HIEMA learning from Hurricane Helene, Milton to help Hawaii prepare

HONOLULU (KHON2) – Many people have the holidays in mind, as we head into the Winter season, but the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency continues to stay on its toes. It’s still hurricane season in the state of Hawaii until the end of November. Administrator James Barros of HIEMA joins us on Wake up 2Day to talk more about what their learning from the latest hurricanes in Florida.

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“We’re still in hurricane season. We got to look at the impacts. And we’re kind of studying what’s happening out there because we need our residents to strengthen their properties. We can do wind retrofits to our properties. So strengthening their own properties. But as a state and as a community, we really got to look at, we can’t evacuate. In Florida, the governor says evacuate, people start moving out. We don’t have that. So what can we do to strengthen our communities so that we can kind of withstand, we can be a little resilient when that hurricane hits,” said Barros.

We also asked Barros about the recent extension FEMA granted regarding the Inidividuals and Households Program for the victims of the Lahaina wildfire.

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“Once the President signs an emergency proclamation, it opens up the window for FEMA to assist the survivors. What we did was open the window a little longer into 2026. So it just gives the survivors more time as we go through the rebuild of Lahaina,” said Barros.

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