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FEMA assists neighbors with Hurricane Milton recovery in Punta Gorda

Reporter: Asha Patel
Published: Updated:

Help is on the way for those trying to move forward after Hurricane Milton. FEMA has opened a disaster recovery center in Charlotte County.

It’s right at the South County Regional Park recreation center in Punta Gorda and will be open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

This is an important resource for those building back.

While there are signs of recovery, there’s still work to do throughout Charlotte County.

“We had Helene then two weeks later we had Milton. Not a fast process but were trying to get it done as fast as we can,” said Ashley Turner, public information officer for Charlotte County.

“We were super blessed spending a lot of time trying to help others,” said Sandra Cohen.

Friends Kathleen Devaney and Sandra Cohen both had minimal damage to their homes but they knew that wasn’t the case for others.

“We’ve been here pretty much every day since the hurricane. I helped friends who had flooding, just trying to do all the cleanup,” said Cohen. “I helped out here, the dog place next door bit. Just a lot for people to handle.”

The public information officer for the county was heartbroken to see the place she always called home destroyed.

“It was just sad sand everywhere the beach that I grew up going to looked definitely different,” said Turner.

Ashley Turner says she and her team have not stopped, but there’s still work to do.

“I think we’re making good strides every storm we find ways to improve our crews right after the storm,” said Turner.

People living in Charlotte County see just that.

“How quick the county comes together to take care of that the trucks the clean up trucks that are out taking care of that the linemen’ Facebook is full of thank yous to the linemen but knowing that this isn’t going to last forever everybody is coming together that’s what did it for me coming from colorado to here how do they do it so well and so quick,” said Cohen.

Now since Milton a total of 8,719 cubic yards of debris has been collected in Charlotte County. For comparison, a washing machine is about one cubic yard.

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