Hurricane Helene flooded PJ's Oyster Bar on St. Pete Beach is a Tampa Bay icon, but they need help to get through the next few weeks. PJ's needs your help to pay their staff while they're closed. They will reopen but the damage inside is significant.

First and foremost, they need to pay staff. They have a wonderful and caring staff and right now they're paying them out of their savings, but that won't last forever.

Bret and Kelli also had significant damage to their home and have to rent a place to live until they can get back into our home — they won't use any of the donations for personal expenses, but that's why they need help.

They want to keep as many of our staff as possible but if they can't pay them, they can't pay their bills. Their payroll is substantial every week.

Any money left after paying staff — if any — will go toward their business insurance deductible. And if there's anything left after that, they will donate to other South Pinellas businesses that need help.

From Bret and Kelli: "We appreciate any help you can give, and if you can't, we understand. A lot of us are devastated right now. Thank you for being our customers and friends, and we look forward to seeing you inside PJ's again so we can all grow stronger from this horrible tragedy."

I'm Cathy, and I'm a family friend in Gulfport. With their permission, I created this GoFundMe for them. I am not taking any money from this; I am helping them because they're incredible humans who have lost almost everything. In addition to their home and business having severe damage, they have an elderly parent whose home was damaged, and they're trying to find a place to live. It's a lot. (We all have a lot right now — raise your hand if you've cried in the past hour ‍♀️)