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Neighbors in Edgewater band together in Hurricane Ian recovery
The City of Edgewater is in recovery mode right now. The Edgewater Police Department and National Guard evacuated 75 people from their homes Friday. Crews worked to drain water, clear trees, and restore power.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The City of Edgewater is in recovery mode right now.
The Edgewater Police Department and National Guard evacuated 75 people from their homes Friday. Crews worked to drain water, clear trees, and restore power.
But it isn’t just the flooding the community has to worry about, according to several people living there: Holly Collins, for instance, says there was a ten-foot gator crossing a street near her house, and says she saw pictures people posted of sharks swimming near there too.
"It’s been really rough," said Collins. "I mean, after the storm, it’s sad to see everyone around – you drive through the storm, you don’t know which way."
In Daytona, people aren’t much better off.
Nick Nirschl and his family evacuated for the worst of the storm, but even after the rain and winds seemed to die down, the water level continued rising.
"Out back, it’s up to our knees. In the house, probably 3-4 inches," said Nirschl.
Every time a car drives by, it sends more water into the house.
Kelly Carmen, a relative of Nirschl’s, explained that the drains are clogged, the ground is saturated. There’s nowhere for the water to go.
"We’ve been here for 29 years and this has been the worst water we’ve ever had.
Other neighbors are already working to clear things out as best they can.
The problem at Carmen and Nirschl’s house is, they can’t do much work until the water is cleared.
"Just waiting for the water to run out," said Nirschl. "We’ve moved some sandbags. Waiting for the water to drain out. Got the generator going, the fans running. Dehumidifiers going. All you can do with water in the house."
Fortunately, the storm brought that neighborhood together like never before.
Leo McLeod got up bright and early to start cleaning the place up.
"We have some men who got deployed, so we went to their houses first, helped their wives clean up. Cleaned the yards up, got the trees up, got the trash up. Now we’re working with the elderly next door."
McLeod cleared out storm drains so the water level could go back down, and helped saw up trees that fell over homes.
The neighborhood looks significantly better now than it did this morning.
Edgewater does too.
But they’ve all still got a ways to go.
"We ain’t going to stop until we try to help everyone," said McLeod.
Crews will be back out in Edgewater early in the morning. They’ve got to check on storm drains and repair a canal on US 1 and State Road 442.