自3月下旬以来，彼得·易(Peter Yee)已被一家租赁汽车公司解雇，现在他表示，他每天要花12个小时，每周7天在脸书的“夏威夷失业更新和支持小组”上回答问题和分享建议
在短短几周内冠状病毒大流行在易居住的毛伊岛上风景如画的卡胡鲁伊镇的经济遭到破坏。
“开车穿过主要的小区域就像一个鬼城，”易告诉美国广播公司新闻。
根据美国劳工统计局的最新数据，卡胡鲁伊的失业率在4月份飙升至35%，比大萧条高峰期的全国失业率高出近10%，是美国所有大城市中最高的。
在这张摄于2020年6月5日星期五的照片中，人们走过檀香山希尔顿花园酒店紧闭的大门。
在这张摄于2020年6月5日星期五的照片中，人们走过檀香山希尔顿花园酒店紧闭的大门。随着COVID-19摧毁了旅游业，飞机也停了下来，岛上的失业人数空前高涨。三月份，卡胡鲁伊的失业率是全国最低的，为2.2%。
为了控制COVID-19在岛上的传播，夏威夷政府迅速采取行动，对所有游客强制实施14天隔离。尽管这一举措受到许多人的称赞，并被证明能有效预防岛上呼吸道疾病的大规模爆发，但对夏威夷最大的产业旅游业的影响却被证明是迅速而严重的。
“我知道那是一个死亡之吻，”易谈到隔离时说。“我并不是说我反对它，但我知道对我的行业来说，几乎不会有访客和业务。”
在这张摄于2020年6月5日的照片中，屏障挡住了檀香山暂时关闭的威基基喜来登酒店的入口。
你从每天30，000名乘客增加到几百人
夏威夷大学经济研究组织的执行董事兼教授卡尔·邦汉姆(Carl Bonham)告诉美国广播公司新闻，最新数据显示，4月份夏威夷的失业率为22.3%，但由于这些调查是在许多人失业之前的那个月初进行的，一些经济学家估计失业率为30%或更高。
“失业估计的范围会有很大的不同，”邦汉姆说。“底线是这很糟糕，现在很多数据都是有问题的，因为劳动力的变化意味着什么。”
据邦汉姆说，人们记忆中最接近的对比是在911之后，当时航空旅行受到了重创，但他说“这是完全不同的”
“911事件后，空中几乎没有飞机，”他说。“这是一个非常不同的情况，因为我们有一个短期的旅游业关闭，但我们没有关闭其余的经济。”
在这张摄于2020年6月5日的照片中，一名女子走过檀香山希尔顿花园酒店紧闭的大门。
据邦汉姆称，夏威夷大约25%的工作与旅游业有关，而旅游业几乎已经完全消失。
他说:“因为我们完全依赖航空旅行，当你用14天的隔离令关闭旅游业，从每天30，000名航空乘客增加到几百名乘客时，这与一个可能仍然有一些游客乘车的地方是非常不同的情况。”。
根据BLS的最新数据，卡胡鲁伊社区4月份的失业率同比增幅最大，上升了32.5%。由于旅游业受到流感大流行的严重打击，内华达州拉斯维加斯和新泽西州大西洋城的旅游中心的失业率出现了第二次和第三次同比增长。
邦汉姆说，由于生活成本高和缺少工作，他们预测在未来几年内会有大批人离开夏威夷。
2020年6月5日，檀香山，一名冲浪者走在人烟稀少的怀基基海滩上。
失业“噩梦”
Yee说，他第一次加入Facebook失业支持小组是在4月初，当时有大约800名成员，但他说，“我们在30天内又增加了10，000名成员。”
它现在有超过14，000名成员，他们都经过了管理员的审查，以确保他们不是骗子。
作为一名主持人，易说他每天都在这个小组里，试图帮助那些发表问题或分享故事的人，这些问题或故事中有许多突出了大萧条时期美国失业的可怕现实。
“在禁闭期间我还能做什么?”绮思说。“我每天都在帮忙，一周七天，一天八到十五个小时，现在我仍然这样做。”
他说，他经常回复人们的提醒，提醒他们暂停驱逐，有什么食品券计划，主要是作为一种支持的来源，因为人们对该州的失业保险计划越来越感到沮丧和愤怒。
据Yee说，Facebook群中的许多成员说，他们已经等了六个多星期才得到任何好处。
6月的第一周，该州劳工部宣布其主管斯科特·村上突然离职。他的办公室没有回应美国广播公司的采访请求，称他和其他员工一直收到死亡威胁。
Yee说，从他提交失业申请到他收到州政府的失业保险，花了四个多星期。
西蒙·考夫曼，一位来自夏威夷希洛的单口相声演员兼电台节目主持人，说他在申请失业救济后等了九个星期才看到钱。
此外，他说他们没有把他的大部分收入计算在他的支票里，而是把他的收入建立在一份兼职工作的基础上，他有一个等候台。
“我不知道发生了什么，”他说。“我不是服务员，他们是在我做兼职的时候付钱给我的。”
