Disasters increasing in Hawaii: analysis 

Just a week after wildfires devastated the Hawaiian island of Maui, a new analysis found that natural disasters are more frequently plaguing the state in general.

Hawaii is more frequently being pummeled with natural disasters, especially wildfires, according to a new Associated Press analysis of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) records. The report suggests the state — a highly popular tourist destination — is one of the riskiest in the country for natural disasters.

According to FEMA’s risk index, the Big Island in Hawaii has a risk index higher than nearly 98 percent of all other counties in the United States, while Maui has an index higher than nearly 88 percent of all other counties.

The analysis found that the federal government declared six separate fire disasters in the state during August so far, the same number it declared between 1953 to 2003. AP noted this comes as wildfires across the United States have tripled since the 1980s, according to the federal government’s National Climate Assessment and the National Interagency Fire Center.

The AP found Hawaii had typically averaged one federally declared disaster of any kind every two years between 1953 and 2003. Now, it averages more than two disasters per year.

The increase in wildfires is even more significant. The state went from an average of one declared fire disaster about every nine years to averaging one per year since 2004.

Fire is the top cause of all Hawaii’s federally declared disasters and has more federally declared fire disasters per square mile than any other state, AP reported.

The death toll from the wildfires on Maui reached 111 on Wednesday, and the fires left thousands of people displaced due to thousands of structures being destroyed.

University of Hawaii Manoa fire scientist Clay Trauernicht told the AP that changes in land use and plants are largely to blame for the increase in fire activity. He said since the 1990s, there has been a “big decline in plantation agriculture and a big decline in ranching,” meaning that crops have been replaced with grasslands that are more likely to catch on fire.

“This is much more a fuels problem,” Trauernicht said. “Climate change is going to make this stuff harder.”

The Associated Press contributed.