Dear friends and family,

We are the Smiths — James, Jackie, and our 3 year old son. We live at Long bridge in Haleiwa, HI where our area was hit very suddenly and very hard by the Kona Low floods. We have been through a few floods in our 13 years in this house, but this one was different.

During the flooding, we acted as fast as we could. Despite never having gone to sleep that night, and even preparing for potential floods, due to the low positioning of our neighborhood, our vehicles were under water before we could even consider evacuating that night. What our family experienced between the hours of 1am and 9am on Friday March 20th felt like a living nightmare.

Thanks to our loving, caring and fast-acting neighbors, dear family and friends, and our community members, many who were strangers at the time, shortly after 9am, we were in a safe area surrounded by loved ones ready to support us. There are no words that will ever begin to express our gratitude for this.

The hours and days that followed were filled with countless miracles and reminders that aloha is alive and is the only way forward. We have been blessed with immense support from friends, family and people we have never met. Because we walked away from this experience with our lives, we have not felt like we experienced any irrecoverable loss. With the deep and widespread devastation and loss immediately around us, we have not felt like we need additional support.

However, as we have begun to really assess the reality of our situation, we realize we have experienced a bit of denial about our new reality. As we get honest with ourselves about what we have gone through and what the road ahead looks like, we have made the extremely difficult decision to humbly and graciously ask for additional financial support to help us get back on our feet.

We have identified three critical needs which these funds will support.

The contamination level and force of the flood water has left an immediate and long lasting impact on where we call home. We need help making it safe and livable again for our family.

Funds raised will go directly to making our homebase safe again for our family, especially our son. Among other things, this means stabilizing and reinforcing the foundation, rebuilding critical entryways, reinstalling fencing, and using gravel, cement and other materials to create safe outdoor space for him to be a kid again. Funds will be used to ensure our ground and water are safe for our family in the short and long term.

As most of you know, James has spent much of the last 17 years, meticulously and thriftily building his arsenal of tools, materials and equipment which he uses every single day to support our family and the greater community. He's the guy scouring Facebook Marketplace to see what others don't want so he can buy it to repair, rebuild and use to support our family. His shop was a collection of time, skill and investment that now desperately needs help.

Since the moment it was safe to return home, he has been committed to the meticulous and tedious process of combing through what didn’t wash away in the flood water - locating, cleaning and repairing what is salvageable. Equally as critical, funds raised will also go directly toward replacing or repairing approximately $112,000 in material loss or damage to critical structures, vehicles, tools and equipment which are essential to our livelihood; as well as lost income.

The third critical need for our family at this time is to find reliable and safe vehicles to replace the ones destroyed by the flood water, in particular an every day vehicle for Jackie and J.

Ultimately, we owe our lives to our community for stepping up immediately to rescue us and then help in the aftermath of this devastating flood. Your aloha, love, support and commitment mean everything to us. In turn, we also are committed to ensure that all funds raised will have a ripple effect in the community through our family. This is a promise.

Thank you for your support, prayers, and kindness. We have never been more proud of or committed to our community and we thank you for everything.

With love,

James, Jackie and J Smith