Englewood looks towards recovery going into 2025 after getting hit with back-to-back storms

Looking to build back strong and better in the new year. Two powerful storms hit the Englewood community back to back in 2024.

Now, they look to put the damage and destruction behind them and restore their community.

WINK News reporter Maddie Herron returned to Englewood to talk to people about what recovery looks like in 2025.

Hurricanes Helene and Milton left Englewood’s Indian Mound Park in shambles, with miles of collapsed homes and uprooted lives.

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Grace Pentecost, an Englewood resident, said, “It is really sad walking around the neighborhood seeing everybody’s belongings are just everywhere.”

Herron met Pentecost the day after Hurricane Milton ripped through her community.

Now, two months later, both had a refreshed look.

“It’s been a whirlwind. We’ve been taking everything day by day, but somehow, two months have passed,” Pentecost said.

She told Herron it wasn’t easy seeing the street she grew up on littered with debris.

“It looked like a bomb went off, honestly. You wouldn’t really recognize it,” she said.

Now cleaned up, for many neighbors, it’s a waiting game for insurance and permits to pick up on progress.

Jim Beasley, Pentecost’s grandfather, said, “It’s just an issue of getting it done.”

As frustrating as that wait can be, Pentecost said that you can’t rush recovery.

“It’s really hard to submit these claims because it is very triggering and traumatizing to go back through those pictures once you just lived through that it’s like opening a wound and pouring alcohol on it,” she said.

A wound that may never fully heal.

“A lot of us that are still going through this still have to go to our normal 9-5s, and then we spend the rest of the time doing this,” Pentecost said. “Taking care of the things that were flooded and getting that out of the houses, so we can dry them and get to a point where we can think about rebuilding.”

However, not everyone in their small community has the option to rebuild.

At first glance, many houses have been reduced to rubble, but Pentecost showed us that the foundation of her community is far from cracked.

“We’re not alone. We’re not going through this alone. We have people going through the same things, and we do have support behind us to get through it,” she said.

Pentecost said that a positive attitude is a sign for the future.

“Hopefully, we get a sense of normalcy back in our lives, and we can get out of the fight or flight and survival mode and just enjoy life in the beautiful place we live in with all of the amazing people we love,” she said.

A love that might not stop a hurricane but will unite a community to push forward through the aftermath and the challenges still to come.