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  • January

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues work on the critical public facility as part of the Hawaii Wildfires Recovery mission. Contractors will place 337 modular units to form ten large and 20 small classrooms. Besides the classrooms, the campus will include three restrooms, one administration building, one learning center, and one combination dining and food service center. As of Jan. 8, 2024, 300 units are on site and ready for placement. The modular school is a temporary replacement for the King Kamehameha III Elementary School, which served the students of Lahaina since 1913.

    USACE continues the Hawaii Wildfires Recovery Mission

    More than five months after the August 8 wildfires in Hawaii ravaged large portions of Maui including Lahaina, the former capital of the Hawaiian Empire, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues working on a Federal Emergency Management Agency mission to remove debris from affected areas.

  • December

    Recovery Field Office members conduct a Rehearsal of Concept for Phase 2 of the Lahaina wildfire mission. The RFO serves as a mini district and an extension of the affected district. Operations, mission management, logistics, public affairs, internal review, and others operate and are housed in the RFO.

    JFO, RFO, EFO one mission; one Ohana – USACE employees deploy to assist Maui recovery from the wildfires

    When fire ravished the historic towns of Lahaina and Kula, Hawai’i, on the island of Maui in August 2023, the Federal Emergency Management Agency was one of the first agencies on the site to assist the people in recovering from the devasting effects of the deadliest United States wildfire in more than 100 years.
  • On the visit to Kula the group of local officials from Lahaina saw contractors applying final erosion control at a property in the process of being completed.

    Lahaina wildfire debris cleanup soon moving into Phase 2

    The Consolidated Debris Removal Program in Lahaina, Maui for the cleanup from the Hawaii Wildfires will soon move in to Phase 2 of the mission which will involve the removal of fire-related debris such as ash, hazardous trees, and concrete foundations. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been conducting Phase 2 debris removal in Kula since Nov. 7 and as of Dec. 23 has removed debris from 22 residential properties. To prepare Lahaina for Phase 2 operations, USACE invited prominent local officials to visit work sites in Kula to see work in progress and sites that are complete and in turn share this information with the Lahaina community.
  • Quality Assurance Inspectors are working with USACE contractors and County of Maui representatives to facilitate vehicle removal from the right of way in Lahaina, Hawai‘i, Nov. 3. The county marks the vehicle with a yellow box and check mark signaling that the vehicle is ready for removal.

    Hawaii wildfires leave lithium battery hazard in debris

    The wildfires in Hawaii that resulted in loss of life and property on the island of Maui not only left Lahaina and Kula with fire debris, but also left properties with household hazardous waste or materials Items such as gas cans, propane bottles, aerosol cans, and lithium batteries were some of the materials that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in coordination with the Environmental Protection Agency, have been removing.
  • Terrence Stitt with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Enterprise Emergency Response Team prepares a router at the Emergency Field Office during a move to a new location. The Logistics Planning and Response Team along with the EERT collaborate with businesses to obtain locations with sufficient resources to support recovery operations.

    Teamwork keeps Hawaii Wildfire Response EFO communicating during unexpected move

    U.S. Army Corps of Engineers personnel must be flexible to work in a variety of locations when responding to emergency operations. With limited space on Maui, there are few options for workspaces to support the Hawaii Wildfire Recovery mission. The Logistics Planning and Response Team along with Enterprise Emergency Response Team have been collaborating with businesses to obtain locations with sufficient resources to support recovery operations.
  • Emergency Field Office GIS analyst Bill Sisneros explains to environmental scientist Jean Barnes how to use a GIS-created application for the 2023 Hawai'i Wildfire data collection.

    Breadth of GIS science capabilities aiding Hawaiʻi Wildfire response

    A combined federal, state, and local disaster such as the 2023 Hawaiʻi Wildfire mission has a lot of moving parts. There are temporary power, critical public facility, temporary housing, and debris assessment and removal missions. All of the data reporting the progress of these missions has to be tracked. For the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the way to do that is by using geographic information science systems, or GIS. USACE is using GIS data to synthesize an abundance of data to arrive at an overall picture of the status of the mission to keep everyone involved as informed as possible. “We have used the ESRI enterprise to create and produce data that can illustrate our mission both spatially and report instantly,” said Kihei, Hawaiʻi, Recovery Field Office GIS analyst Lisa Hook. “The data created populates databases I use to display on maps that are used for briefing and tracking of numbers.”

  • November

    The first soil samples were collected at a property site cleared of debris in Kula, Maui, Hawaiʻi, marking a milestone with the Hawaiʻi Wildfires Debris Mission. If the samples come back below the Hawaiʻi Department of Health cleanup goals, the property owner can proceed with their rebuilding effort. FEMA tasked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to execute the debris removal mission on Maui and USACE is managing contractor ECC to fulfill the mission.

    Soil sample collection begins in Hawaiʻi Wildfire debris removal mission

    The first soil samples were collected at a property site cleared of debris by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Kula, marking a milestone with the Hawaiʻi Wildfires Debris Mission, Nov. 18, 2023. If the samples come back below the Hawaiʻi Department of Health cleanup goals, the property owner can proceed with their rebuilding effort. This comes a little more than three months after devastating wildfires fueled by high winds and dry conditions swept across Kula and Lahaina, Maui, Aug. 8, 2023. The sampling will continue across Kula as more impacted sites are cleared.
  • U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contractors prepare a site for construction of a new temporary elementary school campus for the Lahaina, Hawai'i, community, Nov. 25, 2023, after receiving the Notice to Proceed Nov. 20. The base contract for $53.7 million was awarded to Pono Aina Management, LLC, of Waianae, Hawai‘i, Nov. 4. It is anticipated that the temporary school will be handed over to the Department of Education for furnishing and installation of telecommunication equipment by the end of February 2024.

    USACE progressing on temporary school in Lahaina

    The wind-driven wildfires that devastated Maui left elementary students in the historic town of Lahaina without an elementary school. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers went into action after receiving a mission assignment from the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Sept. 13 to design and oversee the installation of modular buildings for the temporary elementary school in Lahaina.

  • October

    A man speaks to two other men in an office setting.

    Infrastructure Systems cadre partners with communities for the long haul

    The Infrastructure Systems Recovery Support Function is led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and has begun working with Maui County and its partners in the aftermath of the Hawai'i wildfires.
  • A man and a woman talk in an office setting. The man is holding a tablet computer that the woman is viewing.

    Leading a team, backed by a quarter-century of experience

    Eddie LeBlanc, the current team leader for Emergency Support Function 3, Public Works and Engineering responding to the Hawai'i wildfires, reflects on what compels him to serve.