GoFundMe effort helps retired teacher whose Maui home was destroyed in floods

T​​he family of a retired public school teacher and her husband is appealing for the public’s help after the couple’s home was destroyed by floodwaters that turned Maui’s ʻĪao Stream into a raging river during last weekend’s storm.

Many Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association members probably saw the story of Carrie and Tom Bashaw in news coverage with the dramatic video footage they shot of their garage being blown by high winds into the floodwaters below what was once their home. HSTA learned Carrie is a retired Kaimukī High teacher, according to her daughter Stephanie Ichinose, a first-grade teacher at Waiākeawaena Elementary on Hawaiʻi Island.

Carrie taught special education social studies and science at Kaimukī High for 16 years, Ichinose said. For part of that time, before she married Tom, Carrie had a different last name and would have been known to her students as Mrs. Kerr, Ichinose said.

For many years, Carrie and Tom lived on a small sailboat at the Ala Wai Boat Harbor, and she would ride her bike to work at Kaimukī High, Ichinose recalled.

“They’ve always been minimalist in that way, living off-grid and unconventionally,” she said.

Ichinose started a GoFundMe campaign for her mother and stepfather, with the funds going toward “immediate needs such as safe temporary housing, replacing essential belongings, debris removal, and beginning the process of rebuilding their lives,” she said.

The couple, who are nearing 80, are now temporarily living with their neighbors after spending several nights in a storage container on their property with their cats, Ichinose said.

“Losing so much so suddenly has been overwhelming, and they are doing their best to get through this incredibly difficult time with support from their caring neighbors and community,” Ichinose said.

“Because their home was not located in a designated flood zone, they did not carry flood insurance. What was once their safe and comfortable home, designed and built lovingly by Tom himself, is now a memory, and half their property has been ripped away,” she added.

“They will continue to navigate the clean-up and aftermath, and start the process of dealing with lenders and applying for relief and aid,” Ichinoise said in her GoFundMe post.

“They are both spry and healthy, and in good spirits, even though I know this has taken a huge toll on them physically and emotionally. Your kindness gives them hope, and I cannot stress enough how much that means to us,” she added.