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| Emmy Hannold of The Villages and Ted Epps carry parts of a table as they help clean up debris Saturday along Stillwater Trail from the Friday morning tornado that hit The Villages. Bill Mitchell / Daily Sun
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Army of volunteers descends on The Villages to help residents clean up destruction left by storm
By SEAN MAXFIELD, DAILY SUN
THE VILLAGES — Stephen Dober, of Steven Counts Inc. helped carry a stereo to the driveway from the back of Beverly Donahue’s destroyed home on Saturday morning in The Village of Caroline.
Dober was one of hundreds of volunteers and recovery workers who were donating time and talents to help people clean up after severe weather tore up houses all over Central Florida on Friday morning.
For Dober, it was a situation he had seen before.
“This is not the first time I’ve done this,” Dober said. “It was last year with the hurricanes.”
It was something he said he felt good doing.
Donahue had gotten hit by the tornado early Friday morning. Friends, like Bob Olsen from Sable Chase, joined her and other volunteers Saturday to help sort through the wreckage and find things that could still be used.
“They’re staying with us,” Olsen said of Donahue. “We’ve been friends for years.”
“Awesome people,” Donahue said. “Thank God for friends.”
Plenty of work
Rick Murray, director of construction for The Villages, said hundreds upon hundreds of people, including a lot of subcontractors, were attaching tarps over holes in roofs, helping pick up and bulldoze trash and debris, raking pieces of glass and insulation, boarding up broken windows and getting residents safely moved out of their damaged homes.
Some images from the devastation:
Roofs draped in tarps down from the Coconut Cove Center;
Insulation stuck to landscaping like drifts of pink snow in the Village of Caroline;
A long line of dump trucks and other recovery vehicles waiting along Stillwater Trail.
“Everybody’s in here,” Murray said. “It’s what we are. We want to get our community back together. These people went through hell.”
As people moved through the Village of Caroline, they could see everyone was helping clean up, from men in hard hats to friends. Neighbors loaded cars with possessions while others hugged each other.
Contractors pitch in
Some of the contractors had damage to their own businesses yet were still here, many bringing a lot of their own material to help out, according to Gary Lester, Villages vice president of community relations.
“It says a lot about construction companies,” Lester said. “It’s an absolutely amazing testimony to these guys.”
The workers clinked and clanged as their tools moved back and forth in their belts.
Steve McArn, a bulldozer operator wearing a fluorescent orange jacket, helped carry sheeting, wood and other debris from a nearby house to a pile for disposal.
“I’d seen it (tornado damage) on the TV.” McArn said. “Nothing like being here though.”
Church group brings hundreds
One group of workers wore T-shirts that read Mormon Helping Hands. They came to help from Orlando, representing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Some who were shoveling debris said they were surprised at the amount of damage, having seen the aftermath of Hurricane Charlie in 2004. The group brought several hundred members, divided into 10-man work teams.
“The traffic is unbelievable,” said Eddie Skehan, a superintendent with T&D Concrete, as he looked at the amount of cars coming down the streets in Caroline.
Skehan said the company’s work was all donated, and that his workers were going from street to street doing what they could to help.
No one went hungry during the day. Plenty of food was donated towards the effort and made available to the workers.
Hot dogs came in handy
Charlie Smith of The Rotary Club of The Villages had a bunch of hot dogs the group was going to sell at the 10th annual FireFight at The Villages. The event had been scheduled for Saturday but was postponed until March 3.
Smith said it was too late not to use them so they were given to workers helping on Saturday and people who had gone without food since the storm hit.
“The best thing was to give them to the construction workers,” Smith said.
He said they served about 600 people.
People in the Mount Pleasant Villas area were especially glad to see the food. Smith said one person had gone a day without eating.
Sean Maxfield is a reporter with the Daily Sun. He can be reached at 753-1119, ext. 9303 or sean.maxfield@thevillagesmedia.com.
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