ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — After nearly three weeks, families and various construction crews are still cleaning up after Hurricane Ian swept through southwest Florida last month.
Several charity groups have been on the ground helping out homeowners, including Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian Evangelical and Aid organization based out of Boone, North Carolina.
The group has galvanized more than 3,000 volunteers to assist homeowners as they try to recover from the devastation of the storm.
Around 150 of those volunteers are in neighborhoods in Englewood in Sarasota County. They have continued to help with the removal of debris and ruined furniture from homes. Many of those items, including the walls of many homes, have developed toxic black mold as a result of flooding. The volunteers, who are dressed in orange T-shirts, are also helping to repair roofs and cover them with tarps.
“Our main goal is to assist homeowners with getting tarps on roofs, in cutting trees that may have been damaged by the storm, and getting them out to the curb, especially those that are blocking driveways and access to the homes and things like that,” John Schultz, program manager for Samaritan’s Purse, said. “We are assisting with mud-outs which is removing any damaged materials from inside the home and getting that out as well.
"We are assisting folks whose homes are no longer livable and assist with personal belongings that we are able to salvage.”
Most areas in the Tampa Bay region were not as heavily impacted compared to counties in the southwerstern area of the state.
“You can see out here, the whole street is ruined but a lot of people went through a lot worse, so we consider ourselves lucky,” Donald Lavoie, an Englewood homeowner, said.
Volunteers worked inside Lavoie's home as they were hammering and drilling nails or hauling out debris with a wheelbarrow. Outside his home, another set of volunteers worked on securing the roof with the tarps. For Lavoie, it was one less task for him to worry about after his wife had injured herself picking up debris after the storm.
“Their house [The Lavoie's] had a lot of damage and they were just at a loss, they were drained emotionally and so we were able to come in and assist them to take care of some of those physical needs around, get things cleaned up, and make the property look much nicer again like it was before the storm and be able to lift that burden off the shoulder a great deal,” Shultz said.
The volunteers are helping homeowners in Lee, Charlotte and Sarasota counties. The organization has also received more than 4,000 service requests.
"We know that the challenges and the difficulties that they had before the storm, that certainly didn't go away when the storm came but it just made things even more challenging in many cases,” Shultz said.
Samaritans Purse is seeking volunteers to help with clean up and to help victims with things like filing for claims and other relief benefits. You can sign up or get help by clicking here. You can also visit Calvary Baptist Church in Englewood, Citygate Ministries in Fort Myers and New Life Church in Punta Gorda for more information.