A Tale of Rebuild and Two Cities: Palisades, Lahaina

A home in Lahaina was under construction in February. Its neighbors had not yet started to rebuild. Such unevenness can still be seen all over town. (Nathan Eagle/Civil Beat/2025)

When people walk around Pacific Palisades and the areas of town that have been decimated by the fire, one of the questions they ask is “How long before the town is back?”

The Honolulu Civil Beat August 8, 2025 reports “2 Years After Deadly Fire, Lahaina Struggles to Rebuild. Homeowners are running into big gaps between their insurance payouts and the cost to rebuild.”click here.

The Lahaina Fire started as a three-acre brush fire when a downed power line sparked flames on dry grass at 6:37 a.m. The fire was thought to be extinguished by 9 a.m. But by 3:30 p.m. it flared up again, destroying the town of Lahaina and killing more than 100 people. It was reported that fire fighters had problems with falling water pressure in fire hydrants. Residents had to self-evacuate with little or no notice.

The Honolulu Civil Beat story explains the rebuild process:  “Bit by bit, Jeremy DelosReyes is rebuilding his house in the Lahaina neighborhood he’s called home his whole life. Or at least he’s trying to.

“The ʻĀinakea Street house the carpenter shared with his wife and three dogs was completely leveled in the 2023 blaze — the country’s deadliest fire in over a century. They also lost a rental unit on the property that used to provide extra income.

“Insurance paid out part of the value of what was lost, around $430,000. But now DelosReyes is on his own. Rebuilding would cost an estimated $1.2 million. And that doesn’t count the roughly $30,000 he’s already spent through the permitting process.

“Meanwhile he has to pay his mortgage for the charred property and rent for the couple’s temporary accommodation. He wants to stay in the community where he said his family’s roots go back at least six generations, but he’s struggling.

“‘Right now, I’m financially … drowned,’ he said, and so are others in his community. ‘We need help.’”

Like Pacific Palisades, debris has been cleared in Lahaina, the water system is declared safe, but the story reports that many owners don’t have enough money to rebuild – like the Palisades.

In Lahaina, more than 330 applications are in the permitting process and 400 others have been permitted, but hundreds of Lahaina homeowners have not submitted plans, yet.

Brandy Cajudoy, a general contractor and member of Maui’s long-term recovery group, said in his experience, the average insurance claimant is getting around $300,000 to $500,000, but building a home can cost around $600,000 to $700,000.

Insurance policyholders haven’t always updated the current value of their property, she said. And as the cost of rebuilding gets ever pricier in today’s economy, that would need to be factored in.

“In the past 10 years, if they never looked at it,” she said, “it was only covering the value from years ago.”

Some didn’t have homeowners insurance at all. People without mortgages – who perhaps paid off their homes or inherited family property – aren’t required to. Aside from up to $41,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and charitable donations, Cajudoy said: “They have absolutely nothing.”

Residents applied for Small Business Administration loans and many families were told they did not qualify for aid from FEMA.

Others have moved from Maui to the mainland. Still other seniors question spending their retirement in rebuilding and construction.

Where are Pacific Palisades residents in rebuilding? Generally, permitting is not an issue because of the City waiving fees. Some insurance companies still have not paid the full value of policies, 10 months after the fire. People do not know if they’ll have enough money to rebuild.

The town, which was 25 percent seniors, may lose that demographic, while others have moved to a new city or state. Yet, others have not decided what they plan to do.

There is still no official cause for the Palisades Fire and no L.A. City after action report. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which investigated after the fire has still not released its report.

The County released an after-action report. About that report, one resident wrote:

“I downloaded and read through part of the After-Action Report put together by The McChrystal Group for the county supervisors. I’m shocked to hear them say there were prepositioned resources in preparation for the fire, which does not square with what I know.

“The purpose of the report: “This report does not investigate wrongdoing or assign blame. Its purpose is to assess the County’s alert and evacuation systems during the January 2025 fire events and provide actionable recommendations to strengthen future response efforts”

A major conclusion: “The review identified no single point of failure related to how the alerts, warnings, notifications, and evacuations were conducted.”

I think the most revealing high-level takeaway is Appendix 2 on who was interviewed and, most importantly, who refused:

The resident added that LAFD Station 23 was on a training exercise the day of the fire up the coast, which was why it was 69 who responded first. The resident said it took 20 minutes from when the fire was reported before Station 69 arrived in