Unfortunately, we missed out on one of the most interesting and unusual elections in US history. Sadly, we were impacted by Hurricane Helene and were unable to focus on the website while our workspace was rebuilt. While we tried to keep engaged on Social Media, it wasn’t the same. But we’re back and ready to catch up to the new Trump Administration and the future of the US.
Like many other places in Florida, my community here in Crystal River was hit pretty hard with massive flooding. And while our workspace has never flooded with any past storm, this year, we got “lucky” as the storm hit right after high tide and for the first time ever, we got flooded. Its a funny thing to watch as water comes down your street and starts flooding homes at 4:30 in the morning. A dark mass slowly getting closer to everything you own. We relocated our cars to a higher parking lot at the local high school and then braced to see how bad it got. The flood waters got up to two feet outside our home, and less than six inches inside. A block over, my wife and daughter were in waste deep water helping other neighbors. By noon, the water was gone on our street, but the rest of the city was not so lucky.
While we were fortunate to have funds on hand to begin the $103k in estimated damages, many were not so lucky and are still waiting for their insurance company to pay out. We only just received our insurance check to reimburse our costs after four months. We actually filed our claim while the water was rising in our living room in the middle of the storm just to make sure we got it started right away. And let me just say, the contractors we hired ended up either a massive hit or a massive miss. We even had to threaten to sue a few contractors who failed to do the job correctly and cut corners. Its been four months of additional mental trauma on top of the emotional one of watching your home and community get damaged.
Between two hurricanes and a tornado, we lost some businesses. But the community is rebuilding. The most hurtful of the damage wasn’t to property, but the environmental damages to our beloved springs. We were still recovering from the past years hurricanes, but this has reagitated that damage. Loss of sea grass for the manatees and the water clarity has made the normally beautifully clear springs brackish and unhealthy looking. But time will heal our springs and the community.