Maui Emergency Management Agency Administrator Amos Lonokailua-Hewett wasn’t leading the organization when deadly and devastating wildfires struck parts of the Valley Isle in August 2023.
Former MEMA head Herman Andaya, who was criticized for his response to the fires, was at the helm and resigned just days after a deadly inferno destroyed much of Lahaina town and ravaged other parts of the island, citing health reasons.
Lonokailua-Hewett, a retired Maui Fire Department battalion chief with 25 years of service, was tapped to lead the organization in late 2023 and assumed the role in January 2024.
Aloha State Daily spoke with Lonokailua-Hewett during a sit-down interview in Wailuku last month to see what has changed in the county’s emergency response in the years following the devastating fires.
“One of the things that I learned coming into the agency, having a background in firefighting, I kind of see the world differently. Also, because I have a career in firefighting, I see the world as worst-case. I see worst-case scenarios and so I position for the worst to happen,” he told ASD. “When I took over the agency, I was discovering, or investigating, what I could improve — what was wrong, what could be done. Where was emergency management at organizationally? Where was emergency management at culturally? Where was that as a county, where was that as a state, where was that nationally, and trying to figure out what our pathway was forward. And the short story is that it required us to expand.”
Especially in emergency response or emergency management, Lonokailua-Hewett says that every community, jurisdiction or organization struggles with the ability to match pace.
“What I recognized early is the organization couldn't match pace," he says. "Obviously, it’s [an] unprecedented wildfire, so I don’t know if anyone could have matched pace, but we didn’t match pace. One of my first things was ‘OK, what is the organization that allows us to match pace?’”
Since 2024, MEMA has grown from nine positions — Lonokailua-Hewett says three were filled when he took the role — to 25. Another six positions were approved in fiscal year 2027, bringing the number of funded positions to 31, he said.
In a follow-up email, Lonokailua-Hewett said those six positions are funded by the county for a total $323,340. MEMA's FY27 budget is $9,579,263.
Today, some of the expanded roles within MEMA include dedicated finance, hazard mitigation and external affairs sections.
The latter, for example, includes three new positions: section chief, community outreach specialist and public information officer.
“The function of the [External Affairs] section is related to communicating and connecting with vulnerable populations," Lonokailua-Hewett explained. "It’s to improve our public information and messaging. It’s to connect with our nonprofit partners better. It’s to improve and explore and develop the business partners into a business response network. It’s to share emergency messaging better as well, and that particular function within MEMA [has] tremendous, tremendous value. Our responsibility to the public is information sharing.”
External Affairs also is in charge of education campaigns.
In operations and planning, Lonokailua-Hewett said there previously was one employee who addressed operations and planning, but those have been separated into two sections, an operations section and planning section with supports under the section chiefs. The agency also added staff specialists in some of the county's more isolated communities.
"MEMA added community specialists for Hāna, Molokai and Lānaʻi to improve service and coordination in communities that are geographically isolated and have distinct needs," he said in the follow-up email. "Because these specialists live in the communities they serve, they understand local resources, challenges and relationships. They also provide a direct connection to the Emergency Operations Center, helping ensure timely information flows between these communities and response partners before, during and after an emergency."
And when speaking about the new finance section, Lonokailua-Hewett said in July, “We want to be responsible to our taxpayers. We want to ensure that we are spending our money correctly and appropriately. That also includes management of grants and includes reimbursement under federal reimbursement procedures. We need people to be able to manage that process so our money is spent wisely [and] our money can be reimbursed, grants can be utilized correctly and we can build community resilience because we have the financial management power and strategy to do so."
Meanwhile, the Hazard Mitigation section is expanding so it can "go out in the public and actually execute countywide mitigation projects that actually reduce risk," he says.
Then, among other improvements, there are the plans.
MEMA, he says, contracted out the design and development of a comprehensive emergency management plan, or CEMP.
More than 50 plans have now been completed, Lonokailua-Hewett said, and on top of those are a five-year strategic plan, a two-year integrated preparedness plan, and an annual training and exercise plan.
“These are just frameworks of guidance that exist to take us into the future,” he told ASD. “Now, the money in it all, or the value of those plans, are not in the words. The values of those plans are within the partnerships, relationships, capabilities of the organizations that work within that plan, and then ultimately the exercise and validation of those plans, real world, real time. The changes are within that. The plans exist. The partnerships are developing. … Parts of those plans are being exercised currently, [and have] been exercised from when I started, and we’re moving into a way more complete, mature emergency management system that allows our collective power to be aligned, coordinated and executed.”
But as far as the agency’s biggest challenges right now in terms of emergency response, Lonokailua-Hewett said community resilience, or "whole-community response" is on his mind.
“In FEMA guidance and FEMA doctrine, they talk about whole community, which means that you need everybody to help and everybody contribute to its preparedness, its response, its recovery, its overall community protection,” he explained. “That’s easier said than done. As an idea, we’re saying that we’re all going to contribute to protect each other and we agree. As an idea and a concept, [that’s] easy to say. But my job is to make that happen.”
Lonokailua-Hewett said his role is to connect MEMA’s partners, people and those who are interested and who have resources to share, bringing these partners together “to respond as a whole community.”
“That is how community resilience is improved upon, strengthened and successful against disaster,” he told ASD. “That means my job is to connect to everybody … in the way that they want to connect to me or to MEMA or to the County of Maui; somehow organize what that is, coordinate what that does in a disaster, make sure everybody has an understanding of that and will show up per agreement when the call to duty is made. That is a tremendous, tremendous challenge because not everybody sees that the same way. Not everybody agrees that that’s the way, that’s the direction we need to go in or that’s the right way to do it. It requires tremendous patience, a good listener, somebody, an organization that can connect with people, communicate well, problem solve and administer all of these actions to build community resilience.”
New Emergency Operations Center
Last month, Maui County announced that MEMA was slated to begin operating from a new Maui Emergency Operations Center in Wailuku in August.
According to a July 24 announcement, the 9,355-square-foot facility will "increase the county's capacity to bring emergency response partners together during an emergency activation," and will nearly quadruple capacity, offering space for up to 198 people compared to the current Emergency Operation Center capacity of 52.
"The new center also includes advanced emergency management technology that will help improve situational awareness, speed decision-making and strengthen the county’s ability to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies," the announcement notes.
The county says MEMA has been activated 92 times for emergencies including storms, flooding and a hurricane warning since 2024.
The project to develop a new EOC began with the purchase of the property in 2020, under former Mayor Mike Victorino's administration, the announcement noted.
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Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
