This New Bedford custodian put his skills to work for Hurricane Ian victims — here's how

NEW BEDFORD — "Yup, I remember," New Bedford resident Anthony Lessa Jr. said of Hurricane Bob, estimating he was about 5 or 6 years old when the Category 3 storm ravaged the SouthCoast in 1991. "That's what got me interested in the weather."

That's why the longtime Red Cross volunteer — now 35 — was already well up-to-speed on Hurricane Ian by the time he got called down to Florida to assist people as they dug out from the rubble the Category 4 storm left in its wake.

"I'm on the disaster action team, so I'm on a list of names and when they need people somewhere, they'll call you up to see who's available," he said.

Lessa arrived in Florida on Oct. 1, just behind Ian's exit, touching down in Orlando before making his way to Fort Myers where he'd spend the majority of his two-week deployment — something he's used all his vacation time from work to be able to do. Up until his return home on Friday, Lessa had been staying with other volunteers at a FEMA camp there, which has been serving as a base of operations for — among other things — collecting, organizing and bringing truckloads of supplies to places where they are badly needed.

"There's gotta be thousands," he said when asked about the number of volunteers and others — including military personnel — sharing the space at the sprawling tented camp and outside work areas. "It takes a couple days but I'm used to it by now," Lessa said from Fort Myers last week on his day off — the first he'd had after about a week of traveling and working 10-hour shifts. "You have to walk everywhere — it's about a mile to get to the chow hall. So yeah, I'm definitely getting my steps in."

Halloween countdown is on!: New Bedford ranked No. 2 for 'Most Ghost Sightings' in Massachusetts. This might be why.

Work away from work

During his time in Florida, Lessa's primary charge was helping run logistics for the camp — something his work background lends itself to nicely, he said, mentioning his role as building custodian for the city of New Bedford's Department of Facilities and Fleet Management. "A lot of my job as a building custodian is keeping track of supplies and things like that. There's always a lot of organization going on ... so I'm used to this kind of work," he said. "A lot of people think we don't do much work as building custodians but there's a lot that goes on."

A lot of the work in Florida, Lessa said, was packing up the supplies and loading them into the many moving trucks stationed at the site to be brought to various locations. "We do at least 20 trucks a day .... It takes about a half-hour-45 minutes per truck depending how fast the team is," he said, noting team-sizes of about 15-20 volunteers.

See the national coverage: These 3 factors proved critical – and deadly – in Florida's preparation for Hurricane Ian

At times, Lessa also pitched in on delivering the supplies to their destinations, making trips to a number of the hardest-hit communities throughout the state's western coastal region — including Tampa, Port Charlotte, Sanibel and Tampa — bringing him face-to-face with Ian's aftermath. Supplies included everything from cases of water, diapers and food, to trash bags and snow shovels for removing the rubble inundating homes inside and out.

"You see houses off their foundations; houses going sideways, upside-down; stuff from people's houses all piled up on the sides of the streets waiting to be picked up by the trash people — you can't even drive the street half the time because the vehicles can't fit through," he said. "One guy I was talking to started crying, so I gave him a hug. I felt bad for him. For the most part, he lost everything."

Spark of curiosity leads to life of volunteerism

Lessa said he's been a Red Cross volunteer now for 20 years — something that started as a teenager after witnessing a fire at his neighbor's home.

"I saw the Red Cross over there helping people and I was curious about what they were doing, so that's how I got interested," Lessa said. "They ended up sleeping at my house instead of a hotel."

Since then, Lessa has responded to many local emergencies with the Red Cross — and with New Bedford Emergency Management, which he is also on call with as a volunteer — as well as more well-known national disasters like Hurricane Ian. "My last one before this was Hurricane Harvey in Houston, and then my first one was Hurricane Sandy."

New Bedford on-screen: AMC starts filming a series in New Bedford. Here's everything you need to know this week.

Being a relatively seasoned witness to disaster-struck places, Lessa said he didn't find what he saw in Florida recently to be completely shocking; however out of all the communities he's been in over the past two weeks, he calls Fort Myers the most severe, at least in his by-sight estimation. "The palm trees are all dead, the wires are down, traffic lights are out, roadblocks — all that good stuff," Lessa said.

"Unless you saw it, you wouldn't believe the devastation at Fort Myers Beach," said New Bedford native Donald Lavimoniere, who lives in Fort Myers for most of the year. "There was a pier and a restaurant there where we used to take guests and visitors because it was a perfect location, right next to the pier looking out at the sunset. It's all gone now — there's just splinters and boards all over the place."

'People helping people'

Lavimoniere's luck throughout Hurricane Ian was two-fold in that his condominium was spared the devastation seen around his community, and he happened to be away in Massachusetts when the storm hit. "The most damage I have is some shingles off the roof," he said, also mentioning an outdoor light he was able to repair himself.

Lavimoniere, 92, arrived back in Fort Myers on Monday after cutting his trip short to start the journey home by car. "I have no base in Massachusetts anymore; my home is here now, so getting back was a priority," he said on Friday, noting his decision to leave was met with protests of family members worried about him being on the road alone. "I happen to be the head of my family so if I say I can drive, I can drive," he laughed.

Lavimoniere said by the time he got back to Fort Myers, power had been restored to his area and stores appear to be stocked with plenty ofessential items. The biggest inconvenience, he said, has been dealing with water contamination, having to boil water before use for the first few days. "They canceled that order two days ago, but now the problem we've been trying to solve amongst ourselves has been, well, the water is bad, it's in the system — how do we get it out?" he said. "What I did was I ran the bathtub, ran the dishwasher and ran the clothes washer to flush those things out, so I'm hoping it'll be OK."

He would have come home to another problem if it hadn't been for a caring neighbor who happened to have a key to his condo and rescued the food from his freezer while power was out. Lavimoniere says his is just one example of "people helping people" among many he's been hearing about.

Controversy at ORR?: ORR has been asked to ban several books on gender, race issues. Here's what we know.

"I'm on a Zoom call right now with a group, and that's what everyone has been talking about — all these stories of people helping people," he said. "So many people's places are not habitable so others are putting them up at their homes, everyone is doing what they can — it's really been wonderful."

Despite any help, both Lavimoniere and Lessa said it will be a while before life truly gets back to normal in Florida's hardest-hit communities.

"Unless you have a place to stay, coming down here would not be a good idea," Lavimoniere said, noting hotels appeared to be at capacity between those who lost their homes and visitors who now have limited lodging options.

"It's going to be years," Lessa said. "Right now the priorities are rebuilding infrastructure, so utility lines, telephone poles and all that stuff. But for someone who lost their house, it's going to be rough."

How to help

If you are interested in volunteering with the Red Cross, visit redcross.org. For information on volunteering with New Bedford Emergency Management, visit www.newbedford-ma.gov/emergency-management or contact Director Brian Nobrega at 508-961-3060.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: New Bedford custodian puts skills to work for Hurricane Ian victims