And I know from my time living in Florida for most of my life, in hurricane seasons, these sort of bureaucratic deadlines get kind of lost in the mix when people's lives are upended. That deadline has been extended multiple times. PARKS: Now, Maui fire survivors have until Monday, December 11, to apply for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA. KEAHI: I'm over nine generations from Lahaina, and everyone in my family but one person, one family member, lost their home. She lost her home in Lahaina during the fire. It can be very painful to relive the fire in any capacity, and that's something Kukui has firsthand experience with. People have lost homes, jobs, even loved ones. But it's exactly that - a process, a grinding one, in part because of the sheer amount of paperwork involved but also because of the emotions it brings up. They are the gradual reopening of the residential areas and the efforts to find displaced residents affordable short-term housing. SUBIONO: So there's two issues that are getting the most attention right now. Where do things stand right now with the recovery process? Russell, I know you've spent a lot of time talking to people at the center of this disaster. PARKS: Well, and this latest episode looks at how the recovery effort is going and a lot of different complexities around that. But Maui was an opportunity to discuss these deeper issues as it was happening, thanks to the internet and social media, with an international audience, while the situation was still fresh in people's minds. In our previous episodes, we touched on situations that were important to us and we know would be important to many people here and would maybe shine the light on some things for people outside of our state. I imagine the fallout from the fire has put your show's theme of belonging into kind of a whole new light. And then on August 8, the fires begin, and you guys go on hiatus to report, like everyone from your station, on this disaster. And the idea behind the podcast is to look at all the complexities behind this idea of belonging in Hawaii, which is obviously a place that has a long history of colonization and of tourism. So before we get into talking about what Lahaina's recovery has been like, I want to start by asking about your podcast, This Is Our Hawaii, which launched a few months before the fires. Russell and the producer of the podcast, Savannah Harriman-Pote, join me now to share some of that reporting. Russell Subiono spoke to her back in October for Hawaii Public Radio's podcast, This Is Our Hawaii. She's the operations manager for Kako'o Maui, one of the resource hubs set up to help people navigate this process. KUKUI KEAHI: They come in flustered and stacks of papers and I don't know what I need. There was the initial chaos and heartbreak of the disaster, but now people are in the middle of a new nightmare - the recovery process. When you look down from the main road leading into Lahaina, all that's left are black burn marks, a singed silhouette of a historic town. It's been nearly four months since western Maui erupted into flames.
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