Rachael Denessen says floodwaters ‘took out pretty much everything’ from the first floor of her Haiku home
Posted: March 11, 2021
Maui High English teacher Rachael Denessen heated up her lunch at her Haiku home Monday and had just sat down to eat when she heard her landlord yelling her name.
“I walked outside to see what’s up and the floodwaters were coming up the driveway,” Denessen recalled because the stream next to her home had flooded.
“The bridge that we use to get onto our propriety got backed up with trees and boulders and all of the other stuff coming down the river,” she said. “It happened very, very fast.”
She quickly packed some things in a bag and her landlord took her up to his house at the top of the hill.
“By the time I came back outside from throwing a few things in a bag, my carport was already starting to flood and when we got up to his house, the floodwaters had gone up over the porch and into our house a good couple of feet,” Denessen said.
Most of her home’s first floor received storm or water damage, because she said, “a whole bunch of other things washed through in addition to just the water.”
“It took out pretty much everything,” Denessen said, flooding her family’s kitchen, her toddler’s room, her living room, office, and bathroom.
“We have to rip all of that out,” she said.
“As an English teacher, I’m very attached to my books. And about 50 of them are gone,” Denessen said.
The floods also claimed all of her writing from her youth.
Her 20-month-old son Rowan’s favorite plaything is also gone.
“My son’s ride-around truck has entirely vanished which I know we can replace. But it was a gift so it makes me sad,” she said.
“It’s been hard going through and seeing what’s survived and what hasn’t. I know that there are more surprises in store for things that I have lost,” Denessen said.
Her husband Robert, an electrician who works in construction, “relies on all of his power tools and all of them were either washed away or completed drowned,” and ruined by the floodwaters, she said.
She and her family have been staying at the Maui Seaside hotel in the immediate aftermath of the floods and a friend is letting them stay at a condo for another week after that.
They hope to move back into the house in another week or so, after repairs are made.
Denessen said her friends, especially the educators she works with, have been very supportive.
“I’ve been really lucky. Before I could even really tell people what’s going on, I had an inundation of questions like ‘Are you OK?’ ‘How can I help you?’ People asking me for a GoFundMe,” she said, referring to the online fundraising campaign she posted a day later.
“They’ve just been so wonderful in making sure that I knew I was supported and had people there to help me with whatever I needed. So that’s been a really great blessing,” Denessen added.
For the last six and a half years, Dennesen has taught 12th grade English, expository writing, and British literature at Maui High.
After taking just one day off to begin the cleanup Tuesday, she was back teaching Wednesday, leading a class in an activity about the cast of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, pivoting quickly from her family tragedy to literary tragedy in the classroom.
If you are an HSTA member who was affected by the recent flash floods, please share your photos and story with us here.