Deltona Strong nonprofit hopes to help residents with immediate needs in Ian's aftermath
As FEMA and its partners work to address 200,000-plus requests from Floridians and others devastated by Ian, a small nonprofit is looking to help residents of Volusia County's biggest city.
Deltona Strong, a grassroots community group, is collecting monetary donations and taking requests for assistance on the organization's website, Deltonastrong.org.
"We're focused on what we can do for our neighbors here in the city who are maybe needing something immediate," such as food, clothing and toiletries, Troy Shimkus, the nonprofit's president, said by phone Wednesday.
He said they also hope to provide temporary hotel stays to those whose homes flooded and now reek of raw sewage.
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"There's probably a gap in terms of what you can get from FEMA or the Red Cross when technically you have power, technically you have water, but the environment is such that you just need to be somewhere else," Shimkus said.
Deltona Strong's volunteers will be working directly with those requesting help to best get them what they need, Shimkus said, adding that it could mean a trip to Goodwill for clothing, a gift card for groceries or transportation to a site hosting donated items.
All of the transactions will be recorded and posted on the group's website, so that everyone can see where the donations are going.
The website currently shows the group spent $480 and change to buy food last Friday to provide meals to those without power.
Shimkus said a very small portion will go toward credit card processing fees but that all of the donations would otherwise go toward helping those in need.
Hurricane Ian flooded my house: What do I need to do now?
'No political boundaries'
Deltona saw widespread flooding when Ian hit the area as a tropical storm and dumped about a foot or more of water on the already wet city.
Officials said the amount of rainfall equated to a 100- to 200-year storm event.
During an update given during Monday's regular City Commission meeting, Ron Paradise, city's director of planning and development services, said they recorded 161 instances of flooding — which could include dwellings, yards and streets — and 761 instances of damage not related to flooding.
Deputy Public Works Director Phyllis Wallace said all 14 pump stations were operational and additional pumps were placed in problem areas to try and alleviate the flooding.
Wallace said what's making the mitigation more difficult is the fact communities throughout the Central Florida region and other parts of the state are dealing with much of the same.
Glenn Whitcomb, deputy utilities director, said Ian put to work the city's Eastern Water Reclamation Facility, which was designed with the capacity to manage one million gallons of wastewater daily.
From last Wednesday through Sunday, the plant saw between 1.43 million and 2.28 million gallons each day, Whitcomb said.
David Hamstra, principal and stormwater department manager with Pegasus Engineering, said Ian is the worst he's seen in 37 years working in the field.
"It knows no political boundaries," Hamstra said.
He said officials deemed it necessary to partly open a gate Saturday, ahead of emergency authorization from the St. Johns River Water Management District, that helps alleviate flooding in the Lake Theresa basin.
Over the past couple of decades, the city has made requests to open the outlet to alleviate high waters, but area residents have pushed back against seeing their natural water feature drained.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Deltona nonprofit helping immediate needs for residents after Ian's fury
