Residents dry out homes and belongings as cleanup continues after Ian
John and Deborah Dee bought a camper just three months ago. They had only used it once on a trip to Georgia to visit family.
They returned from that camping trip the Monday before Tropical Storm Ian hit. Now, the small camper will serve as their home until they can repair their house on Devon Street just off of Taylor Road in Port Orange. The storm flooded their house, filling it with 12 inches of water.
“Then when we got flooded, well, we’re going to live in the camper now,” Deborah Dee said.
Their story was a similar one told by other residents who spent Saturday trying to dry out their belongings and their homes. What could not be salvaged was placed in soggy piles by the curb along with mounds of tree limbs knocked down by Ian.
Hurricane Ian, which was a tropical storm by the time it hit Volusia County, killed at least 27 people in Florida, including three locally.
Some remained without electricity as utility crews continued working to restore power. Residents also received good news Saturday when FEMA announced expanding individual assistance to include Volusia, Flagler and other local counties. Residents can apply for assistance at disasterassistance.gov or by calling 1-800-621-3362.
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'Everything in the house is gone'
In the meantime, the cleanup continues.
Deborah Dee, 61, said she was at work when Ian hit, but John Dee, 76, who is retired, rode out the storm at home with their dog, Dingo, whom they said became very nervous about the rising water.
The pair sat in folding chairs outside the camper in their front yard as Dingo walked around, occasionally barking at a reporter.
“Everything in the house is gone. Just about. It’s going to have to go down to the sheetrock in a lot of places,” John Dee said.
They pointed to the swale across the street, where four cars were parked. They said Ian’s flooding had overwhelmed the cars so that only the tops of their roofs were visible.
“But we are all breathing. We are blessed. We are still breathing. We are here. We’ll fix all this,” John Dee said.
Their neighbor on Devon Street, Dennis Vanlanduyt, said he had water nearly 4 feet deep on his first floor. He watched as a palm tree floated down the road.
“Very fortunate that I got a second floor. That's where the living space is and we stayed dry up there,” he said.
He had placed several of his daughter’s stuffed animals from when she was a child to dry on ledge by the sidewalk. He was also drying out a string of plastic Halloween skulls.
But flood waters probably ruined several cars in his driveway.
“Just too much rain, we couldn’t handle it, there was no drainage for it,” he said. “But we are fortunate everybody’s safe. Time for cleanup.”
He said the city used a front-end loader to clean out a drain that helped clear the water.
Remodeling ruined
Mark and Carrie Wiles, 59 and 57, said they had just remodeled their home on Bishop Court in South Daytona before Ian stormed through the county, flooding the renovations and the new furniture they had purchased.
“It’s a whole new home. Now it’s going to be a whole new home again,” Mark Wiles said.
They first saw the water starting to flow in under the walls and seep through the center of the floor at about 9 p.m. Wednesday.
“It happened in about 30 minutes,” Mark Wiles said. “It went from no water to about 8 inches of water through the home.
“Right now, we are without a home, so we are struggling to even find a place at this point,” he said.
They and their two dogs are staying with family for now. They have flood insurance, but are uncertain of what it will cover.
And some things can’t be replaced, regardless of the insurance coverage.
“I have old antiques family heirlooms. They’re gone,” Carrie Wiles said.
Kayaking down the street
Dayami and Richard Fuentes, 41 and 39, who live in Bryan Cave Estates in South Daytona, said flood waters climbed up their front lawns and came within inches of their front door. But the water did not flow into the house on Bryan Cave Road.
“When we saw it going halfway up the yard, we started thinking that we should have gotten some sandbags,” Dayami Fuentes said.
But they said they heard that several houses in the neighborhood had been flooded.
The water was so deep in front of their house that kayaks became a practical mode of transportation.
“We all took out kayaks and we gave kayaks to our neighbors so they could get around. We had about five kayaks going at one point and some people had canoes,” Dayami Fuentes said.
She said the kids enjoyed kayaking in the street and also gave the dogs a ride on the kayaks.
Her husband said some of the overflowing water came from a retention pond which brought along some marine life.
“There were like fish in the water,” he said.
Dayami Fuentes seconded his comment.
“Yes, my kids were catching fish,” she said.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Ian's flood waters leave residents plenty to clean up and dry out
