Determined to rebuild, Florida residents begin cleanup

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Leslie Hudson reports that despite the destruction from Helene, officials, including Treasure Island Mayor Tyler Payne, are determined to rebuild. The community remains hopeful.

Transcript

00:00Julie Diaz is on a mission.

00:02She walked eight miles from her home in Treasure Island to St. Pete on the mainland

00:07to pick up what few cleaning supplies she could carry on foot.

00:11The trip took nearly four hours under a sweltering sun.

00:14Hurricane Helene sent a nearly seven-foot storm surge

00:18throughout the Barrier Islands in western central Florida.

00:21When we looked out the front door and the water started rising

00:24because the intercoastal is over here as well.

00:27Officials say this area has never seen a surge of water this high in over 102 years.

00:33We are in such unique circumstances out here that they have to treat us differently.

00:39So that's why they're bringing this very advanced mobile command center out to the beaches.

00:44Drone video shows the scope of Helene's impact.

00:47Roads have turned into a sea of sand dunes,

00:49making most of the transportation in and out of this area impossible.

00:54Sunset Beach is considered one of the hardest hit of these popular Barrier Islands.

00:59It's, you know, not just my house, it's the whole entire island as a whole.

01:03It's everyone's home that has, you know, any living space on the first floor.

01:08Everybody's in the same boat.

01:09In Pinellas County alone, there's at least 19,000 homes

01:13that are heavily damaged or had significant impacts from Helene's storm surge.

01:18But the mayor is determined to spread hope across his hurricane-tattered community

01:23in the coming weeks and months.

01:25My heart is broken for our community.

01:29We'll get through this together and we will rebuild the city.

01:33For AccuWeather, I'm Leslie Hudson reporting.

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