Lemon Bay resident recovering after Milton

Hurricane Milton delivered overwhelming surge to just about everyone living on Lemon Bay Drive in Englewood.

Milton swiftly pushed off homes that Hurricane Helene left teetering on the edge.
Piles of debris lined the street all around the neighborhood.

Those piles have grown as the residents leave their damaged homes and return outside with the newest debris additions.

Susan Parlo lives on Lemon Bay Drive and she has just seen her home for the first time since Hurricane Milton.

“You put your whole life, and so my husband built all the cabinets inside. They were all destroyed. It’s hard,” said Parlo.

A water line stamped about three feet high inside. The inside faired better than her lanai.

“Last surge came in, actually in lanai. You can see it went all the way up to the roof and lanai as the roof got wet, the way it must have came in from the bedroom.”

Parlo said her heart sank when she saw how Milton thrashed her cabinets because of what they meant to her.

“A lot of the furniture got thrown away in the first storm,” said Parlo. “The cabinets are what’s devastating us right now, because my husband here made them.”

Carefully stepping through her home’s grimy floors taking in the depth of work that lay ahead, she tried to figure out where to begin.

Parlo said that she has no idea what the cleaning process will be like since there is so much destruction.

Despite the ruined cabinets, the ripped outdoor screen, the shredded shed, and so much more damage, Parlo said she considers herself lucky.

She said she is optimistic because the hurricanes ravaged her neighbor’s homes even more.

“My next-door neighbor, Phyllis, was in a wheelchair and didn’t want to leave her home the night they had to be rescued. As far as I know, she’s still in the hospital and does not know what happened to her house, but it’s been gutted.”