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Heritage Farms community recovering from Hurricane Helene

Author: Zach Oliveri
Published: Updated:

From Kari Faught’s butterfly garden in the backyard to the furniture now left out in the front yard, you can see the damage Hurricane Helene caused. Six inches to a foot of water in some spots got inside her Heritage Farms home.

“We still got dampness down on the bottom wood there,” Faught explained and showed WINK News. “We’ll probably scrape some of that old paint off and seal it again.”

Faught walked WINK News through her home. She shared her and her boyfriend’s experience during thes torm and showed what was lost or damaged, including her range which caught on fire.

“It sits on the ground it started sparking and smoke was coming off,” Faught said. “So as soon as the water starts coming in you’re like the electricity and you’re walking and running through water pulling outlets out of walls.”

Faught isn’t alone in the Heritage Farms community in clean up mode. Mia Rae also had water go in her home.

“I lost all my furniture,” Rae said. “Some clothes not as much as last time but you know appliances, all the floors need to come out all the cabinets need to come out.”

A community like so many in Southwest Florida prepares for more work to be done.

“We haven’t fully bounced back from Ian and it’s been two years,” Rae said.

“We’re still trying to recover financially from that and that’s a big burden,” Faught said. “You know we’re fortunate enough that we were able to pull it off. I worked my whole life to be fortunate enough to be able to survive like that.”

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