{"id":691219,"date":"2026-03-29T23:56:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T23:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/691219\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T23:56:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T23:56:24","slug":"displaced-by-storm-damage-over-100-kula-hospital-patients-cope-with-separation-between-maui-oahu-facilities-maui-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/691219\/","title":{"rendered":"Displaced by storm damage, over 100 Kula Hospital patients cope with separation between Maui, O\u2018ahu facilities : Maui Now"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KULA \u2014 In December 2023, 36-year-old Dana Morel moved into Kula Hospital\u2019s Hale Makamae<\/a>, the only intermediate care facility for developmentally disabled residents in Hawai\u2018i.<\/p>\n

She was born with congenital toxoplasmosis<\/a> that left her with brain damage, blindness and cerebral palsy. At Hale Makamae, Morel soon found a second family there. She loved the warmhearted staff who cracked jokes and playfully teased her. The nine residents shared meals, played bingo and went together on trips to the rodeo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe just felt safe. She felt valued,\u201d said her mom, Janet Morel.<\/p>\n

\"\"Rob (from left) and Janet Morel take daughter Dana Morel on a walk around Maui Memorial Medical Center on March 28, 2026. HJI \/ COLLEEN UECHI photo<\/p>\n

HJI Weekly Newsletter<\/p>\n

Get more stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for the Hawai\u2018i Journalism Initiative’s weekly newsletter:<\/p>\n

ADDING YOU TO THE LIST…<\/p>\n

But after 4 feet of rain from a Kona low storm<\/a> battered the century-old hospital on the slopes of Haleakal\u0101 earlier this month, she and 111 other people receiving care were evacuated.<\/p>\n

The only other hospital on the island aside from Maui Memorial Medical Center<\/a> in Wailuku, Kula Hospital<\/a> is a critical access facility with a 105-bed long-term skilled nursing care facility and the nine-bed Hale Makamae as well as urgent and limited emergency care, short-stay acute care, short-term rehab, imaging and lab services, and an onsite family medicine clinic. <\/p>\n

For many long-term patients, the hospital has been home for decades. But now they\u2019re displaced, scattered between facilities on Maui and O\u2018ahu. Of the nine Hale Makamae residents, eight have been sent to O\u2018ahu, according to Janet Morel, a hospital volunteer who is close to the other families and staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a traumatic experience for everyone involved,\u201d she told the Hawai\u2018i Journalism Initiative. \u201cHale Makamae means \u2018house of the dear ones.\u2019 So these dear, dear people are experiencing this upheaval in their lives that they can\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Kula Hospital is seen on March 28, 2026, after closing due to storm damage earlier this month. With 105 long-term care beds and an emergency department, it is a critical access hospital Upcountry. HJI \/ COLLEEN UECHI photo<\/p>\n

Since the back-to-back Kona low storms this month, Kula Hospital\u2019s Emergency Department has been temporarily closed<\/a>, and its patients and residents have been relocated to other facilities, with the last ones moved out Wednesday, Maui Health CEO Lynn Fulton. The Kula Clinic remains open.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is no timeline to reopen the hospital where repairs could take years, according to Lynn Fulton.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a natural disaster that many people never have to go through, honestly,\u201d Fulton said. \u201cAnd our number one priority through all this has been the safety of our staff, our residents and our patients. And some things are difficult, like moving folks off island.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maui Health, a Kaiser affiliate, took over operations<\/a> of Kula Hospital, Maui Memorial and L\u0101na\u2018i Community Hospital from the state in 2017.<\/p>\n

On an island with nearly 450 total rehab and long-term care beds, the loss of Kula Hospital is a big blow, said Wes Lo, CEO of Hale Makua Health Services, which has taken some of Kula\u2019s patients and helped relocate others.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a big deal,\u201d Lo said. \u201cI don\u2019t think people realize how big a deal this is that Kula is down, and how stressful this is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Water damage and broken roofing panels are seen in Kula Hospital\u2019s activity room on March 26, 2026. Photo courtesy: Maui Health<\/p>\n

