HERNANDO COUNTY, Fla. — It wasn’t a typical church service.
Saturday morning, outside St. Rita Catholic Church in Dade City, there were boxes of masks and gloves. Worshippers were covered head-to-toe in protective suits.
Teams left the church parking lot and arrived at a neighborhood a few miles north.
Their mission? Building up their community by tearing it down.
“It’s rewarding. It fulfills your need as a calling from God,” said Isabel Garcia, one of the many volunteers. “Doing our work and preaching with our hands.”
She was one of more than a hundred volunteers who set out to make a difference in Ridge Manor, a Hernando County neighborhood hit hard by Hurricane Milton.
Most of the homes in the neighborhood were inundated with 1 to 4 feet of water in the aftermath of Milton when rivers in the area crested.
Garcia and the others helped remove moldy drywall and furniture from almost a dozen homes.
Deanna Zerbe’s home was on the list. Like the others, it took on water after Milton.
“People say, ‘Oh, you can stay. You don’t need to leave. It’s going to stop. It’s going to stop.’ And it never stops. And then, we have no choice," Zerbe said. "‘Don’t leave yet. You still don’t have to leave.’ And it’s this far from our door. ‘Don’t leave. It’s going to stop. It’s going to stop.’”
But it didn’t stop. Her house only got a couple of inches in some spots, but even that turned into a moldy mess.
She’s now in a predicament she never thought she would experience.
“[I'm] homeless, pretty much,” Zerbe said bluntly.
She doesn’t know how she’ll make it work, what kind of financial help she will receive from insurance or FEMA, or if she’ll ever live in her home again.
“I'm just numb, very numb,” Zerbe said. “The tears — I’ve cried so many tears. Enough to fill the whole neighborhood. But it’s just heartbreaking.”
But, as workers gutted her home Saturday, she could hope for a brighter tomorrow.
“I just hope that we all continue to stick together so that we can get through this time,” Zerbe said.
Florida unlicensed contractor faces a bond normally reserved for murderers and violent criminals.
