One year after a luxury yacht caused extensive damage to the reef in Honolua Bay on Maui’s northwestern coast, staff and volunteers with the Maui Ocean Center Marine Institute continue to care for coral fragments collected from the reef.
Nearly six months after brush fires tore through Maui, the local police department identified the 100th victim of the disaster as 70-year-old Lydia Coloma. Investigators said they have now identified all known victims, but there are still at least three missing people whose disappearances remain unsolved.
All agreed the decision was a difficult one with one member calling the choice a “lose-lose situation.” Another criticized the administration, saying the council was left out of the site selection process, and now felt pressure to approve or lose funding.
Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen “promised” Thursday that Olowalu will not be the final site for the estimated 400,000 cubic yards of fire debris to be removed from the Lahaina burn zone.
The petition from a family on Olowalu Village Road says even temporary storage of these substances from the Aug. 8 wildfires “poses great risk of causing irreversible damage to soil, water, air, the ocean and people.”