ANNA MARIA ISLAND, Fla. — It’s been nearly six months since Hurricane Helene, which caused massive storm surge flooding on Anna Maria Island.
With Spring Break season in full swing, ABC Action News Anchor Lauren St. Germain traveled to the island to see how residents and business owners are doing as they rebuild AMI.
Aren and Mary are soaking up the sun and enjoying the sand, but cannot escape the sights and sounds of the on-going hurricane recovery.
“We both live here actually we were just chatting about our hurricane repairs,” said Aren Wood.
She continued “Slow. Everybody is competing for the same materials and people. It’s been really hard to get anybody to come and do repairs."
“The town really came together really well and the mayor took care of the garbage really quickly, that was a blessing,” said Mary Merkler.
“I cried for a couple days while I was cleaning and then we all got to work, but we are resilient and I will say I don’t know if people understand how much better and how much work we have put into it because they didn’t see the aftermath originally and it is astronomical,” said Wood.
Across the street, Jason Suzor owns the Waterfront Restaurant.
“It’s happened so many times where we have boarded up, we have sandbagged, we have left, we’ve felt secure, and this time we came back and walked through the restaurant and had almost hip level of water and everything was displaced,” said Suzor.
Suzor said this was actually the second time they had had to rebuild. Back in 2004, the restaurant burned to the ground, and the fireplace was left standing. After the hurricanes last year, his staff rallied to help out, and they reopened in December.
“It was interesting for a good period of about two months it was like a ghost town there were just piles it was a war zone. The energy was just so negative and now it’s so positive, it’s wonderful,” said Suzor.
Down the road, Devinne Whittaker is volunteering to make sure the Anna Maria Community Farmers Market can still happen this year.
“In the thick of it when it first happened, I just felt like my whole life had paused. We had just opened our business in August. Hurricane in September. I felt like it was a really challenging time and the universe was asking me how bad I wanted it. We persevered and made something beautiful out of it,” said Whittaker.
Back by the water, St. Germain asked the two women about something they experienced on the drive down to the island.
“It took us a long time to get on the island today. I am assuming you know spring break traffic and what not. Are you guys happy to see people back on the island to support the local economy?” asked St. Germain.
“I am happy to see that it’s busy. In fact, I keep trying to tell people come, support our restaurants, support our community. They have worked so hard to get everything back and going that it would be devastating it we worked this hard and people didn’t show up. So now when there is traffic, instead of being frustrated about it, I am really happy about it,” said Wood.
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