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Tag: hawaiiwildfires23
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  • January

    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

    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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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

    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.
  • 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.
  • USACE prepares site for temporary elementary school in Lahaina

    Site work recently began for the installation of a temporary elementary school in Lahaina, Maui, to replace one lost in the Aug. 8, 2023, Hawaiʻi Wildfires.
  • USACE temporary housing team lays groundwork for those displaced by Maui wildfires

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received a $1.9 million Federal Emergency Management Agency mission assignment Oct. 28 to provide conceptual design for temporary housing sites. Once a design is approved, USACE will prepare the sites for FEMA to install the units. The units will house those displaced by the Aug. 8 wildfires that destroyed more than 2,000 properties on Maui.
  • October

    Paws for comfort

    To help employees overcome some of the challenges associated with disaster events, USACE deploys the Critical Incident Stress Management program. CISM is a peer-driven stress management program that combines pre-crisis preparation, stress education and post-event response to help people recover more quickly from abnormally stressful job-related incidents.