Compassion and collaboration aiding Hawaii's recovery from severe storms and flooding

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LOUISVILLE — Hawaii recently received a Major Disaster Declaration from the federal government, following a series of fierce storms earlier this year, and is continuing on the road to long-term recovery with help from compassionate groups. 

In March, two Kona low weather systems brought heavy rains, damaging winds and some of the worst flooding seen in many years to various parts of Hawaii. Additional downpours followed in April. 

Though the storms caused devastation from collapsed roads and flooded homes to airport, school and hospital damage, they also brought opportunities for people from various faiths and backgrounds to work together for the common good.

“In a recent coordination call for disaster response organizations, the Hawaii VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster) identified the various groups providing disaster response support — from disaster case management, muck and gut work, and the delivery of clean up supplies,” said the Rev. Kathy Lee-Cornell, national disaster associate for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. “It was a beautiful reminder and witness of the ways individual efforts are a part of a larger network.”

She added, “The response to this event reminds me of why we foster relationships with so many partners in this field. Collectively, we are able to accomplish more than we could ever do alone.”

One of the churches that has gotten engaged in helping residents is Community Church of Honolulu, a United Church of Christ congregation with a leader who is PC(USA) ordained, the Rev. Melissa Martin. 

Housed on a campus with multiple churches, including Taiwanese Presbyterian, Community Church of Honolulu helped to collect essentials such as personal protective equipment (PPE) and various cleaning supplies for Oahu’s North Shore, one of the areas hardest hit by the storms, said Martin, Community Church of Honolulu's executive pastor.

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“Even though I'm working with a UCC congregation, there's still Presbyterians on campus, and … there's really sweet connection there, and that's how we did the collections for the supplies for the North Shore,” she said. “It was first a reach across our campus, then with our Presbyterian partners on island, and then with a couple other of the local UCC churches.”

About five congregations and three or four other organizations took part in collecting the goods, she said.

“The one thing about Hawaii is the way the community supports one another is remarkably astounding,” Martin said. “Community is everything. It's how you survive on an island, and the way that folks have wrapped around one another in this time has been really, really a witness to me. It was wonderful and beautiful. And at the same time, there is some deep pain … just in the collective memory around the Maui fires” and “these cycles of devastation that are moving through.”

Ferocious wildfires swept through the town of Lahaina in August 2023, leaving behind massive destruction. Maui Upcountry also was affected. More than 100 people died and thousands of structures were damaged or destroyed.

Following the recent rainstorms, it’s been “interesting to see how relief work shifted based on knowledge that had been gleaned through the response to the Maui wildfires,” Martin said. There’s “a real conscious effort to ensure that we allow the local leaders to dictate what the needs are and how to go about supporting the community … as opposed to national organizations.”

Martin has taken part in North Shore clean-up work, including assisting a person left with three freezers of rotten food due to a power outage. 

Martin also witnessed the grief of a woman whose storage area full of the belongings of late loved ones had flooded.

“We helped her go through those things, which was a really painful process, to sort of watch her grief compounded on grief, and to sit with her in those moments,” Martin said. “It was very holy but very hard.”

In Kailua on the east side of Oahu, Christ Church Uniting (Disciples of Christ and Presbyterians) has been active while partnering with community groups such as Hui Aloha ʻĀina o Koʻolaupoko and the KEY Project, which stands for Kualoa-He'ei Ecumenical Youth. The church is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and PC(USA) and is located on a more isolated portion of the island that is prone to landslides. 

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“There was a lot of damage on the North Shore that a lot of folks talked about, but there was also damage on our side that was a lot less publicized, so several of our hubs got together and we collected cleaning supplies and nonperishable goods and laundry soap — things for folks who were in need — and over the course of two days, we collected $10,000 worth of supplies,” such as cleaning buckets, paper towels, mops, microfiber cleaning clothes, shovels, gloves and masks, and canned beans, said Rev. Kate Hogue, the church’s pastor, who is PC(USA) ordained.

It was important to be able to respond to the shifting needs being reflected by those involved in cleaning and to the partner organizations with “ears to the ground,” she said.

CCU has been on calls with the Presbytery of the Pacific of the PC(USA) and various leaders to “share resources and talk story and just inform and encourage each other,” Hogue said. “So that's been helpful," and there have been “lots of emails back and forth, keeping everybody on the same page.”

The presbytery has a discretionary fund that has been beneficial in assisting those affected by the storms, Hogue said. “When we hear of people who we know — or know someone who knows someone  — then we reach out and see if we can provide them with some grant funding,” she said. “Most people in the congregation know someone who is affected, whether it was a business or a home or their school flooded. A lot of the farmers have been impacted in particular,” losing staple crops, such as taro, which is also known as Kalo and has multiple uses, including making poi.

The April 15 disaster declaration President Trump is seen as essential to helping Hawaii to fully recover from the myriad storm damage. The declaration makes federal funding available to affected people, such as those in the city and county of Honolulu as well as Hawaii and Maui counties.

“This declaration allows us to expand operations and bring critical federal resources into Hawaiʻi at a pivotal time,” Hawaii Emergency Management Agency Administrator James Barros said in a news release. “We are working closely with county, state and federal partners to ensure support reaches the communities that need it most. Recovery will take time, but this is a major step forward in getting help where it’s needed.” 

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Hawaii Gov. Josh Green has said, “Recovery from this storm will be long and difficult and will require constant collaboration with the counties and the federal administration — and I am confident that as with other recent disasters, we will benefit from the aloha we share for each other and our collaborative approach with anyone who can offer assistance.”

Continued generosity from people of faith also is important, Lee-Cornell said.

“Since the Hawaii storms, we have seen multiple disaster events occurring across the country and U.S. territories, signaling a need for Presbyterians to not waver in our commitment to support one another through difficult events, especially those that are overlooked in our national media,” she said. “Our faith leaders have been tremendous in connecting with their impacted neighbors, highlighting the needs in their communities, and facilitating the delivery of care and critical resources."

To help with Hawaii disaster response, consider making a gift to PDA’s disaster response fund for U.S. flooding at DR000191. It supplements One Great Hour of Sharing.

The Pastor’s Discretionary Fund of the Presbytery of the Pacific can be found here. For more information, write to [email protected].