More than two years after the devastating Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires, the rebuilding of Lahaina remains a massive, uneven effort that looks very different depending on where you stand. From a distance, signs of progress are visible: some roads have reopened, scattered homes have begun to rise again, and clusters of construction crews are active across the burn zone. But at ground level, many residents and workers say day-to-day recovery feels painfully slow — and at times, overwhelming.
For people like Jeff Pratt, a retired construction worker who purchased his Front Street home just months before the fire, the process has been a grind. “It’s going to be a long road. It’s disappointing,” he said, summing up the exhaustion shared by many returning homeowners.
Pratt immediately began the permitting process after the fire and secured approval on Jan. 10, county records show. He began rebuilding the following month and hopes to complete his modernized version of a 1937 plantation-style home by next March. But the journey has been anything but smooth. Because an earlier roofing issue left him without insurance at the time of the fire, Pratt is paying for the entire rebuild himself.
“I built this house by myself, basically,” he said in his driveway. “That’s been the only good part. I don’t want to get down on all the entities out there, but it’s been a fight to do anything.” His frustrations are not minor — he notes it took a year and a half just to secure an operational water meter.
Across Lahaina, similar scenes of partial progress contrast sharply with the vast lingering destruction. Near the southern edge of town, Tim Lloyd Construction project manager Jotham Frary paused from work on Puapihi Street to reflect on how surreal the rebuilding process has been.
“It’s been surreal, because we worked on this house a few years ago,” Frary said while standing near an overflowing disposal bin. “We redid a bathroom … and then came after to do the rebuild, and just — the mountains look the same and the ocean looks the same, and the view to Lanai looks the same, and yet it’s hard to get your mind wrapped around the idea that you’re in the same spot where you used to be. It still doesn’t compute in my head that they’re the same spots.”
Some returning residents are still living in RV units, parked on their lots as temporary shelters. Others simply have not returned at all. Burned stumps of once-towering mango trees remain visible reminders of the magnitude of the loss — reminders that Frary says will take “years” to recover, if they recover at all. “The trees and stuff aren’t going to grow. This neighborhood had tons and tons of trees,” he said. “That’s not coming back anytime soon, at all.”
Even as recovery feels slow for many, Maui County has continued to highlight forward movement. During Thanksgiving week, the Lahaina Civic Center hosted the Southwest Maui Invitational for the second time since the fire. The Lahaina Small Boat Harbor is set to reopen for limited commercial operations, bringing with it daytime access to select nearby roads. Hawaiian Electric is reinstalling power poles along Front Street’s commercial corridor.
County officials also announced a significant recovery milestone on Dec. 2: the completion of the 100th rebuilt structure — 96 in Lahaina and four in Kula. Of those, 88 were residential. As of that date, another 295 homes were under construction, with 350 additional building applications pending.
“Every week, we’re seeing a handful of homes rebuilt, families who are able to cross that finish line and return home,” said County of Maui Recovery Administrator John Smith. “A hundred structures over the last year is a great milestone to reach. But with nearly 300 homes under construction right now and the launch of various assistance programs such as Hoʻokumu Hou, we’re looking forward to seeing a significant bump.”
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To ease bottlenecks, the county earlier suspended Special Management Area rules for properties mauka of Front Street, an attempt to speed up permitting.
Still, residents like Pratt believe it’s not nearly enough. He says the reopening of his portion of Front Street — one of the few accessible sections — has actually made life more difficult.
“They just opened this up like a freeway for everybody, tourists, all the bums and everybody in the community. It’s a hassle,” he said. “It shouldn’t even be opened. It’s a total disaster zone.” Suspicious activity, he says, has become common enough that he has installed cameras on his home “to give them pause.”
Pratt also expressed safety concerns about the scale of new construction on the mauka side of Honoapiilani Highway, where some new homes feature six to eight bedrooms. He worries that the increased density could replicate the dangerous evacuation problems faced during the 2023 fire. “It’s going to create a lot of extra housing; there’s a problem, though,” he said. “Where are they all going to park? It’s going to cause the same scenario … where all the people died. Because they packed too many people in … and if something happens, nobody can get out.”
Frary, by contrast, says he hasn’t seen the vagrant-related issues Pratt mentioned. His tools have remained untouched, and he credits returning residents for maintaining nighttime vigilance. But he acknowledges that many lots will likely remain empty long-term, whether due to insurance gaps, affordability, or the emotional toll of returning to the site of such trauma.
All across Lahaina, reminders of the fire sit beside signs of new life. A charred mailbox, a boarded-up McDonald’s, temporary structures still waiting for demolition, and surviving churches stand alongside rising homes, freshly installed utilities, and constant movement from construction crews.
The landscape is filled with contradictions — a community rebuilding itself while still visibly carrying its wounds. And while officials point to steady progress, those rebuilding on the ground say the most honest assessment may also be the simplest: Lahaina’s recovery is moving forward — but the finish line is nowhere in sight.
Originally reported by Brian McInnis Lahaina in Spectrum Local News.
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