Maui Health decided to move people out after the first storm on the weekend of March 13 dumped sheets of water on the hospital\u2019s fifth-floor outdoor balcony that serves as the activity space for residents, Fulton said. The rain flowed down the side of the building and seeped in \u201canywhere it could, including the fourth floor, where 41 patients live and had to be moved to the hallway or other nearby spaces. Water also soaked into the Emergency Department, where ceiling tiles caved in.<\/p>\n

The second Kona low storm the following weekend didn\u2019t create additional damage. However, Fulton said they knew that the hospital would need to decrease its patient census.<\/p>\n

They decided to evacuate after an analysis by engineers and infection preventionists from Kaiser Permanente found that the walls, including those of Hale Makamae, were still about 100% saturated with water several days after the storm.<\/p>\n

Experts still need to determine the extent and cost of the damages. Fulton said it\u2019s been barely two weeks since the storm and \u201cwe need a little bit of time\u201d to figure out a timeline for return.<\/p>\n

She said case managers spoke with every family to discuss the plan for their loved ones, and that \u201cthey will be the first to know when we\u2019re able to start providing an idea of what the future looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n

On March 20, the eve of the second storm, Janet Morel got a phone call saying her daughter would have to leave Hale Makamae. Her husband Rob Morel was out running errands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018come home now,\u2019\u201d Janet Morel recalled. \u201cAnd we wept together. Just sobbed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Janet Morel (left) is pictured with daughter Dana Morel. Photo courtesy: Janet Morel<\/p>\n

The Morels had been caring for Dana full time since birth. She is severely hypertonic, which means her muscles are very tense, Janet explained. She can\u2019t sit, roll over, walk, talk, eat or go to the bathroom without help. But, \u201cshe understands what\u2019s going on around her,\u201d and especially enjoys a good joke.<\/p>\n

The Morels alternated day and night shifts. Rob retired from his job as vice president of operations for a technology company in Arizona 10 years ago, and Janet couldn\u2019t keep a full-time job because of the care Dana required.\u00a0They realized it wasn\u2019t sustainable. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt consumed us,\u201d Janet said.<\/p>\n

Hale Makamae was a godsend. Before that, there hadn\u2019t been any openings for seven years, Janet said. But the COVID-19 pandemic required the facility to keep an empty room and bed for isolation purposes, and when the requirement was lifted a couple of years later, a bed in a private room was available for Dana.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not only could she get round-the-clock care, but Hale Makamae also offered lessons in sign language and fine motor skills. Just learning to sign a word or drink from a straw can change a person\u2019s ability to be independent and advocate for themselves, Janet said.<\/p>\n

Hale Makamae had just raised $37,000 to put in a new sensory room<\/a>, an immersive space where residents could interact with different lighting, colors, sounds and activities, or destress when overstimulated. There also were future plans for a sensory garden with flowers and herbs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just a place to change diapers and give baths,\u201d Janet said. \u201cIt\u2019s a place to help these individuals become the best that they can possibly be, to reach their best selves and their best ability to advocate for themselves and control their environments.\u201d<\/p>\n

A ribbon-cutting ceremony had been planned for the sensory room on April 1. Now, that\u2019s on hold, said Kristina Wilson, nurse manager at Hale Makamae.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Hale Makamae, pictured closed on March 28, 2026, is attached to Kula Hospital and served as a home for nine residents with developmental disabilities. HJI \/ COLLEEN UECHI photo<\/p>\n

