Ongoing Service in Maui
Salvation Army is still helping in Maui with food and emotional support
On Tuesday August 8, due to a dry summer and strong winds spurred by Hurricane Dora in the Pacific Ocean, wildfires were ignited and spread across the Hawaiian island of Maui. The wildfires consumed thousands of acres including historic Lahaina displacing more than 11,000 people from their homes. The fires have tragically claimed 115 lives.
The Salvation Army Lahaina Lighthouse complex was among the structures lost, including the administrative building, church, thrift store, and residential quarters.
Despite the loss of the physical buildings, Salvation Army officers and volunteers are in Lahaina, working to serve those who have lost everything. The Salvation Army is partnering with local emergency management and community leaders, Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD), and other nonprofits to serve evacuees and first responders. Salvation Army disaster workers are actively providing food, emotional and spiritual care, and other needed resources.
Services Provided
- The Salvation Army has established an Incident Command Team based in Maui to support disaster services operations.
- The Salvation Army is coordinating 36 distribution locations for free meals to evacuees. Some of these locations include Points of Distribution (PODs) where evacuees can go to receive other disaster relief supplies.
- The Salvation Army is partnering with Chef Hui at the University of Hawaii Maui College (UHMC) at 29 locations across Maui County.
- The Salvation Army’s emotional & spiritual care workers are supporting the Family Assistance Center, helping those displaced connect to Transitional Shelter Assistance through the State of Hawaii and American Red Cross.
- Workers at the Family Assistance Centers are providing basic necessities and working with families to identify additional needs while they are displaced from pre-wildfire homes and their belongings.
The Salvation Army has coordinated 80 thousand meals thus far and assisted 55 people with emotional support and will be there as long there is a need for services.