HUDSON, Fla. – A plastic container with a stranger’s Christmas decorations floated into Barbara J. Gibbs’s property. There was also an abandoned red life vest on the grass right next to the muck left behind on Thursday.
Gibbs evacuated to avoid Hurricane Idalia, but its storm surge caused major flooding. The dirty water invaded her home in Hudson, a community at the westernmost end of Florida’s Pasco County.
The damage she found was so severe that the house was no longer safe to live in, and she was trying to salvage what was left behind.
Related story: Florida men took action when firefighters couldn’t respond to fire during Hurricane Idalia
“We have taken out what we can today, and boxed everything up, got a storage unit,” Gibbs said. “I don’t know how I am going to replace it.”
Gibbs and other residents at a loss said they were grateful that the powerful high-end Category 3 hurricane had only damaged their property.
“It’s things. At the end of the day, I am OK,” Gibbs said.
Related story: Hurricane Idalia storm surge moves mobile homes, collapses walls in Steinhatchee
The Florida Highway Patrol reported there were two weather-related fatal crashes hours before the hurricane made landfall on Wednesday morning.
Idalia spun fast up the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and into The Big Bend area of Florida with a storm surge estimated to be up to 15 feet high. According to the National Hurricane Center, Idalia is the first strong storm to hit The Big Bend region since Hurricane Easy in 1950.
Related story: Cedar Key residents return to island
Location