Wilson was out of the country when the storm hit. She said it was \u201cdevastating\u201d to come back to the residents she knew and loved like family being shuttled out of Kula. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt hurts your heart just to look around and see this unit that had so much love and happiness,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cAnd then to just stand there and look around at the devastation and the damage, and it kind of was almost like a dystopian level, \u2018cause it had to happen so fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before he was evacuated, one of the nonverbal residents sent Wilson one last email to tell her he missed her and wished she were there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wilson has been eager to respond. But she can\u2019t reach him because the computer that he used to communicate couldn\u2019t fit on the medical flight that whisked him away to O\u2018ahu.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His family tried to bring it to O\u2018ahu on Friday, but they couldn\u2019t take it on the plane because the battery was too big, Wilson said. Now, they\u2019re trying to figure out how to ship it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what breaks my heart for these families, too,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cNot all of our clients have family that live on Maui, but for the ones that do, those families are so involved.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That includes Janet Morel, who comes by every week and spends five or six hours interacting with the Hale Makamae residents. She said she knows the move has been difficult for all 112 patients and that Maui Health is doing its best, but she felt Hale Makamae residents would have done better if they were relocated together. <\/p>\n

Wilson said the hardest part is explaining why they can\u2019t come home.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur one client that has essentially the mentality of a 2- to 3-year-old, he kept saying right before he was leaving that, \u2018Oh, I go holoholo, and then I come back? I come back?\u2019\u201d Wilson recalled. \u201cAnd then for us to have to stand there and tell him no, and then him not understand, yeah, it\u2019s hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Water damage is seen in the exposed ceiling of Kula Hospital\u2019s fourth floor corridor on March 26, 2026. Photo courtesy: Maui Health<\/p>\n

Fulton acknowledged the move \u201cis traumatic\u201d for both residents and staff and that relocating people to another island \u201cwas not something we wanted to do.\u201d <\/p>\n

But, she said, \u201cwe had to get them out of that building\u201d before conditions grew more dangerous. <\/p>\n

For residents at Hale Makamae, which requires a special license, there was no other place for them to go on Maui. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not have another space that would meet that need,\u201d Fulton said. \u201cSo honestly, we didn\u2019t have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dana Morel, the last Hale Makamae resident on Maui, was supposed to be sent to O\u2018ahu Thursday but was held at Maui Memorial because she had medical equipment inside her body that needs to be maintained, \u201cand this is the place where they know how to do that,\u201d her mother said. Some of the nurses who worked with Dana at Hale Makamae have accompanied her to Maui Memorial. The family is weighing its options in the long term, including a potential move to California.<\/p>\n

Of the 112 patients moved out of Kula, 50 were placed in a facility in the K\u012bhei Research and Technology Park that \u2018Ohana Pacific Health, a sister company of Hale Makua, had been trying to sell, Lo said. The facility was empty and built for memory care, so \u2018Ohana Pacific licensed it to Maui Health and patients started to move in.<\/p>\n

\"\"Maui Memorial Medical Center is seen on March 27, 2026. HJI \/ COLLEEN UECHI photo<\/p>\n

Hale Makua\u2019s Kahului and Wailuku facilities had taken 13 other patients by Friday, and another eight were expected next week, Lo said. The goal is to stagger their arrival while Hale Makua works to open up a 16-bed wing that\u2019s been closed for years.<\/p>\n

Extra equipment has been delivered from Kula Hospital, and Hale Makua is hiring and training staff from travel agencies to help with the influx of patients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a mad, mad scramble,\u201d Lo said. \u201cIt was one of the rougher weekends I\u2019ve been through, just trying to make sure we can get them down (from Kula) as fast as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lo said Hale Makua, which often receives three to five daily patient discharges from Maui Memorial, has to be careful not to overload its facilities. If it fills its beds with too many long-term care patients whose stays often last several years, there won\u2019t be space for the short-term rehab patients who usually stay about 20 to 25 days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe watch this like a hawk,\u201d Lo said. \u201cIt\u2019s not unusual for us, but people don\u2019t realize the dance we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without Kula, Maui is down to 334 rehab and long-term care beds, including 254 at Hale Makua in Kahului and 80 at Hale Makua in Wailuku. That\u2019s a loss of about 25%, Lo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lo wasn\u2019t sure what would happen if Kula remained out of commission for years. He said once they sort out the temporary situation, they can come up with more long-term plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe might not feel it right away, but it\u2019s a big deal,\u201d Lo said. \u201cRight now, we\u2019re just trying to stabilize the whole systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The first Kona low storm on the weekend of March 13 damaged the roof of Kula Hospital. Photo courtesy: Maui Health<\/p>\n

