We watched on TV as the hurricane Idalia moved up through the Gulf and lands an hour north of our home in Crystal River. It hit Wednesday. We watched as Jose Diaz Balart, was standing in the Plantation hotel’s parking lot showing 3 feet of flood water. Our neighbor, Tony, sent us a picture of our house from his stilt home with 3-4 feet of water. The next day, our neighbor Kate sent a picture of our house with the water down…We packed up the truck with 2 powerful fans, 2 dehumidifiers, the compressor, tools, an air mattress, towels & sheets, and a cooler. We were so tired, from our nagging thoughts that we left early on Saturday and arrived around early afternoon on Sunday. It was heartbreaking. Beautiful furniture (some made by Fred) had floated around and was knocked over. The damage was so pervasive.
We got to work right away, taking all 6 mattresses out to the curb, as well as the large sectional and couch. We were constantly finding things full of water and dumping it. We dumped the dehumidifiers around every 2-3 hours. Ron Desantis, in his motorcade, drove by. He was dropping off our neighbor, Mayor Joe Meeks. He didn’t bother to come help. We took all the towels and linens to the laundromat, but the electronics were down. We needed lots of quarters. Winn Dixie thought they would have some for me in the morning, so we went home and set up our air mattress for the nightl That night I emptied our giant jar of change, finding $95 worth of quarters. The next morning we went to the laundromat and did the linens-4 construction bags of linens. We continued taking stuff out to the curb all day and cleaning stuff. It was Labor Day, so our insurance office wasn’t open yet. That was next day stuff! But we did go to Mattress Firm and buy 2 queen size and 1 king size mattresses with frames!
Tuesday, (9/5), we took all the wet clothes we retrieved from all the rooms to the laundromat. Yes, in 2 days’ wash, we spent $95 worth of quarters. While there, FEMA ladies came in and took our information from Fred, so we had a file with FEMA. Then, we drove to Inglis to our insurance and filed a claim with them. We got all the beds, dressers and night stands out to the curb, We took doors off of every room and closet since the water was separating the bottoms as they swelled. Our friend Sue and Brian came to help. We had begun removing carpet (bedrooms and closets). With one room 1/2 done, Patrick and Sean (all the Callahans) came and within a short afternoon, all the carpet was out to the curb.
On Wednesday our insurance adjustors came to the house. They took lots of pictures and asked questions. We had Peter come to give us estimates on Epoxy flooring for the bedrooms and closets. It was scheduled for October 16, which seemed so far away at the time. We continued to work on the projects, but we were exhausted and had a bit of a rest in the afternoon. So glad we rested. Thursday Fred’s friend, Jim came over from Ocoee. After a big breakfast at the Biscuit Barn, we got to work. I moved stuff to the middle of the rooms. They tore out dry wall 42″ up all the walls and I hauled stuff out to the curb. We moved out appliances from the kitchen We had hauled out the washer & dryer, refrigerator, and freezer from the garage to dry out on the driveway. Jim spent the night and the next day, after The Breakfast Station, we got to work. By late afternoon we were done for the day and had half walls everywhere.
On the weekend we continued to do more clean-up. At this point, Fred was still planning to do the work. Pennymac wouldn’t allow it. We needed to find a licensed contractor for the work, so to make a long story, short…we found one we trust to do a good job in Dan Ryan construction. We spent the next week continuing to pick up and sort, and doing a lot of paper work that we would have to take to UPS to have a notary sign, print, scan, and send! On Thursday, Dan came to have us approve what he is going to do. On Friday we left for Iowa, trusting that it will all get done. We were going to return to Florida around October 8th, but now it will likely be toward the end of October, to allow time for Dan to get going on rebuilding.
Water, although it is my favorite element. It can do phenomenal damage. I’ve had enough damage for this decade. Thank you.
DocKLucas 