Surfer Kai Lenny slams government response after devastating Maui wildfires: “Where are they?”

Kai Lenny, a professional surfer and a Maui local, has stepped up in the aftermath of devastating wildfires as frustrations mount over what many residents believe is an inadequate government response. He is leading one of many citizen-run recovery efforts on the island, saying people in the fire zone have told him they haven’t seen a government employee in days.

He told CBS News that “some of us … were kinda sitting back, waiting for help to arrive, and then nothing was sorta happening.” 

“We were just in shock,” he said. 

People contacted Lenny, citing a lack of help in their areas. He said he received texts and messages from friends asking if he could help, which led to his “boots on the ground” effort — bringing supplies to those in need with the goal of holding friends and family over until “the caravan arrives with everything.” 

“And it was just like, day after day, ‘Where are they?'” he said. 

“I haven’t seen one state, one county, one federal official at any one of the donation hubs where people are most suffering,” he said. “People are sleeping in their cars. People are asking for specific items now.”

Lenny likened the west side of Maui to “a third-world country” and said locals there say no one has come to help them.

“The Hawaiian people, the locals that have lived here, they just always feel like they’re the last to be thought of. And they’re like, the foundation of it,” he said. 

The confirmed death toll rose to 99 on Monday as more than 1,000 people remained unaccounted for, local officials said.  

FEMA says they have 300 employees on the ground, while the Red Cross has 250 disaster workers. CBS News has reached out to FEMA, Maui county officials and Hawaii Gov. Josh Green for comment on Lenny’s concerns, but did not immediately receive a response. 

Lenny said volunteers, some of whom lost their own homes and loved ones, have worked day and night at shelters and distribution centers.

“I wonder if the state, county, they believe we’re doing such a good job, they don’t need to step in,” he said. “But a lot of these volunteers have been going all day, all night for five, six days now and are exhausted and are waiting for a handoff, or at least a break.”

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