Saturday marked one year since severe storms and tornadoes ripped through Tallahassee, devastating some neighborhoods and leaving a deep scar in parts of the community.
In the days following the storms, chainsaws buzzed through the streets as neighbors helped neighbors. Among them were people like Alistair Rowe, who worked with a group of Rotary Club members to help clean up mounds of storm debris.
"If we can get everybody out helping, we can recover and be more resilient for the next storms that hit us,” Rowe told WFSU.
In some cases, that's been true—the debris has been swept up, fallen trees hauled away, and holes in roofs patched. In others, 12 months later, recovery remains a long way off.
One of those places is the Mystic Woods condo complex off Pensacola Street.
WFSU spoke with residents there in the days after the storm, as some residents were loading up U-Hauls with the remnants of their belongings. Pine trees had crashed through the roofs of many of the units or fallen farther, smashing cars. Keith Neely was one of the residents there at the time. He was a renter, but said he didn't have renters' insurance and didn't have anywhere to go.
“I just paid my rent," he told WFSU. "I’m trying to figure out how they’re going to assist us. We need some assistance here, we need somewhere to live, to rectify this stuff."
Fast forward to today, and residents at Mystic Woods say recovery has barely begun. Katherine Helms owns one of the condo units. She says five trees fell on her home during the storm.
“Now I’m here a year later. I’m living with my aunt at her house and living in her bedroom—just a small little bedroom," Helms said.
Helms says her home still isn’t habitable—in part because of what she says are ongoing insurance issues. She says every condo owner at Mystic Woods is on the hook for thousands of dollars to repair damage to the exterior of the buildings.
“And then I have to get my house mold checked. I have to get the walls repainted. They have to rip down my walls because of mold, probably. Water was pouring through my electrical," Helms said. "So it’s pretty damaged.”
The move has meant Helms has been forced to significantly reduce her small business that she used to run out of her home—making money tight as she stares down what looks to be a long road to recovery.