西蒙·考夫曼，夏威夷希洛的单口相声演员兼电台节目主持人，摄于此。
考夫曼说，他一直靠储蓄生活，甚至尝试过“间歇性禁食”
易和考夫曼说，自3月最后一周以来，该州失业保险办公室的电话线路几乎完全被堵塞。
“自三月以来，我只经历过一次，”易说，称这种情况是一场“噩梦”
他说:“如果你没有足够的钱支付六、八周的生活费用，那么可以假设一半的申请人处境非常糟糕。”。“但我知道，在那之后的六、八周，将会是食物排队，这实际上来得更早。”
夏威夷劳工和劳资关系部本周早些时候宣布，在危机发生近三个月后，它终于通过了大部分索赔。
“自COVID-19关闭以来，88%的有效失业保险索赔已经由DLIR处理和支付，”该部副主任安妮·佩雷拉-尤斯塔奎奥在6月10日的一份声明中说。“我们真诚感谢人们的耐心，并希望公众了解剩余问题的范围以及取得的惊人进展的范围。”
夏威夷州长大卫·伊格尔的办公室周五没有立即回应美国广播公司的置评请求。
尽管经济形势严峻，邦汉姆告诉美国广播公司新闻，夏威夷的行动是为了应对健康危机非常有效。
“就健康结果和控制病毒而言，我们现在可能是美国最安全的州，”他说。
夏威夷食品银行的一名志愿者在COVID-19危机中分发食物。
我们在夏威夷从未见过的东西:在食品银行长达4小时的排队
夏威夷食品银行的总裁兼首席执行官罗恩·米祖塔尼告诉美国广播公司新闻，与去年同期相比，该非营利组织在5月份分发的食品数量增加了260%。
“至少可以说这是史无前例的，”水谷告诉美国广播公司新闻。“在危机、飓风、海啸、政府关闭期间，我们总能看到饥饿的面孔，但这是我们在夏威夷从未见过的事情。”
他补充道:“我们在发放失业支票方面也遇到了一些严重的问题，因此这以一种我们没有预料到的方式增加了需求。”。
Mizutani说，根据他们简单的问卷调查，在5月份前来领取食物的家庭中，80%的家庭说他们家里有人因为COVID-19而休假或失业，但只有5%的家庭说他们正在接受政府援助。
夏威夷食品银行的一名志愿者在COVID-19危机中分发食物。
“他们愿意在他们的车上排队3到4个小时，以获得急需的食物，”他说，队伍已经长达4000人。
在大流行之前，水谷说他们通常每个月向有需要的人分发80万到100万磅的食物。五月份，他说他们分发了超过375万磅的食物。
他说:“你没有预算，也无法预测这些需求。
“我们靠捐赠生存，”他补充道。"捐赠也嘎然而止。"
水谷说，他担心他们将如何能够跟上需求，他预计未来几个月将继续。
“食物需要很长时间才能到达这个岛，我们喜欢其他的食物银行站在这个国家的其他地方，”他说。“我们两周前下的订单要到8月、9月才会到货，这是我们从内地经销商那里收到食品之前的等待时间。”
夏威夷食品银行的一名志愿者在COVID-19危机中分发食物。
一个自称“当地男孩”的水谷说，他非常尊重那些前来领取食物的人。
“当谈到饥饿时，他们不会很快举手，”他谈到他所在社区的许多人时说。“排队等上几个小时是需要勇气的，因为他们从来没有想到他们会不得不这样做。”
虽然空旷的海滩和正在恢复的珊瑚礁对一些当地人来说是一个亮点，但水谷说“我们非常需要人们回来。”
夏威夷食品银行的一名志愿者在COVID-19危机中分发食物。
“这不正常，我不喜欢用‘新正常’这个词，因为这根本不正常，”他说。“我们生活在一个非常特殊的地方，当许多家庭受到伤害时，我们看到了很多我们的阿罗哈精神。”
“世界没有为COVID-19做好准备，但我真的相信COVID-19没有为夏威夷和我们的精神做好准备，”他补充道。“我们是一个有弹性的国家，我们正在崛起。”
Hawaii grapples with Great Depression-level unemployment as tourism plummets
Peter Yee has been furloughed from his job at a rental car company since late March, and now says he spends up to 12 hours a day, seven days a week answering questions and sharing advice in the Facebook group, "Hawaii Unemployment Updates and Support Group."
