the Kona Low storms that we are still responding to. We really haven’t had more than a few weeks between natural disasters, homeless sweeps, ICE raids, or SNAP benefit pauses. It feels like we’ve been operating with a pack of wolves on our backs for years now. Compounded more by inflation and cost of living. Just this month our medical coverage is going up 69% on September 1 with less than 30 days notice. Our front office was broken into in April. All while we live with the highest rents, electric, and grocery costs in the world.

Yet, Maui Rapid Response keeps showing up. 

This is who we show up for. Moms with a baby and teens showing up at our doorstep looking for anything to ease car living as school starts. A fire survivor who lives on disability who can’t find any rentals that isn’t $2,000 over her budget. A man who’s been in a hotel since April because there are no ADA-accessible homes while his own house waits for storm repairs to start. And hundreds of people who simply don't have a home and live on the land every day.  

When you’re already at the edge, another storm is not a setback.

It becomes a nail in the coffin on things like mental health and hope.

So, for the past few days, once again, we prepared our street outreach team and a few trusted partners for action. Informing our unhoused ohana on the streets and in the bush about the storm. Distributing extra food and water to those who walked up to our office. Sharing tarps, tiedowns, trash bags, batteries so people can shelter-in-place with their things. Our admin teams put out calls for supplies. Others track the storm’s path and work with partners to source what else we might need. All of this happens on top of what we already do every week.

Lately, with all this I’ve had to actively pause extra to remember that it’s not us carrying the heaviest load, its the people we walk alongside in their most vulnerable times of their life.

Like them, what I do know, is that we are doing everything we are told to do to show up to this poly-crisis of a storm. It still is never enough. Our little nonprofit is okay for now, we aren’t taking out loans or operating on credit cards like we know others have had to do. But we’ve had to make tough decisions about how we do our work and each other as the world constricts and shifts. That has been hard as it's the people we serve that ultimately are impacted. 

It often feels relentless. And yet, it’s from the same people who we walk alongside that we see many glimmers. Taro patches popping up in unexpected places. People needing food also dropping off things they don’t need for someone else to use. We’re simultaneously experiencing the worst of it, showing up to what’s in front of us while also learning and remembering systems built on care and reciprocity. Our work persists, much like the alili tree who bends towards the wind, because we also experience daily what this world can be when we center each other over any profit margins.

With that, we can only move as fast as our resources allow. 

We’ll meet this the way we always do, together, with what we have. If you can contribute supplies or money, we do need it now. We know many of you are also carrying heavy things and we stand alongside you as best we can.

With care from our hui to you,

Nicole, on behalf of everyone at Maui Rapid Response