Three years after the Maui wildfires, findings from the Maui Wildfire Exposure Study (MauiWES) offer a hopeful but clear message: recovery is underway, but it remains uneven. Many residents are rebuilding routines, returning to work, gaining health insurance, reconnecting with services, and drawing strength from family, culture, community, and ‘āina (land). At the same time, many families continue to face interconnected challenges, including food insecurity, housing uncertainty, barriers to medical and mental health care, emotional distress, elevated blood-pressure screening results, and lung-function concerns. Because MauiWES follows many of the same residents over time, this report shows not only how participants are doing now, but how recovery is changing within the same people and communities.

While this report is about the Maui wildfires, there are findings that may be helpful to survivors of the LA wildfires as well. Some of the Maui WES researchers have also collaborated with members of the LA Fire HEALTH Consortium.