Joey Maldonado braced his hands against the ceiling of his family's Haiku home as it began to give way, buying his wife time to gather their children and belongings before Hurricane Lala tore the roof from the house entirely. The Maldonado family of five fled into the storm after pine trees started falling and their garage lifted four or five inches off the ground, leaving them without a stable home and now leaning on a community fundraiser to rebuild.
According to Hawaii News Now, the family sheltered inside the home as Hurricane Lala passed south of Hawaiʻi, only deciding to leave once the structure itself began to fail. Rain drenched everything inside as the ceiling collapsed, and glass from the shattered bedroom windows blew into the playpen where 11-month-old Dusty Lou had been resting just moments earlier. No one in the family was injured, but the home itself — which has served as a family anchor going back to Dusty Lou's great-grandfather's house on Awalau Road — was left in ruins, per the outlet's report.
A Father's Fear and a Family's Escape
Joey Maldonado told the station that being responsible for his family without a secure home to offer them is frightening. He has been sleeping in his truck since the storm, while the rest of the family works to find stable shelter. Ten-year-old Makoa, described in the report as part of Maui's next generation of paniolo for his roping skills, is among the five family members now navigating life without a home.
Loved ones have since created a GoFundMe page to help the Maldonados rebuild, and the family has received an outpouring of community support that Joey Maldonado said has baffled him. Their most urgent need, per the family, is simply a roof over their heads — and a safe haven for Dusty Lou.
Storm's Statewide Scale
The damage to the Maldonado home fits into a much larger picture of destruction across the islands. Researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi found that Hurricane Lala dropped roughly 1.3 trillion gallons of water statewide between August 14 and August 16 — equivalent to nearly 1.9 million Olympic-size swimming pools — with Maui County alone absorbing an average of 6.6 inches of rainfall, according to Maui Now. Governor Josh Green's statewide emergency proclamation, issued as the storm intensified, cited hurricane-force winds, cut-off roads, and more than 250,000 customers left without power.
Hurricane Lala never made official landfall, but its close pass still generated destructive wind gusts and dumped enormous rain totals that hit older, multi-generational homes like the Maldonados' especially hard, as reported by Inside Climate News. The outlet notes that direct hurricane impacts remain historically rare in Hawaiʻi, with only two hurricanes ever making direct landfall on the islands before this year, meaning many homes were built under building codes that never anticipated a storm like this one.
Why Insurance Often Falls Short
Families in the Maldonados' position frequently discover that their coverage does not match their losses. Standard homeowners policies in Hawaiʻi exclude damage from hurricane-force winds and flooding entirely, according to Carr's Insurance Agency, requiring separate hurricane and flood endorsements that lenders typically mandate only for mortgaged properties — leaving paid-off or inherited homes like the Maldonados' potentially uncovered. Even families who do carry hurricane policies face steep deductibles calculated as a percentage of a home's insured value, typically 2% to 5%, per First Insurance Company of Hawaii — meaning a home insured for $500,000 could carry a $25,000 out-of-pocket threshold before any payout arrives.
That gap helps explain why displaced families so often turn to grassroots fundraising and volunteer labor rather than waiting on insurance alone. Disaster relief group Team Rubicon began deploying Quick Reaction Forces across the state starting August 19 to conduct welfare checks, clear downed trees, place roof tarps, and muck out flooded homes, with operations expected to continue into September across Maui, Hawaiʻi Island, and Oʻahu.
Documenting Damage and Seeking Relief
Maui County has urged residents and business owners with storm damage to submit reports through the Crisis Track tool at mauirecovers.org, a step officials say helps local agencies document the disaster's full scope and support requests for state and federal relief funds. Property owners dealing with uninhabitable homes may also apply for real property tax remission, which can reduce a home's assessed value and annual tax bill, though it does not directly fund rebuilding costs.
Black mold has already begun spreading inside the Maldonado home, a hazard made worse in the storm's aftermath before power is restored to run pumps and dehumidifiers. Hawaiian Electric announced that power was fully restored to nearly all affected customers on Maui and Oʻahu by August 20, two days ahead of its target, but for the Maldonados, the more immediate problem remains a house with no roof, spreading mold, and a family still searching for somewhere safe to land.
