- April 18, 2024
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After Hurricane Irma passed through Sarasota — leaving a fraction of the damage forecast for a worst-case scenario — it was natural to want to move on as quickly as possible, grateful to have avoided catastrophe.
But some people didn’t have the choice of moving on. Thousands of Sarasota residents were without power for a week or more, and some homeowners sustained thousands of dollars of damage from fallen trees.
Others were lucky enough to elude major damage, but couldn’t ignore family, friends or neighbors who were less fortunate.
So, even as Sarasota longed to put Irma in the past, the community refused to leave behind those in need. Residents offered shelter, collected supplies, donated time and money to provide relief to people the hurricane hit hardest.
This is a snapshot of just a fraction of the ways in which Sarasota came together to overcome Irma.
Bruce King hadn’t organized a large-scale charitable effort before, but seeing the destruction in the Florida Keys after Hurricane Irma, he knew he had to do something.
King, a sergeant with the Sarasota Police Department, lived in the Florida Keys for eight years before moving to Sarasota. He hadn’t lived there for 15 years, but his friends and neighbors still felt like family.
He decided to gather some supplies and travel down to the Keys to contribute where he could. Through charitable work he had done, he knew people who could provide some guidance. As King reached out to other people for advice, he found they were consistently eager to do even more than King was asking of them.
By Saturday, he was able to lead a convoy of three trailers and a semi-truck full of supplies down to the Keys. He wasn’t certain what he would find when he get down there, but he was determined to help.
“I was absolutely certain we were going to get devastated by Irma,” King said. “Fortunately, it missed us. Some other people were not so fortunate. That’s why I think it’s important.”
After the sky cleared on Sept. 11, Sarasota exhaled a collective sigh of relief. The worst of Hurricane Irma had missed Sarasota, but there was still work to do.
There were schools to clean, trees to clear, power to restore to 85% of Sarasota County residents.
And for Girls Inc. members, there were people to thank.
Girls Inc. members sat around long tables Monday afternoon expressing their gratitude to a number of local hurricane helpers.
Gov. Rick Scott, Florida Power & Light repair crews and Sarasota’s first responders were all represented on bright construction paper notes.Members also thanked restaurants that gave away food or opened their doors early to provide food to those without power.
Jamie Minton, the organization's director of initiatives for kindergarten through eighth grade, said she wanted the girls to be aware of the helpers in Sarasota’s community. After watching parents board up homes and buy hurricane supplies, Minton said she wanted the girls to see what comes after.
“The girls saw the stress of it, so they should see all the good that can come of something, also,” Minton said. “I wanted them to see how a community comes together in a time of crisis.”
For Ciera and Jesse Coleman, hurricane damage is strange.
Hurricane Irma spared their son’s handmade bird feeder attached to their house with a tattered piece of rope, but toppled the live oak on their front yard.
The pair evacuated with their two children, Calvin and Juniper, and returned to find the tree on top of their home.
“Coming back to the house in general was surreal,” Ciera Coleman said. “Pictures really don’t do it justice.”
At the very least, Sarasota Farmers Market Manager Phil Pagano got a sense of the damage when he saw the pictures on Facebook.
“So I thought it would be great to do something locally,” Pagano said.
Pagano hosted a fundraiser for the Coleman family on Sept. 16 to help pay their $3,500 insurance deductible. Ciera Coleman said it wasn’t particularly comfortable to be on the receiving end of charity, but she’s eager to pay it forward.
“(The market) deserves recognition,” she said. “I don’t know how to say thank you enough to them. They are always doing stuff to support the community. They really go above and beyond.”
The Gulf Coast has been no stranger to hurricanes this year. While Sarasota was preparing for Hurricane Irma’s landfall, Houston was still reeling from Hurricane Harvey.
During Irma, Rabbi Brenner Glickman of Temple Emanu-El evacuated to Houston to stay with extended family. He, along with his wife Elaine Glickman, passed out gift cards and toured a local synagogue damaged by Harvey.
“He spent much of our time here volunteering in a local shelter with people who have been displaced by Hurricane Harvey and distributing thousands of dollars in gift cards and donations to those in need,” his wife Elaine Glickman said.
For more than a week, thousands of workers from 30 states have descended on Robarts Arena nightly to get a meal.
It’s a brief respite from the 16-hour days linesmen have put in as they work with Florida Power & Light to restore power throughout Sarasota. The county fairgrounds is one of two FPL hubs in the city, a staging ground for an effort to return to normal after 218,000 customers lost power.
On Monday, workers were treated to an appearance from Edgar Hansen, a Sarasota resident and cast member on the reality show ‘Deadliest Catch.’ For the linesmen, it was a welcome reward for putting up with a grueling work schedule. For Hansen, it was an opportunity to show a token of gratitude for people who traveled from out of town to help Sarasota.
Dave Corrigan lives in Athens, Ohio, but got to Sarasota Sept. 11 — right after the storm hit. He said the importance of residents getting their power back has been palpable as he’s worked throughout the county.
“Everywhere we’ve been, they’ve been very receptive,” Corrigan said.
Although Sarasota missed the worst of Hurricane Irma, Hershorin Schiff Community Day School still had some work cut out for itself.
Community Day staff and volunteers chipped in to clean the playground, which was littered with debris from the storm.
