Widespread damage in Englewood, but kindness of strangers sees woman find her mom
Alexandra Paulin hadn't heard from her parents for nearly 24 hours. She needed to see them to make sure they were OK.
"We were unable to text or call or anything," she said.
When she got to Prospect Avenue and Winchester Boulevard in Englewood, waist-deep flood waters made the task to get back to her parents even more difficult.
But a man with an airboat waited at the edge of the flooded street just over the county line between Charlotte and Sarasota.
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Scott declined to give his last name to a Herald-Tribune reporter, but he spent most of Thursday taking people on his airboat to and from loved ones cut off from their families.
"There's a lot of people doing a lot more than me," he said, before leaving with another person searching for family.
With emotion in her voice, Paulin expressed gratitude toward the airboat owner who drove her right up to her parent's home. While water surrounded her parent's home and the shed had been destroyed, they were safe.
"Sometimes you just have to hug your mom," she said.
South Sarasota County hammered by Ian: Roofs torn off, poles toppled
Damage from Hurricane Ian got progressively worse the farther south one traveled in Sarasota County.
For example, trees in Venice still retained leaves, some manufactured homes had only damaged roofs and flooding was limited to certain areas.
But in Englewood, metal utility poles toppled to the ground, several marinas had roofs torn off and more trees had been stripped of leaves.
Don Mendenall, 79, walked shirtless though Oak Grove, a mobile home park in Englewood. HIs lanai had been smashed by a large tree, but the rest of the home was untouched.
Despite the damage, Mendenall appeared to be thankful the tree hadn't hit his home in another spot.
"It's a miracle because nothing inside the unit has been damaged," he said.
Sylvia Giusta, also a resident of Oak Grove, said she weathered the hurricane from her manufactured home.
She said it didn't sound all that bad during the storm but once she surveyed the park it became clear just how catastrophic the damage had been.
"I look at all of this and I want to cry," she said.
A couple of miles south on State Road 775, Jake and Nick Steinfeth surveyed the near collapse of A1 Collision and Glass of Englewood, an automotive repair location founded by the Steinfeth family in the 1970s.
Jake Steinfeth declined to comment on the damage, waiting for his father and owner of the business to arrive. He did wade into the wreckage to pull tools out.
A FEMA task force from Virginia looked through damage at Palm Harbor Marina a short distance away from A1 Collision and Glass.
Daryl Funaioch, one of two task force leaders, said his group of 45 people traveled from Hampton Roads, Virginia to give aid.
He said that Virginia Task Force 2 includes rescue and search technicians as well as doctors. They also have two search dogs.
"We can handle just about any event we come across," he said.
Funaioch said they were in southern Sarasota County to help search the barrier islands with three crews. In total, FEMA had five 45-people teams in the area.
He noted that his team was bringing in another roughly 40 people from Virginia.
"Right now, we are focusing on the hardest hit areas," he said.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Hurricane Ian brings destruction to Englewood, Florida
