WAUCHULA, Fla. — Vicky Sanchez’s Wauchula home flooded following Hurricane Ian. Her backyard of oak trees gone. This was the home where she raised her six children. On Tuesday, she was finally allowed to come home for the first time following the storm.
“Coming through the back, the water was over my knee. I don't know how to describe it,” said Sanchez.
She added, “I didn't know what to do. I didn't even know where to begin. It hurts that everything was wiped out from under your feet in a matter of a night.”
Many in this Wauchula neighborhood will tell you Sanchez could use a little good news. Cancer has been trying to break her spirit long before Hurricane Ian even arrived.
“This month is the last month I take my Tamoxifen. This month I get released. I had cervical before I had breast cancer. So, I'll be a survivor of this too,” said Sanchez.
But on Tuesday, hope arrived at her doorstep. A dozen volunteers from Bayside Community Church stopped by to help get Sanchez and her family back on their feet. The group helped with yard work and removing items from inside the home.
“I know what Bayside can do. They help people. I know what they can do. I see the truck coming and I’m like they're here.”
Since Friday, Bayside Community Church has served nearly 10,000 hot meals in Hardee County, along with handing out clothes, shoes, water, and other essentials. The folks here have been grateful for the long-term Federal and State assistance that is coming into town. But they also said it is the local spirit of neighbors helping neighbors that makes a big difference.
“Sometimes when you go through a crisis, and you feel isolated. We're going to come and wrap our arms around you,” explained Angie Moore from Bayside Community Church.
“Everything I went through, there has to be a God. I went through too much for there not to be one,” said Sanchez.