HARDEE COUNTY, Fla. — The tree is beautifully lit. Beneath it, the presents are neatly wrapped. And the grandkids are joyfully playing football in the yard.
But on this Christmas weekend, something is missing for Denise Workman, and it’s something that brings the Zolfo Springs mother and grandmother to tears.
“We really want to go home,” she said. “Just want to go home.”
Home to Workman and her husband, Reggie, was a house near the Peace River in Zolfo Springs. It served as a beloved family gathering place for Thanksgivings and Christmases for decades.
“I wish you could have seen it. It was a yard full of kids, cars, family, even friends dropping by, you know,” she said.
Now, the doors are locked, the yard is empty and the whole neighborhood is eerily quiet thanks to Hurricane Ian.
In late September and early October, rain from Hurricane Ian flooded the nearby Peace River, and those floodwaters submerged dozens of homes along the river’s basin.
Workman’s home — which is elevated well above ground level — was inundated with roughly a foot of water. Because of water damage and the potential for mold, Workman says FEMA determined the home was a total loss.
Before the home flooded, Workman and her husband evacuated to a nearby family member’s home but were forced to evacuate again as even that home, which was located on higher ground, flooded.
During the historic flooding event, the gauge on the Peace River in Zolfo Springs reached a record 27.24 feet at Zolfo Springs. That measurement easily eclipsed a previous record set in 1933.
When the river level finally receded, ABC Action News was there as Workman and her husband returned to their home and realized it was uninhabitable. The floors were beginning to buckle and an unpleasant, moldy smell was already present.
“It’s almost like a death in the family. That’s what I would compare it to,” a tearful Workman said as she stood in what was the living room. “It’s just unbelievable.”
Roughly three months after Ian, Workman is still waiting for answers and for a payout from her insurance company. She says the waiting game is almost unbearable.
“We’re relying on God. We know He has a plan, and we know that He is going to see us through this. But the waiting — the waiting is really taking a toll on us,” she said. “I feel helpless. I totally feel helpless.”
But that’s not to say she has no help. She has generous children and grandchildren. In fact, she’s been living across town at her daughter’s house since the storm flooded her home.
It’s there where the family’s Christmas get-together is happening this year.
As the grandkids gather on the sofa to open an early gift, Workman can’t help but smile. She and her family are still together. They still have a place to smile about old memories and make new ones.
“You count your blessings a whole lot more than you did before," she said.
Still, she knows this Christmas won’t be the same.
“We’re going to make the best of it. We have to,” Workman said. “We have to.”