President Joe Biden greets Jaime Green, wife of Gov. Josh Green, as first lady Jill Biden hugs Hawaii Gov. Josh Green upon arrival on Air Force One to receive a briefing on the devastating Maui wildfires and the ongoing recovery efforts, Monday, Aug. 21, 2023, in Kahului, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

LAHAINA — Realizing the scope of the damage and the need to fund food and shelter were some of the things that local residents and leaders hoped would come out of President Joe Biden’s visit to Lahaina in the wake of devastating wildfires.

“Hope. I think that’s the main thing. I think that’s what the president brings when he comes to any community,” Mayor Richard Bissen said as he awaited the president’s arrival via helicopter at the Kapalua-West Maui Regional Airport on Monday morning. “People look to him as our leader. We look at him as the one that controls all the federal agencies, and he is able to get things.”

Bissen said the federal government’s response so far has been quick, from Biden signing the major disaster declaration for the state within hours of Gov. Josh Green requesting one, to the scores of federal personnel deployed to respond the disaster efforts.

Bissen said that he was going to ask the president on Monday to “continue to support our programs,” which currently include the need for food and shelter. Later on the needs will be jobs and the economy, along with long-term shelter, which will be “a community discussion.” He was also going to seek as much funding as he could for the cleanup after the fires.

At the Lahaina Civic Center where Biden spoke on Monday afternoon, three Lahaina Intermediate teachers sat together as they waited for the president to arrive.

“I’m glad he is here to see firsthand what has happened to our town,” said Lori Koyama, who lost her Wahikuli house in the fire.

“It shows he cares.”

Koyama said she has been coping through the kindness of loved ones.

“Friends and family have helped give us the support we need,” she said.

“Even if it’s a text,” it has helped, said Koyama, who has deep roots in Lahaina.

Koyama’s sister-in-law Cindy Koyama also lost her home in the fire and has been trying to cope with the loss.

“It’s completely different to live through it,” Cindy Koyama said.

Fellow teacher Martina Nagasako, whose family also has longtime ties to Lahaina town, said she works with the Ohana Maui Youth Foundation, which supports around 300 children in Lahaina.

“Majority of them have lost their homes,” she said, noting there were basketball games going on in the civic center the night before the fires.

“We want to be there for them,” she said, adding that she’d heard from one child that their jersey had been burned in the fire.

“Our goal is to bring programs and activities back to them,” Nagasako said.

The president also met with some of Maui’s first responders, who shook hands and briefly spoke with Biden.

“I just told him, thank you very much for the support and presented him with a coin on behalf of the men and women of MPD who have been tirelessly working day in and day out to make sure they are doing right by the community and everything they can,” Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said.

Pelletier said “he and his wife could not been more kinder” and that the president told him “that he was with us and that we’d get everything we needed.”

Maui Fire Chief Brad Ventura, who also met the president, echoed the need for support.

“I’m just grateful that he made the trip and showed immense support for our community and that we are a hurting community right now and are going to need the support from everywhere around the world, so we appreciate all the efforts,” Ventura said.

“He was very grateful for our efforts here in town and understands it will be a long road ahead of us,” the fire chief added.

At the Kapalua-West Maui Regional Airport, Victoria Caputo, former president of Sacred Hearts School, and 12-year-old Seilala Samisoni, waited patiently with lei on their lap.

Caputo said they were royal lei made for Biden by the Tongan community. Samisoni said the lei included the red heilala flower. Biden was later seen with the lei on at the Lahaina Civic Center.

Sacred Hearts School was originally known as Maria Lanakila School, which started as a two-room unit in 1846, according to the school’s website. Maria Lanakila Catholic Church on Wainee Street in Lahaina town withstood the blaze even as other structures burned around it.

Caputo noted that the president is also Catholic, “and I met him before.” She said she traveled in the same Amtrak train that Biden took from Wilmington, Del., while he was in Congress and she was working for a federal contractor doing intelligence work in Washington D.C. She said he greeted people but she did not chat with him.

“Everyone gave him space,” she said, adding that “he was very nice.”

Another time she rode on the same plane from Boston to Philadelphia with Biden and the two chatted. She said they continued talking and walking though the airport. When Biden saw Caputo’s husband, he put down his suitcase and said, “Hi, I’m Joe Biden.”

Caputo said she feels support in the wake of the fires is mainly coming from local organizations in Hawaii, such as the Knights of Columbus, who was one of the organizations that had supplies dropped off by boat in Kaanapali last week.

Overall, she said that Biden’s visit “will help publicize our need.”

“We have been isolated,” Caputo said.

* Staff Writer Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.