At Maui Memorial, which is licensed for 214 acute-care beds<\/a>, a wing has been cordoned off specifically for Kula patients, and the Kula staff have been sent to either Maui Memorial or other facilities where patients were transferred to, Fulton said. She said there are \u201cvery few long-term care residents that are in acute-care beds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The increase in patients \u201chas stressed our capacity a little bit,\u201d she acknowledged. However, the facility is still on green level, \u201cwhich means that we\u2019re within our limits for capacity and we have the ability to continue to accept patients and to be able to provide care.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not ideal, but we\u2019re making it work, and we\u2019ll continue to make it work for the island,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Hawai\u2018i Gov. Josh Green and Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen toured the hospital. In a statement to the Hawai\u2018i Journalism Initiative on Friday, Green said the damage was \u201cgut wrenching, but we will find a way to bring these critical services back to upcountry Maui.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve asked our health and recovery teams to find a way to rapidly bring mobile health services, even possibly a mobile hospital unit to Kula, to extend emergency care indefinitely until the hospital can be either repaired or replaced, if that\u2019s necessary,\u201d Green said. \u201cWe continue to work with FEMA to determine the full scope of the damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Gov. Josh Green (left) and Penny Koval, assistant CEO and critical access hospitals administrator for Maui Health, survey the damaged ceiling at Kula Hospital on March 26, 2026. Photo courtesy: Maui Health<\/p>\n

At a meeting with Upcountry residents to discuss the storm damage on Thursday night, Bissen pointed out that Kula Hospital was a private facility and that \u201cwe have not taken the front role\u201d in the response because the state is involved.<\/p>\n

Since the 2017 transfer, the state has subsidized Maui Health\u2019s operations. Maui Health is slated to get $12 million in fiscal year 2026 and $6 million in fiscal year 2027 for operations, as well as $6 million in each fiscal year for repairs, renovations and upgrades, according to the latest version of the budget<\/a> moving through the state Legislature.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you ask what can the county do, that\u2019s the policy question that we really put to our taxpayers,\u201d Bissen said. \u201cDo you want us to fix a private entity\u2019s facility for them or not? And I can\u2019t tell you what the answer is because it depends on how critical that structure is, and right now we know Kula Hospital is very essential to up here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maui County Council Member Yuki Lei Sugimura, who holds the Upcountry residency seat and is running against Bissen in this year\u2019s mayoral election<\/a>, said the loss of the hospital is a county issue, too, \u201cso this is our responsibility to help each other.\u201d She said the county could help with funding gaps for smaller projects and expedite permitting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t only help people depending on if you\u2019re state or county or federal,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Sugimura added that she will be hosting a meeting about the hospital at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the Hannibal Tavares Community Center in Pukalani. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the worst nightmare for a small community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KULA \u2014 In December 2023, 36-year-old Dana Morel moved into Kula Hospital\u2019s Hale Makamae, the only intermediate care…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":691220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[35],"tags":[289576,14869,289577,125435,210,1141,1142,36750,289578,64020,279964,171943,174361,289579,89001,174363,289580,2702,125439,289581,258369,52503,38251,67,132,171946,68],"class_list":["post-691219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-dana-morel","tag-developmental-disabilities","tag-hale-makamae","tag-hale-makua","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-intellectual-disabilities","tag-janet-morel","tag-josh-green","tag-kona-low-storm","tag-kula","tag-kula-hospital","tag-lynn-fulton","tag-maui-county","tag-maui-health","tag-maui-memorial-medical-center","tag-natural-disaster","tag-npcrosspost","tag-physical-disabilities","tag-richard-bissen","tag-rural-health-care","tag-storm-damage","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-upcountry","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}