Bay Pines residents still rebuilding as hurricane season nears: 'It was like a resort'
BAY PINES, Fla. - In the Harbor Lights Club, a waterfront mobile home community in Bay Pines, the scars from Hurricanes Helene and Milton remain painfully visible. Damaged homes, docks and boats sit collapsing and crumbling — eight months after the storms made landfall.
Local perspective:
"It was like a resort to be down there," said resident Victor Docherty. "It wasn’t just a community — it was a beautiful place to have a home."
Now, the peril of this paradise is clear.
"Several units that are still on the water are badly damaged," said Richard Tellone. "One in particular has two boats that are in the living room."
Dozens of homes in the park are now for sale, as some residents choose to leave rather than risk another season. For Barbara Tellone, the decision was easy: "I don’t ever want to live through a night like that again, and that sea wall looks very low to me."
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Another resident said, "with the threat of hurricanes and having to go through what we went through, we decided it was time to sell."
What they're saying:
But residents said the lingering damage is driving away buyers.
"Why has it taken them so long to have them removed and clean up that area?" Richard asked. "It doesn’t enhance the salability of our unit — or any of the other units — when you see this devastation that’s been lingering for eight months."
Most residents are retirees, many without insurance. Some believe that’s part of the reason for the delays.
"Most people are retired in the park," Richard said. "So they probably don’t want to deal with those costs. That’s why things are sitting, I imagine."
Others said FEMA rules and county paperwork may also be to blame.
"A lot of people didn’t jump on it at all," Barbara said. "They were just lost, and they kind of didn’t know which way to go. The city made things very complicated, and they didn’t really cope with the forms and everything they had to do."
Despite the uncertainty, some residents are choosing to stay — hoping to restore the community they love.
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"It’s just been a learning process for all of us," Richard said. "We all suffered a great deal in trying to get this thing accomplished."
The other side:
FOX 13 reached out to the park’s management and its property owners, Roots Management, regarding the cleanup delays. We did not receive a response.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13's Evyn Moon.
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