In just a matter of weeks, thecoronavirus pandemichas ravaged the economy of the picturesque town of Kahului on the island of Maui where Yee lives.
"Driving through the main little areas was like a ghost town," Yee told ABC News.
The unemployment rate in Kahului skyrocketed to 35% in April -- nearly 10% higher than the national unemployment rate at the peak of the Great Depression -- and the highest of any metropolitan area in the U.S., according to the latest data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
As COVID-19 decimated tourism and the planes stopped coming in, job losses on the island piled up with unprecedented furor. In March, Kahului had some of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation at 2.2%.
In an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19 on the islands, Hawaii’s government acted fast -- imposing a mandatory 14-day quarantine for all visitors. While the move was lauded by many and proved effective in preventing major outbreaks of the respiratory disease on the islands, the impact to tourism, Hawaii’s biggest industry, proved quick and severe.
"I knew that was a kiss of death," Yee said of the quarantine. "I'm not saying I'm against it, but I knew that there would be virtually zero visitors and zero business for my industry."
'You go from 30,000 airline passengers per day to a few hundred'
Carl Bonham, the executive director and a professor at the Economic Research Organization at University of Hawaii, told ABC News that the most recent data puts Hawaii's unemployment rate at 22.3% in April, but because these surveys were conducted early that month before many of the job losses, some economists estimate it's 30% or more.
"The range of unemployment estimates will vary dramatically," Bonham said. "The bottom line is it’s bad, a lot of the data is problematic right now because of sort of changes in what it means to be in the labor force."
The closest comparison in living memory is after 9/11 when air travel took a major hit, according to Bonham, but he said "this is completely different."
"After 9/11 there were literally zero planes in the air," he said. "That was a very different situation in that we had a shutdown of tourism for a short period of time, but we didn’t shut down the rest of the economy."
Roughly 25% of the jobs in Hawaii are connected to tourism, which has almost entirely vanished, according to Bonham.
"Because we rely completely on air travel, when you shut down tourism with a 14-day quarantine and you go from 30,000 airline passengers per day to a few hundred, that’s a very different situation from a place that may still be getting some visitors by car,” he said.
The community of Kahului saw the largest over-the-year unemployment rate increase in April, shooting up more 32.5% points, according to the BLS’s most recent data. As the travel industry was hit hard by the pandemic, fellow tourist hubs Las Vegas, Nevada, and Atlantic City, New Jersey, saw the second and third highest increases in over-the-year unemployment rates.
Bonham said due to high cost of living and a lack of jobs, they are forecasting an exodus from Hawaii within the next few years.
An unemployment 'nightmare'
Yee said he first joined the Facebook unemployment support group in early April when there were around 800 members, but said, "we accumulated 10,000 more members in 30 days."
It now has more than 14,000 members, all of whom have been vetted by admins to make sure they aren't scammers.
As a moderator, Yee said he is in the group every day trying to help people who post questions or share their stories -- many of which highlight dire realities of what Great Depression-era unemployment in America looks like.
"What else was I going to do during lockdown?" Yee said. "I was helping out every day, seven days a week, eight to 15 hours a day, and I still do that."
He said he constantly replies to people reminding them of a temporary eviction moratorium, what food stamp programs are available, and mostly serving as a source of support as frustration and anger mounts towards the state’s unemployment insurance program.
