COOPER CITY, Fla. – When bands of Hurricane Ian came through and brought tornadoes to part of Broward County, it caused a lot of damage, especially for small farms in the area.
A week later, some places are still cleaning up.
Mandy Restrepo runs Hidden Gem Stables in Davie and shares land with Happi Farm, both of which saw a lot of damage.
“It looked like a war zone, but I could get through and make sure all of the horses were good,” Restrepo said.
It was a similar scene at the Fragata Family Farm in Cooper City, where Local 10 News spotted their animals looking for any dry ground they could.
“It’s sad to see them on one square foot of land and trying to find a place and be content,” said Leysi Espinel with Fragata Family Farm.
Espinel said the sight broke her heart, and both she and Restrepo said they’ve spent every day since doing what they could to clean up.
Now they both say they need just one thing from their community to get fully back to normal: extra sets of hands.
“Really, volunteers is the biggest thing to be able to rebuild,” said Espinel.
“What we need is hands,” added Restrepo. “Hands on to help to see if they can help move the debris up the front because nobody can help bring it off property.”
The thing that all of them said to Local 10 News was that they know their damage doesn’t even hold a candle to the devastation over on the west coast, but what they do need are volunteers, hands, people to help them clear some of the debris out and off of their properties.