When Hawaii was in its 2021 COVID crisis, it was no surprise that people would lose their jobs.

The COVID pandemic came crashing down on Hawaii: workers who were either sick or ordered not to go to work.

But, watch how the state helped the crisis, not the workers.

No work translated into unemployment claims and for Hawaii that soon translated into a new unemployment crisis as the inflexible and largely unprepared state bureaucracy could not process the unemployment claims.

This happened first with the COVID crisis, and then again, recently with the tragic Maui wildfires.

Back in 2021, former Gov. David Ige’s administration was just unprepared for the onslaught of unemployment claims. It was such a crush that there simply was no space for the bureaucrats to gather to process claims.

A report by former Star-Advertiser reporter Sophie Cocke detailed how the state spent millions to rent the Hawaii Convention Center to review claims.

An alarming 23.8% of workers in Hawaii were filing unemployment claims, swamping the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR); it was quickly overwhelmed. About half of the state’s working population filed unemployment claims for 2020.

Sylvia Luke, the current lieutenant governor, was state House Finance Committee chairwoman that year and she helped lead an emergency task force to move workers processing unemployment claims to the unused Waikiki convention center.

Cocke said the Hawaii Tourism Authority charged the Labor Department $1 million to rent a ballroom and several meeting rooms between mid-April and the end of December, and another $1.67 million in “event fees.”

Yes, it does not look right for one state agency to charge another for state services during a state crisis, but when the call is for “all hands on deck,” some of them are going to be butterfingers.

Turning to this year, the state is now facing what Star-Advertiser reporter Dan Nakaso said is “widespread confusion and uncertainty,” as Maui wildfire victims worry if they will be denied weekly unemployment payments if they’re too traumatized to work.

Again the state bureaucracy is at the forefront.

“All claims for unemployment insurance benefits are examined on a case-by-case basis to determine eligibility, which includes whether an individual is able and available for work,” Mike Buck, spokesperson for the state DLIR, said in a statement.

The Local 5 official representing hotel workers, Cade Watanabe, checked with the state and got only this: “We have not been able to get clear answers from DLIR. Our advice is to encourage our members to file” unemployment claims.

To add economic crisis to the tragedy of the Maui fires, Watanabe said, the union has 300 members who lived in Lahaina, and about 150 “have lost everything.”

According to the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, “There have been 10,448 new claims for unemployment in Maui County … about 9,900 more than we would expect based on the preceding four weeks.” This represents more than 11% of all employment in Maui County.

What cannot be discounted is the undercurrent of serious traumatic damage the fire caused survivors. Mufi Hannemann, CEO and president of the Hawaii Lodging &Tourism Association, said it’s the mental health well-being of workers that worries him.

Finally, in another news report, state Labor Director Jade Butay says only 1 out of 4 unemployment applications from the fires have been approved. This is two months after the Aug. 8 wildfires.

Butay said of 2,200 applications for federal disaster unemployment assistance, 500 have been approved. There is also a backlog of applications for regular unemployment — with 15,161 filed since the fires with 8,731 currently being paid, according to the television news report.

The state has money to buy the computers needed to address the problem. History shows how for years the Labor Department has had problems — and apparently a high tolerance for failing to meet the challenge.

The question is whether the state is able to tell the Labor Department: “Time’s up.”

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.