Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Friday that President Donald Trump approved the state’s request for an emergency declaration to provide federal assistance for emergency protective measures across the state.
Mark Peters, a resident of seven years of Naalehu, on the Big Island’s southern tip, said the damage from the recent hurricanes has not been forgotten.
“It hurts me when I see friends and neighbors and people of this community that I know, and I just see it in their eyes, I hear it in their voices. We’ve been through a lot down here, and we still got a lot to go,” Peters said.
“We’re just getting started with our recovery. But to have yet another big storm hit us, and potentially even bigger than the last one, it’s difficult,” he said.
While he praised his community for its resilience, he said the people are still in need of basics like food and water, and many are in the process of reconstruction.
“We’re talking years. This is going to be a long recovery,” Peters said Friday.
He recalled driving through Waiohinu in the aftermath of Hurricane Lala and his “eyes getting wide open with all the damage, and the cars and houses moved and not where they’re supposed to be, and Waiohinu Park having buildings in the baseball field.”