FEMA has approved $15 million to help Hawaiʻi manage hazard mitigation applications stemming from the 2023 Maui wildfires, along with nearly $1.4 million for Kauaʻi County to complete permanent repairs from storms that hit the island back in April 2018. The two awards are part of a sprawling disaster funding package exceeding $226 million that stretches across four states and territories.
The Maui money comes through FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which funds projects designed to reduce damage from future disasters, according to Maui Now. Specifically, the funds are meant to cover the cost of administering and managing hazard mitigation sub-applications in the wake of the 2023 fires — essentially, the paperwork and project management needed to turn disaster recovery dollars into actual mitigation work on the ground. FEMA did not say which state or county agency will administer the Maui funds, nor did it specify how much of the mitigation work will actually take place in Maui County itself.
That ambiguity lands at an interesting moment for local emergency management. In July, the Maui County Council approved a fiscal year 2027 budget of $9.58 million for the Maui Emergency Management Agency — a 131.9 percent jump over the prior year — specifically to stand up a dedicated hazard mitigation section and wildfire risk reduction team, according to the Maui County Fire and Public Safety Committee. The agency added six new staff positions focused specifically on mitigation and risk reduction work, suggesting county government has been actively building out the administrative capacity that this kind of federal grant would require.
Kauaʻi's Decade-Old Storm Bill Finally Gets Paid
On Kauaʻi, the nearly $1.4 million award goes to the county's Department of Public Works through FEMA's Public Assistance program, covering permanent repairs tied to the catastrophic storms that hit the island in April 2018. Those storms brought record rainfall — including 68.56 inches in a single month at Waipā — triggering severe flooding and mudslides that damaged 26 separate infrastructure sites along Kuhio Highway and destroyed municipal culverts, according to the Hawaiʻi Department of Health. That April 2018 rainstorm set a 24-hour national rainfall record on Kauaʻi's North Shore, which helps explain why permanent infrastructure repairs are still being funded more than eight years later.
A $226 Million Package Spanning Four Jurisdictions
The broader disaster funding package covers California, Hawaiʻi, Nevada and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, per the same Maui Now report. Public Assistance funding within the package includes more than $156 million for critical infrastructure and public building repairs, road work, and reimbursement of public health and safety costs. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection alone received more than $141 million for suppression of the 2024 Park Fire, which burned 429,603 acres across Butte and Tehama counties and destroyed 713 structures after being ignited by arson near Chico, according to CBS News Sacramento.
Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funding within the package totals more than $70 million across two states and one territory. In Rancho Palos Verdes, California, more than $54 million was approved to buy and demolish 27 homes endangered by the Greater Portuguese Bend Landslide, which accelerated dramatically following severe winter storms, according to FEMA. A health center on Tinian, in the Northern Mariana Islands, received more than $800,000 for generators, and Individual Assistance funding included about $267,000 in grants for the territory, including disaster unemployment assistance.
Mounting Costs Across a Difficult Year for Hawaiʻi
The Maui and Kauaʻi awards land against a backdrop of compounding disaster costs statewide. In September, Governor Josh Green announced that four major natural disasters striking Hawaiʻi in 2026 — March Kona Low storms, a May 6.0 earthquake, Hurricane Lala, and Hurricane Lowell — generated roughly $1 billion in total recovery and resilience needs across the islands, according to the Office of the Governor. State officials have identified $319 million in proposed long-term mitigation projects statewide, including an $80 million State Emergency Operations Center modernization and $175 million to harden Honolulu Harbor against extreme weather, with Hawaiʻi seeking both federal grants and state rainy-day funds to execute that pipeline.
Under the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program's standard structure, federal grants cover up to 75 percent of eligible project costs, requiring state or local sub-applicants to secure a 25 percent non-federal match, according to the Hawaiʻi Emergency Management Agency, which acts as the primary state applicant receiving federal funds before disbursing them to local sub-applicants. That cost-share obligation adds another layer of pressure on county and state budgets already stretched by a string of disasters.
Recovery Milestones Already Reached in Lahaina
The $15 million mitigation grant arrives well after the most visible phase of Maui's wildfire recovery wrapped up. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Maui County officially closed the post-wildfire debris call center in November 2025 and dismantled temporary debris storage infrastructure in Lahaina, removing liners and leachate systems from the sites, as Hoodline previously reported. By early October, Maui County had supported the expedited rebuilding of more than 400 housing units in Lahaina following the 2023 wildfires, with over 1,200 additional rebuild applications still moving through county permitting channels, according to the County of Maui.
This latest grant also follows a separate $7.6 million FEMA package approved in September, which included $3.8 million to upgrade power grid Energy Management System platforms on Maui and $800,000 for a digital twin model designed to catch power defects that can spark wildfires, Hoodline reported at the time. That same package included $1.1 million for Maui water utility emergency repairs. FEMA said the latest approvals reflect President Donald Trump's push to reform federal disaster support, with the agency emphasizing that recovery should be state-led and federally supported. The awards were announced from FEMA's Oakland office.