Many members in the Facebook group say they have waited over six weeks to receive any benefits at all, according to Yee.
In the first week of June, the state's Department of Labor announced the sudden leave of its director, Scott Murakami. His office, which did not respond to ABC News' interview requests, said he and other workers had been receiving death threats.
Yee said it took more than four weeks between the time he submitted his unemployment claim to the time he received any unemployment insurance from the state.
Simon Kaufman, a stand-up comedian and radio DJ from Hilo, Hawaii, said he waited nine weeks before he saw any money after filing his unemployment claim.
Moreover, he said they didn’t calculate a majority of his income into his check, instead basing it off of a part-time holiday job he had waiting tables.
"I don’t know what’s going on," he said. "I’m not a waiter, they’re paying me on the side gig I did."
Kaufman said he has been surviving on savings and even tried "intermittent fasting."
Phone lines to the state’s unemployment insurance office have been almost entirely clogged up since the last week of March, Yee and Kaufman said.
"I've only gotten through once, since March," Yee said, calling the situation a "nightmare."
"If you've got no money for six, eight weeks living paycheck to paycheck, it would be a good assumption to say that half those claimants are in a very dire situation," he said. "But I knew that at that point six, eight weeks, it would be food lines, which came actually earlier."
The Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations announced earlier this week -- nearly three months into the crisis -- that it has finally made it through a majority of the claims.
"Eighty-eight percent (88%) of the valid unemployment insurance claims that have come in since the beginning of the COVID-19 shutdown have been processed and paid out by the DLIR," the department's deputy director Anne Perreira-Eustaquio, said in a statement on June 10. "We sincerely appreciate people’s patience and wanted the public to know the scope of the remaining issues as well as the scope of the incredible progress made."
Hawaii Gov. David Ige's office did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment Friday.
Despite the dire economic situation, Bonham told ABC News that Hawaii's actions in response to thehealthcrisis have been notably effective.
"We’re probably the safest state in the country right now in terms of health outcomes and controlling the virus," he said.
'Something we've never seen in Hawaii, ever': Up to 4-hour lines at food banks
Ron Mizutani, the president and CEO of the Hawaii Foodbank, told ABC News there has been a 260% increase in the amount of food the nonprofit distributed in the month of May compared to the same month last year.
"This unprecedented to say the least,” Mizutani told ABC News. “We always see the face of hungry during crises, during hurricanes, tsunamis, during the government shutdown, but this is something we’ve never seen in Hawaii ever.”
“We have also had some serious issues with unemployment checks being distributed so that’s contributed to needs in a way that we haven’t anticipated,” he added.
Mizutani said according to their simple questionnaires, 80% of families who came to pick up food during the month of May say they have had somebody in their household furloughed or unemployed because of COVID-19, but only 5% have said they were receiving government assistance.
"They are willing to stand in line in their vehicles for three to four hours to receive much-needed food," he said, saying lines have been as long as 4,000 people.
Prior to the pandemic, Mizutani said they usually distributed 800,000 to 1 million pounds of food to those in need each month. In May, he said they distributed more than 3.75 million pounds of food.
"You don’t budget for that, nor can you anticipate those kinds of needs," he said.
"We survive on donations," he added. "Donations have also come to a screeching halt."
Mizutani said he is worried about how they will be able to keep up with the demand, which he expects to continue for months into the future.
"It takes a long time for food to get here to the island and we like other food banks are standing in line with the rest of the country," he said. "We made orders two weeks ago that won’t arrive until August, September, that’s the kind of wait time that we have before we receive food from mainland distributors."
A self-described "local boy," Mizutani said he has deep respect for those who come to receive food.
"They’re not quick to raise their hand when it comes to hunger," he said of many in his community. "It takes courage to wait in line for hours for something they would never thought they would have to do."
While empty beaches and recovering coral reefs have been a bright spot for some locals, Mizutani said "we need people back badly."
"This is not normal, I don’t like to use the word the 'new normal' because there is nothing normal about this at all," he said. "We live in a very special place here and while a lot of families are hurting, we are seeing a lot of our Aloha spirit."
"The world was not prepared for COVID-19, but I truly believe that COVID-19 was not prepared for Hawaii and our spirit," he added. "We are a resilient state and we are rising."
