After Disaster Strikes, the Church Responds: Operation Blessing Serves Hawaii Flood Survivors

Massive flood waters covered parts of Hawaii in March, leaving some of the state's poorest residents homeless. CBN's Operation Blessing quickly arrived on the scene in Oahu to help some of the people who were the hardest hit, such as Kiki Pagliotti, whose home was surrounded by water.

"It just made it really difficult to get out of our house," she said.

Heavy rain pounded the area for four days, overwhelming its drainage system, leaving the water with nowhere to go. 

Kuulei Lincoln described the unsanitary conditions. "Breathing in the sewer water that's underneath our house because we had a broken sewer pipe," she said.

Many people in rural Wai'anae are farmers whose families have been in the area for generations, like Chevalier Place. "We bought this in 1955 for $800, two and a half acres," he said.

While much of the water has now receded, the damage remains. Many people can't afford the added expense of dealing with the impact of the flood.

"We ain't got the kind of money that we can just say, 'Oh it's ok, we're going to do this, we're going to do that.' We don't got it like that," Pagliotti said.

"Some of us live on set incomes," said Lincoln, "And some of us don't have the extra help that we need."

Operation Blessing partnered with local churches such as North Shore Christian Fellowship to locate those in need and help them.

"It was a very frightening experience to wake up and have to evacuate in knee-deep or waist-deep water that eventually was taking away cars and some of our people, their whole entire homes," said Lead Pastor Danny Angel.

Operation Blessing staff and volunteers provided food, hygiene kits, and more, to Chardonnay Pao, a local pig farmer who volunteered her home as a donation hub.

"I started reaching out to neighbors and asking them if they needed anything," she said. "Slowly more and more people started to come and I started to hear the stories about what everybody's been going through."

Give to Operation Blessing's Disaster Response HERE.

Recipients deeply appreciated the assistance.

"It's a great thing," Pagliotti said to an Operation Blessing staff member. "It's a blessing to have you come and help us out the way you are. It's such a blessing, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We thank you."

"Thank you so much," Lincoln said. "We are so forever grateful for you guys and thank you for having the heart and caring for us."

"Thank you for you people at Operation Blessing," Place said. "It's been a blessing to us you know, getting all these donations and passing it out to the people that need it, because they really do. And they really appreciate it."

Local church leaders say God has worked this tragedy for good.

"It's been really rad," said Pastor Angel, "because a lot of people know we're here, they've heard of the gospel, but when they saw the people of God kind of rise up and meet their actual needs, and be with their family and love on them tangibly, it really opened up doors for us to share the gospel. So as our teams were going out, people are like, 'What church are you a part of?'"

While the Hawaiian people of Oahu continue the long road to recovery, Operation Blessing will stand with them.

Give to Operation Blessing's Disaster Response HERE.

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