Hawaii congressional officials said Wednesday that the state’s disaster relief fund must be replenished so the U.S. government can continue to provide aid to survivors of the deadly Maui wildfires as well as other natural disasters across the country.

U.S. Rep. Ed Case, a Democrat from Hawaii, has called on Congress to allocate $20.9 billion for the fund. Case, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, said he hopes Congress will approve the funds by the end of the current fiscal year, on Sept. 30.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency uses the fund to assist communities affected by hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters.

“We’ve had a lot of disasters, not just on Maui — all over the country. We’ve had a lot of ties on this,” Case said at a hearing before a House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee.

The fund “is now depleted and at its breaking point,” Case said, noting that the depleted balance prompted FEMA on Aug. 7 to begin using the fund only for urgent needs.

Office of Governor Josh Green

Bob Fenton, FEMA’s regional administrator for Hawaii, said that means the agency is prioritizing saving and sustaining lives in disasters rather than allocating resources for longer-term operations.

“It delays the long-term recovery. It delays the construction, the rebuilding of infrastructure,” Fenton said at a site hearing in Lahaina that was broadcast live online.

The agency currently has funding to help people with housing and other urgent needs, but Fenton said, “That, too, is starting to come under threat.”

The hearing took place more than a year after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century occurred on Aug. 8, 2023, which killed at least 102 people and forced 12,000 people from their homes.

FEMA has spent more than $3 billion so far rebuilding Lahaina, Fenton said.

A separate report on the fire details steps communities can take to reduce the likelihood of grassland fires turning into urban fires like the one that engulfed Lahaina.

The report, by an independent research group backed by insurance companies, found that measures such as installing fire brakes, using fireproof building materials and reducing flammable joints between houses, such as wooden fences, can help prevent the spread of flames.

The Business and Home Safety Insurance Institute published a summary of the report on Wednesday.

“We can start by hardening homes on the edge of communities,” said Faraz Hedayati, the institute’s principal investigator and an author of the report. That will help ensure that a fast-moving grass fire never has the opportunity to become an ember-fueled blaze, as happened in Lahaina, Hedayati said.

Grass fires grow quickly but typically send embers only a few feet into the air and a short distance along the ground, Hedayati said. Burning buildings, however, create large, buoyant embers that can travel long distances, he said.

The report said the glowing embers, combined with the strong winds that whipped Maui the day of the fire, allowed the flames in Lahaina to spread in all directions. The glowing embers ignited new fires throughout the town. The wind extended the flames — allowing them to sometimes spread more than 20 feet — and drove them toward the ground, where they could ignite vehicles, landscaping and other flammable materials.

More than 2,100 buildings were destroyed in Lahaina, with rebuilding costs estimated at about $5.5 billion, according to the report. Still, some homes remained mostly or partially unburned in the midst of the devastation. Researchers used these homes as a case study, examining factors that helped protect the buildings.