Volunteers arrive in Geneva to help with flooding cleanup effort

GENEVA, Fla. - It's been about two months since Hurricane Ian hit, but people in the areas impacted the most by flooding still have a daunting task ahead of them.

A group of volunteers showed up in Geneva Wednesday to help with the cleanup.

Videos show the living room of a home on Lake Harney at the peak of the flooding caused by Hurricane Ian.

"It was scary," said Angela Zwarycz. "I had to leave. I couldn’t come back in for 36 days."

Thirty-six days later, Angela Zwarycz went home to find all the water gone, but mud and black mold had ruined everything.

"I just waited, and I waited and prayed and there’s nothing I could do in the beginning," Zwarycz said. "Nobody could do anything."

After getting a call from a local pastor, a crew from Florida Disaster Relief showed up to help get them home.

The volunteers, most of them retired, have been ripping out drywall and tile, so the house can be ready to rebuild.

"It’s still heartbreaking," said Dusty Gregory, who was coordinating the volunteers. "It’s not easy, but at the same time we come in, and we work, and it’s tiring, and we hurt ourselves sometimes and do that, but then we still go home. And we have to realize these people don’t."

Everything on the first floor of the home was ruined, but its owner was able to salvage precious photos of her four children.

While stripping the walls, workers even found a bottle of wine left by the people who built the house.

Angela Zwarycz might have a long road ahead of her but will get there much faster with the help of the volunteers.

"It makes you see there’s people in the world that are giving people and helping people, and I’ve been helping people my whole life, and wow they’re amazing," Zwarycz said.