President Joe Biden speaks as he meets with community members impacted by the Maui wildfires at Lahaina Civic Center, Monday, Aug. 21, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

LAHAINA — With the destruction of the famous Front Street behind him and the shells of burned buildings around him, President Joe Biden told the residents of Maui who are still reeling from recent fires that “the country grieves with you and stands with you.”

“And we will do everything possible to help you recover, rebuild and respect culture and traditions when the rebuilding takes place,” Biden said while speaking to first responders, media and government officials under the hot sun on Wharf Street in Lahaina on Monday afternoon.

“As soon as I got the governor’s request I signed the major disaster declaration, which mobilized a whole-of-government response, which means whatever you need you are going to get,” he added.

Lahaina town was one of several stops that the president and first lady Jill Biden made during a roughly six-hour visit to Maui on Monday. In addition to walking down Front Street and a portion of Lahaina town and meeting first responders near the ruins of the Lahaina Public Library, they also surveyed the devastation via helicopter after touching down in Air Force One at Kahului Airport around 11:10 a.m.

The Bidens and other officials then flew to the Kapalua-West Maui Regional Airport and headed into Lahaina town. Portions of Honoapiilani Highway were filled with residents, with some eager to get a glimpse of the motorcade and others expressing their frustration by flashing the middle finger or holding up a “F— Biden” flag. Others held signs saying “Maui Strong” and waved to the motorcade.

After visiting Lahaina town, the couple participated in a blessing with local Hawaiian leaders at Moku’ula, the former home of Native Hawaiian royalty.

A few hundred people, including residents impacted by the wildfires, gathered at the last stop at the Lahaina Civic Center, where Biden delivered a speech and later met with community members without media present.

Wearing a royal lei made by the Tongan community, Biden told the crowd at the Lahaina Civic Center that he has “a little sense” of what Lahaina families are going through. Years ago he was in Washington D.C. doing a “Meet the Press” show when he got a call that his home was on fire due to a lightning striking nearby.

“I almost lost my wife, my ’67 Corvette and my cat,” Biden said.

He recalled how the firefighters responded to the blaze.

“They ran into flames to save my wife, save my family,” he said.

Biden also spoke to those who’ve lost family, reflecting back to Dec. 18, 1972, when his first wife, Neilia, and 13-month old daughter, Naomi, were killed in a car accident when a tractor trailer broadsided their car.

“She was killed. My baby was killed,” he said, adding that he wasn’t sure how his two boys, Hunter and Beau, would also fare. Both sons survived, but Beau Biden later died in 2015 from brain cancer.

The president said he recognized the pain of those who are still searching for their loved ones.

“My heart goes out to you,” he said. “Our heart aches for you.”

Looking further down the road, Biden said to applause that Lahaina will be “built the way you want it built, the way you want it.”

“I promise you, I give you my word,” he added.

He said the offer of federal aid will continue for the long term.

“As long as I am president, your governor is governor and this group of your elected officials are there, we are not going to stop until it’s done,” he said.

Members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation also promised to do the same. U.S. Rep Jill Tokuda, whose district includes Maui County, said she already knows more federal help is needed, including for housing.

“There are a number of different rent subsidy-type programs,” she said. “But we are going to need more.”

“This is equivalent to when COVID came around and we needed rent relief programs and utility relief programs. You are going to have the same situation here because we are not talking about a one-week or two-week displacement or even a one-month or two-month displacement,” she said in an interview at the Lahaina Courthouse as Biden met with families at the nearby civic center on Monday afternoon.

She added that the cost of housing on Maui is “part of the reality check that everyone has to have especially at the federal level.”

“Everything we can ask for we are asking for,” Tokuda said. “No ask, no get.”

Hawaii’s U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz also emphasized that lawmakers would push for aid.

“Please know we are going to do everything we can to get the help that you need,” he said Monday on Wharf Street. “This is the deadliest natural disaster Hawaii has ever seen and as a result this is the biggest federal response that Hawaii has ever seen. But we will need more support from everyone. The Maui community will pull together and chart its own future, but this scope of this tragedy means we will need everyone in Hawaii and across the country. The work will continue and we will be there every step of the way.”

He said later that “I don’t know the dollar amount” of federal funding that could come to Maui but pointed out that “the damage assessment is still ongoing, and obviously we are still in the search and recovery mode, and not quite everyone has been housed, even in temporary housing.”

“We don’t have utility infrastructure fully operational. So we are still in disaster response mode. But then next step is debris removal which is doing to be extraordinary expensive and time consuming enterprise, and that’s where the federal government has to take the lead with the Environmental Protection Agency to make sure that this place is cleaned up,” Schatz said.

He explained that the state can pick any 30-day period within the next 120 days in which the federal government will pick up 100 percent of the costs for cleanup.

Waiting at the Kahului Airport for the Bidens to arrive on Monday morning, U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono said that federal officials will be working with agencies to find all relief available. She acknowledged that the initial approval of $700 in federal funds per household “is not enough” but that there are more resources to come.

“That’s just an initial amount of money for immediate need, but everyone understands that the recovery will take time and many more resources, so there are various kinds of housing programs, housing assistance, disaster relief programs from SBA, from HUD and other agencies, so the request is going out for all of these agencies to look at their relief programs … and we are certainly going to ask for all of the relief that we will need in order to recover,” Hirono said.

She said she hoped to see the president “talk to the local people and to see for himself the devastation and the need for federal relief and the long-term commitment that we would like from the president and the administration.”

Gov. Josh Green has estimated that the fires caused more than $5 billion in damages. When asked how much the federal government might cover, Hirono said, “We’re certainly going to ask for whatever we can and we’re going to need to ask for supplemental appropriation to help us with the recovery.”

“My hope and expectation is that this support will be bipartisan because every disaster that has befallen any of the states, there has been bipartisan support for recovery,” the senator said.

Speaking to residents on Monday, the president pointed to the resilience of the community, using the symbolism of the famed 150-year-old Lahaina banyan tree, where leaves and some branches have burned, but the primary trunk remains.

“It burned but it still stands,” he said at the Lahaina Civic Center. “One resident called it a diamond in the rough of hope. Another said fire did not reach its roots.”

“I know it’s a metaphor. That’s you, that’s who you are. That’s Hawaii. There is no quit in Hawaii. There is no quit in America. There is no quit in us.”

* Staff Writer Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com. Managing Editor Colleen Uechi contributed to this report.