Hazmat crews clean out DeLand home flooded after Hurricane Milton, hoping for restoration

Hazmat crews clean out flooded home

After a flood, the faster you can get things dried up, the better. However, because it took a week and a half for the water on and around Orange Camp Road in Deland to drain out, cleanup crews are only now able to start work at Tom Scott’s house.

DELAND, Fla. - After a flood, the faster you can get things dried up, the better.

It took over a week for water around Orange Camp Road in DeLand to drain. Only now have cleanup crews been able to start work at Tom Scott’s house.

Right after the hurricane, Scott told FOX 35's News Marie Edinger that he planned to rebuild the home. But now?

"It's so bad inside," he said. "I'm not sure."

United Water Restoration Group was out at Scott’s home on Thursday, filling up dumpsters with the contents of the home.

"Literally everything five feet and below is damaged and needs to come out," said Mark Burger with United Water Restoration Group.

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The crew dealing with the house was dressed in full hazmat suits. They were dealing with raw sewage, mold, who knows what other chemicals, and odors so wretched, that FOX 35’s crew on scene saw multiple people gag. The house is getting gutted down to the studs. Burger said next to nothing is salvageable.

"We had a good cry yesterday. I mean, the gentleman's personal belongings are there, and it's just a devastation."

Scott’s house flooded badly.

Edinger was out here the day after Hurricane Milton, when water levels in the street were neck-height and water within Scott’s home reached above the doorbell.

"Everything flooded," Scott said. "Everything floated up."

Scott and some of the other neighbors had called the City ahead of Hurricane Milton, asking them to pump out water and prevent flooding like the area saw in Hurricane Ian.

The city did try to do that, but their pump flooded and stopped working, leaving Scott’s home and a neighborhood nearby underwater.

Now, Scott is left wondering whether he’d be going through this if the pump had worked, and wondering what will come next for him.

"I'm waiting to see what the insurance is going to pay," he said. "I am very frustrated."

Demolition crews will come in once the restoration team is finished removing the hazardous material. There is no timeline yet for when Tom will be able to move back in.

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