A few weeks ago, the belief of “It’s always beautiful in Hawaii” came to a halt when our island Maui was struck with a severe thunderstorm which brought torrential rain. It was a consistent downfall of rain for almost a week. People were stranded, roads were closed down, rocks fell from cliff sides, and homes were flooded.
One of my coworkers, who I’ll address as Kim, lives in a neighborhood that unfortunately was flooded. When she came back from taking a week off for cleaning, she was still obviously hurting from this tragedy. I’ve never personally known someone who’s been a victim any type of devastation, until now. Kim and I had butted heads in the past but it was such a disheartening sight to see; her crying really hit me at the core. I tried to point out the positives in this tragedy letting her know that at least her loved ones are okay and the damage doesn’t go beyond her material things. The image of her crying stayed with me my entire shift and long after. I knew I wanted to do something for her. The following day I had asked her if she was available and willing, I’d be more than happy to help her do whatever has yet to be done. She was very much pleased and took me up on my offer. When I had told Anabelle that I wanted to help Kim, being that she met Kim when we went ziplining, she wanted to help too. It made me extremely happy to know that Anabelle was wiling to help a friend in need.
When we arrived at the house that Saturday, it literally looked like a scene out of the movies. It was sheer destruction; the worst I’ve seen. Before even going into the house, there were sofas and love seats all soiled with mud, a 48” (?) TV with the waterline still on it and a futon that was destroyed. She had 4 king sized mattresses that were trashed and a refrigerator that was beyond repair. When we finally went into the house, the floor was literally covered in mud. When Anabelle and I reeled up our jaws, we got to work. We strapped up with our shovels, picks, brooms, and masks and got to work. We were sweeping and scraping caked up chunks of mud from the floor. It seemed the dirt was never ending. The more dirt we scrubbed from the floor, it seemed to reappear when the dust had settled back onto the ground. We worked relentlessly for 3 hours before taking a break. Kim unfortunately doesn’t have someone strong to help her load the heavier items for her to throw away. I stepped in and we threw away as much as she wanted. We loaded up her truck with the futon mattress, the loveseat and its cushions, and some trash to take to the dump. When we had gotten back to the house, Anabelle was still hard at work giving the floors a good scrub down. Once we had gotten as much of the surface dirt off, we followed it up with the wetvac. Whatever we had missed, the wetvac had picked up, for the most part. There were still some streaks that were left behind but we told Kim that it was something that she could mop up.
We had a grueling 5 hours of hard, non stop work. We had gotten the floors clean to the 2 big bedrooms and their closets, the living room, and the bathroom. With all the elbow grease that we poured into the house that day, it was only a small dent to the work that still needs to be done. The base boards thru the house still have yet to be pulled out and replaced, the walls need to be checked if not redone, the toilet needs to be replaced, and that’s just what I can remember; it’s unfortunate.
I had once heard, “God won’t take us to what he can’t take us through”. This is very much the case with what Kim is going through. Regardless of how good I felt being able to help out a friend in need, I hope that eventually everything will fall in place and she’s able to lift her head back up. If she ever needs another day, we’ll definitely be there for her.
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