In a herculean effort Laird Hamilton has spent days getting up at 4am to rescue families, groups of girls, bison, and all manner of animals, not finishing his heroics until dark.
Severe rain struck Kauai last weekend causing huge floods, mudslides and strandings with more to come today.
In a break from his Noah-like effort Hamilton told CNN he had been involved in more than 75 rescues, but did not want credit. So far he has rescued families on vacation, 15 girls from the home Leila Hurst, lent his boat launch to the National Guard, support farmers with livestock, helped people off their roofs and got them supplies.
“If you have compassion, this is what you do. These are opportunities to make a difference, when it really counts.”
Laird and friends also rescued 80 bison they found in the flood.
“We were just going around in boats, tying them and towing them, trying to get them back into pasture,” he said.
“People don’t know the level of intensity of what’s happened here. There are people who have lost everything. The power, the length and the strength of this: It’s unlike anything that I’ve ever seen.”
“In Hawaii we have a word called ‘ohana.’ It means family. Family and friends banding together. It’s a pretty wonderful thing. This would have been much worse had we not all banded together here. That’s ohana.”
Huge effort Laird. We tip our hats.
