School organizes collection to help Florida families

By Samantha Sinclair

Staff Writer

Carnesville — After a night of crying, praying and feeling helpless, Norina South walked into Carnesville Elementary School and found her other family was already working on a plan to be helpful.

South, the school nurse at Carnesville, is originally from Florida, and most of her family was in the path of Hurricane Ian.

Principal Karen Correia, Assistant Principal Delina Wester and others in the school’s office and building knew, and were in the beginning stages of organizing a donation drive to directly help South’s family and others in their community.

In addition, School Secretary Kayla-Dale Moore supplied her with phone numbers to call to help her family.

“I was up pretty much all night Wednesday of the storm waiting for news, and the office staff just carried me through the next day,” South said. “I really can’t say enough about the office staff at CES and how they just jumped right into action to help not only my family, but others as well.”

South and her family are from the Sarasota and Manatee counties area.

A large part of her family lives in Myakka City, where she thinks Ian stalled with winds of 150 miles per hour.

The high winds were too rough for farm animals to survive and caused flooding from creeks and rivers in the area overwhelmed by the rain.

“There’s lots of needs out there,” South said.

After hitting Myakka, the storm then moved across the state and hit Volusia County, where her brother Matt lives, causing him to lose power and see damage.

Then, it went up the east coast to Virginia, where her daughter Kaylee is working at Virginia Tech, causing power outages and damage as well.

“That’s how strong that storm was,” South said.

The storm’s path was predicted to hit Florida north of where her family lives, and hit as weaker storm, so evacuation orders were not initially made for the area.

Plus, they live inland, and have never had to evacuate for a hurricane before, she said.

In fact, South’s mom drove a school bus for 35 years and was always the one in the past to volunteer to evacuate the islands, and because her father was a block mason, he and her brothers were always a part of the rebuilding and clean up on the islands.

The family planned to ride it out, just as they had for many other hurricanes throughout their lives.

Her family prepared for the possible effects of a hurricane, especially working hard to make sure her parents — her father is now a paraplegic and her mother uses a walker and has a pacemaker — had everything they needed.

Her brother Bucky was able to stay with their parents during the storm to take care of them and keep them safe.

At the last minute, the storm turned and kept getting stronger.

By the time the storm strengthened to a Category 4, nearly Category 5, the Veterans Administration hospitals (her father is an Army veteran) were evacuated and the shelters were closed.

South and her family members downloaded an app on which they could continue to communicate with each other if other means of communication were lost during the storm.

While driving home from school last Wednesday, she listened to the messages.

While stopped in a parking lot, she heard voice messages from her sister who lives 90 minutes inland – first at 6:01 p.m. that the roof was coming off her house, then at 6:57 p.m. that they were stranded (a barn blew out in front of them and tree fell behind them) after jumping in their truck to escape to a nephew’s house nearby.

“I had never in my life heard such fear and helplessness in anyone’s voice,” South said. “And, I sat there in my truck in Toccoa in the parking lot 600 miles away thinking I will never see my sister again.”

She shut down mentally and sat in her truck and cried.

“It was a very helpless feeling being 600 miles away,” she said.

She called her husband Mark hysterical, and he told her she knew what to do — pray.

“I did a lot of crying. I did a lot of praying,” South said.

For six hours, her sister and her husband sat in their truck as flood waters rose and started seeping in the vehicle and winds pounded.

A nephew finally found them and pulled them to safety.

To get in the house, they walked in chest-high water.

She has six nephews in Myakka, and every one of their houses and farms were damaged by the storm.

Her sister lost all her chickens.

Her parents lost power, and were without power for six days.

On one of the days during the past week, a man they had helped during another storm came on a bicycle to her parents’ house, and asked Bucky if there was anything they needed.

He worked on fixing their generator, then got two gallons of gas to get the generator going for them.

“He just showed up like an angel,” South said, believing all the blessings her parents gave to others over the years were returning.

She was stunned at the photos and videos her family sent her of the area.

“It looked like a war zone,” South said.

At first, all the media attention was on island towns devastated by the storm, and no attention was on Myakka, which remained flooded.

She started calling news organizations in the area, and the next day she saw not only reports, but people working to provide help.

And, she said the community is pulling together to help others, sharing food and meals while traveling from place to place in jon boats.

She feels blessed that everyone in her family survived, and is heartbroken over the death toll from the storm.

However, she knows the storm didn’t just damage property, as her sister has already said she will never stay in a storm again.

“We are fortunate and blessed, but I feel like, the medical in me feels like, there’s going to be a lot of PTSD,” South said.

She can’t say enough about what the Carnesville and Franklin County community is doing to raise money and collect supplies for her Florida family and community.

“I think it’s wonderful how Franklin County is pulling together … for a country town 600 miles away,” she said. “I work with some good people and I live in a good county.”

To help the victims in Florida affected by Hurricane Ian, Carnesville Elementary is collecting several items to send to the area.

Wester said the idea to help was a collective effort by the entire office staff.

Parents and students have been bringing in supplies, and one child came up to South in the hallway and told her that their family was praying for her family.

“They’re not just learning math and English here,” South said of the students.

Harbin Lumber is partnering with the school and is a secondary drop off location for the collection.

The Franklin County Fire Association, under the leadership of Joe Greene, is also helping, and providing the Carnesville Fire Department as a drop off location.

South’s husband Mark is the former chief of Red Hill Fire Department.

Carnesville Fire Department is also the central location where all donations will be gathered  and loaded on to a semi truck provided by Davis Transfer Company.

Other local businesses and organizations in the county, including Milford Tire and Auto Service and Ed Murdock Superstores, have offered assistance and donated supplies.

The deadline for donations is Friday, and once volunteer firefighters finish loading the trailer, it will head to Florida to deliver the supplies to Family Worship Center in Myakka to directly help families in the community.

She was told not one item would go to waste.

Items being collected include bug spray, baby wipes, baby formula, diapers, shampoo, body soap, mouthwash, feminine products, deodorant, toilet paper, toothbrushes, tarps, work gloves, disposable plates, disposable cups, disposable utensils, cleaning supplies, water, charcoal, bungee cords, bottle openers, hand crank can opener, flash lights/batteries, canned goods, non-perishable food, chargers, pet food and gas cans.

They are also collecting gift cards for stores available in the area, like Lowe’s, Walmart, Publix and Dollar General.

Since there are days off from school next week, South also plans to make a trip to Myakka and do whatever she can do to help in person.