The Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide nearly $95 million to cover the cost of temporary housing at hotels, meals and other services for evacuees of the Maui fires through November, U.S. Brian Schatz announced today.

In a statement, Schatz called the $94,557,012 from FEMA “a down payment on what is necessary, but it is essential help. We will keep working as hard as we can to help to bring federal resources for Lahaina’s recovery.”

Separately, Shelee Kimura, president and CEO of Hawaiian Electric, today wrote in a full-page ad in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the U.S. Department of Energy on Aug. 30 will fund $95 million “to advance our critical grid reliance actions on Maui, O’ahu, Hawai’i Island, Moloka’i and Lana’i. On Maui this includes the hardening of transmission lines, undergrounding parts of certain critical circuits and much more. The federal funding will reduce the cost to customers by 50% and will allow us to execute this multi-year program of work as soon as possible.”

On the Senate’s first day in session last week, Schatz spoke about Lahaina’s cultural history and the devastation caused by the Aug. 8 fire that killed 115 people in the deadliest U.S. wildfire in over a century.

The FEMA money covers the 90 percent federal cost share for temporary housing, meals, and services through November, Schatz said today.