MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — When it comes to cleaning up after Hurricane Ian, many residents living in Manatee County said they never even realized who their neighbors were until they were knocking on their door asking how they could help.
“We were in the living room and the next thing you know just, ‘bam,’ and I go, ‘there goes the tree, there goes the power lines,”’ said Alison Rhoden, who lives in the Southern Parkway neighborhood.
Rhoden is seven months pregnant, trying to take care of an 8-year-old daughter, a disabled husband and now, a damaged home after Hurricane Ian sent large branches tumbling down on the roof.
She said she couldn’t do it all without the help of her neighbors.
“To help us out with the chainsaw, they brought us water, they brought us bread, chicken,” said Rhoden.
Looking up and down the street, every house has piles of debris stacked up out front.
“That’s what we do, that’s what family does, friends do, neighborhoods do, we all just help each other out, especially in a time of need right now,” said Rhoden.
A couple of hundred feet away, Connor Green assed his own damage.
“You know 100 plus winds hitting it here and almost knocking it into the house,” he said, pointing to down branches.
Green said neighbors he never even met before were the first to check up on him and lend a hand.
“He came over, as well as the neighbor over here, they both came over, they helped cut down from the fence here, we rebuilt kind of the fence area in the back as well, and then they helped us trim up around here as well,” said Green.
While at the end of the street, Perry Dennis said without his neighbors, he would still be without power; what good is a generator if you don’t know how to use it?
“I bought one the last time Irma came through, hadn’t used it since then, so it was still in the box, so they came over and helped me set it up, get the wheels set up, get everything put together, and get it started because I didn’t know how to do it,” said Dennis.
These residents all say if you didn’t appreciate the power of a good neighbor before the hurricane, you certainly do now.
“So I actually got to meet them, get on a first name basis, and kind of got a little bit of a bond, kind of like a neighborly bond going with them now,” said Green.
