On August 10th, around 2:30 a.m., we woke up to water pouring into our home. The thunder was loud, and some of the streets nearby had flooded that night, but we didn’t think much of it and tried to go back to sleep. What we woke up to instead was a nightmare everything we had worked so hard for was underwater. The flood quickly rose to knee-high inside the house. We were lucky that our neighbors were kind enough to let us stay with them for a while. When we looked outside, our cars were almost completely submerged we could barely even see the tops of them. My sister and I stayed awake all night, hoping the water would go down. By around 11 a.m. the next day, the water had finally receded, but when I went to check my car, it was completely totaled. Inside the house, the smell was unbearable. The floors were soaked and sticky, the electricity was out for two days, and the gas went out , leaving us unable to cook or live normally. We immediately started cleaning, but after an entire week of hard work, we realized most of our belongings were beyond saving. When we finally went downstairs, we had to throw almost everything away. The only things we managed to save were a few outfits, some shoes, and our traditional Hmong clothing that hold so many memories for us. The house doesn’t feel like home anymore. As of today, August 22nd, we are still processing everything we’ve lost and trying to pick up the pieces. We just want to move out of this place and start fresh. Any little bit of help means so much it brings us one step closer to rebuilding our lives. We’re taking things day by day, doing our best to stay strong, and holding onto hope that we’ll get through this.