Everybody is afraid that yes they [the state government] could just make a proclamation saying [the land is] 'uninhabitable, the state will take it over though, we'll put you guys somewhere else on Maui,'" Etan Kawika Krupnick, a 39-year-old Maui resident, told Newsweek on Thursday.

Krupnick also expressed concern over possible land grabs by investors or relators saying that locals in Lahaina could "sell to the first person that offers them cash, and then it's just a ripple effect."