Residents clear sodden homes in searing heat
EVERGLADES CITY, Fla. (AP) — Dealing with wrecked belongings and reports of toxic muck, residents of a tiny town where Florida’s Everglades meet the Gulf of Mexico cleared their homes Monday in scorching 33 C heat with no air conditioning and no electricity except from a few generators.
The isolated Everglades City community of about 400 people suffered some of Florida’s worst storm surges — up to 2.7 metres — when Hurricane Irma slammed the region eight days ago, leaving the insides of homes a sodden mess and caking the streets with mud. The storm affected nearly every part of the state, and more than two dozen people were killed.
“We will make it. We just have to stay positive,” said Shaun Foerman, who was ripping drywall and carpeting from his home, which sits on 2-foot stilts but still was filled with 4 feet of water.
The post-storm death of a man in the nearby hamlet of Ochopee from an infected wound after walking through mud alarmed residents and prompted Florida’s Health Department to tweet Sunday that rumours of spreading flesh-eating bacteria were false. Collier County said authorities were testing stormwater, and state health officials have offered vaccinations while investigating reports of infections.
The state’s emergency management division reported Monday that more than 407,000 homes and businesses were still without electricity — nearly 4 per cent of all utility accounts in the state.
Nearly 30 per cent of homes and businesses in both Collier and Monroe counties remain without power. Florida Power & Light, the state’s largest utility, said it will take until Friday to restore electricity to most homes in southwest Florida.
Several Everglades City residents said they needed generators and complained that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had not done much yet, beyond taking applications for aid. Help arrived faster after Hurricane Wilma in 2005, said Robert Miller, who added that his restaurant, store and real estate company in town have suffered $3.5 million in damages from Irma.
“This is ridiculous,” Miller said, pointing to the piles of ruined mattresses, furniture, clothes and tree branches piled along his street. “Find me a truck in this town. There aren’t any. Last time, FEMA agents were in here. They were getting us loans. They brought trailers in. We have people here who don’t have a place to live.”
Gov. Rick Scott urged counties and residents to focus now on debris cleanup, getting power back and helping individuals who have lost homes.