TESTIMONY ON SHORELINE EROSION IMPACTS ON COASTAL PROPERTIES (DRIP-9(11))
Aloha Chair and Members,
I appreciate this discussion, but I believe Maui County is asking the wrong question.
The question is not simply how shoreline erosion impacts coastal properties.
The question is whether Maui County has the population, workforce, financial resources, infrastructure, emergency response capacity, and governmental competence necessary to manage the growing number of disasters confronting our islands simultaneously.
For years, government has studied hazards individually.
One committee studies erosion.
Another studies climate.
Another studies wildfire mitigation.
Another studies housing.
Another studies infrastructure.
Yet residents live with all of these risks at the same time.
Today Maui faces:
Shoreline erosion.
Sea level rise.
Hurricanes.
Tsunami threats.
Severe flooding.
Drought.
Wildfires.
Earthquakes.
Aging infrastructure.
Water system vulnerabilities.
Limited emergency evacuation routes.
A shrinking local workforce.
Rising construction costs.
Growing dependence on federal disaster funding.
The reality is that every one of these risks competes for the same limited pool of public resources.
Before discussing future policies affecting shoreline properties, I encourage the Committee to ask a larger question:
What hazards should Maui County prioritize over the next 25 years, and how will we pay for them?
No government can do everything.
No government can protect every structure.
No government can harden every shoreline.
No government can rebuild every road.
No government can simultaneously address every climate, infrastructure, and disaster challenge without making difficult choices.
The public deserves an honest discussion about those choices.
The events of August 2023 exposed a hard truth.
Government planning documents are not the same as preparedness.
Committees are not preparedness.
Reports are not preparedness.
Studies are not preparedness.
Residents were repeatedly assured that plans existed. Yet when disaster arrived, many systems failed simultaneously.
Warning systems failed.
Communications failed.
Evacuation planning failed.
Emergency coordination failed.
Public confidence was severely damaged.
Those failures should serve as a warning against assuming that future shoreline planning efforts will automatically produce successful outcomes.
The County should first demonstrate that it can effectively maintain roads, water systems, emergency communications, evacuation planning, and disaster response before expanding into increasingly ambitious long-range planning initiatives.
I also encourage the Committee to consider the practical reality of Maui's workforce.
Who will build the protective infrastructure?
Who will relocate vulnerable facilities?
Who will maintain the roads?
Who will rebuild after disasters?
Who will operate emergency shelters?
Who will provide police, fire, and emergency medical services?
Every year Maui struggles to recruit and retain workers in many of these fields.
A resilience strategy that ignores workforce realities is not a resilience strategy at all.
Finally, I urge the Committee to develop a comprehensive islandwide hazard prioritization framework rather than continuing to examine each threat independently.
Residents deserve to know:
Which communities face the greatest combined risks.
Which infrastructure is most vulnerable.
Which projects should receive priority funding.
Which hazards present the greatest threat to life and safety.
What government can realistically accomplish with available resources.
Maui's future will not be determined by shoreline erosion alone.
It will be determined by how effectively we prepare for multiple overlapping disasters while operating with limited resources, limited workforce capacity, and increasing demands on government.
That is the conversation I hope this Committee will begin.
TESTIMONY ON SHORELINE EROSION IMPACTS ON COASTAL PROPERTIES (DRIP-9(11))
Aloha Chair and Members,
I appreciate this discussion, but I believe Maui County is asking the wrong question.
The question is not simply how shoreline erosion impacts coastal properties.
The question is whether Maui County has the population, workforce, financial resources, infrastructure, emergency response capacity, and governmental competence necessary to manage the growing number of disasters confronting our islands simultaneously.
For years, government has studied hazards individually.
One committee studies erosion.
Another studies climate.
Another studies wildfire mitigation.
Another studies housing.
Another studies infrastructure.
Yet residents live with all of these risks at the same time.
Today Maui faces:
Shoreline erosion.
Sea level rise.
Hurricanes.
Tsunami threats.
Severe flooding.
Drought.
Wildfires.
Earthquakes.
Aging infrastructure.
Water system vulnerabilities.
Limited emergency evacuation routes.
A shrinking local workforce.
Rising construction costs.
Growing dependence on federal disaster funding.
The reality is that every one of these risks competes for the same limited pool of public resources.
Before discussing future policies affecting shoreline properties, I encourage the Committee to ask a larger question:
What hazards should Maui County prioritize over the next 25 years, and how will we pay for them?
No government can do everything.
No government can protect every structure.
No government can harden every shoreline.
No government can rebuild every road.
No government can simultaneously address every climate, infrastructure, and disaster challenge without making difficult choices.
The public deserves an honest discussion about those choices.
The events of August 2023 exposed a hard truth.
Government planning documents are not the same as preparedness.
Committees are not preparedness.
Reports are not preparedness.
Studies are not preparedness.
Residents were repeatedly assured that plans existed. Yet when disaster arrived, many systems failed simultaneously.
Warning systems failed.
Communications failed.
Evacuation planning failed.
Emergency coordination failed.
Public confidence was severely damaged.
Those failures should serve as a warning against assuming that future shoreline planning efforts will automatically produce successful outcomes.
The County should first demonstrate that it can effectively maintain roads, water systems, emergency communications, evacuation planning, and disaster response before expanding into increasingly ambitious long-range planning initiatives.
I also encourage the Committee to consider the practical reality of Maui's workforce.
Who will build the protective infrastructure?
Who will relocate vulnerable facilities?
Who will maintain the roads?
Who will rebuild after disasters?
Who will operate emergency shelters?
Who will provide police, fire, and emergency medical services?
Every year Maui struggles to recruit and retain workers in many of these fields.
A resilience strategy that ignores workforce realities is not a resilience strategy at all.
Finally, I urge the Committee to develop a comprehensive islandwide hazard prioritization framework rather than continuing to examine each threat independently.
Residents deserve to know:
Which communities face the greatest combined risks.
Which infrastructure is most vulnerable.
Which projects should receive priority funding.
Which hazards present the greatest threat to life and safety.
What government can realistically accomplish with available resources.
Maui's future will not be determined by shoreline erosion alone.
It will be determined by how effectively we prepare for multiple overlapping disasters while operating with limited resources, limited workforce capacity, and increasing demands on government.
That is the conversation I hope this Committee will begin.
Mahalo.
Edward Codelia