CLEARWATER BEACH, Fla. (WFTS) — The doors to the many Clearwater Beach businesses are open, but for the majority of these shops, not to the public.
At Toucan's, Maddie Sanders worked to clean up her job.
"Everything that's just been touched with water, we have to throw out. It smells," she said. "People don't realize it's not just salt water. It's, you know, the sewage backs up, like, it's nasty water, like, everything that's in it, we got to toss it so it's a big loss."
She's is a waitress at the beach restaurant dealing with the same issue that virtually every business on the beach is.
"Pretty much everything has to be pitched. I mean, the coolers turned off. I mean, you have the fridges at home. Okay. Now, imagine the fridge in a restaurant. All that food's got to be thrown out. I mean, beer bottles thrown out, beer cans thrown out, liquor thrown out, furniture thrown out, just everything is like total loss," she added.
With so many businesses in the same boat, help is imperative.
"Amplify Hope is an initiative that we founded back during Hurricane Ian, that we ran through our 501-C3 when our neighbors to the south were just decimated with Hurricane Ian, and we raised dollars from our community to support the Chambers of Commerce and business community to the south of us in Lee County, and so it made a lot of sense that as Hurricane Helene took its toll on our community, that we re-launched that initiative to support our own right here at home," Amanda Payne said.
Payne is the CEO of Amplify Clearwater. The donation project is aimed to help the people now in need because of that Hurricane.
"They can ask for any amount of money, you know, we may not be able to meet all of the asks, but certainly we'll prioritize it in immediate need and how much we can be effective in that assistance. So it's a very simple application," she explained.
Applications for the assistance launched Friday. That also includes a link to donate.
"In a lot of personal donations, it's just heartwarming, because we talk about the companies that are wanting to help our communities, which is amazing, but then it's those individuals as well that are just grief-stricken, alongside those that have lost everything and want to donate in any way that we can," she said.
The Phillies are helping, as well as other businesses and industries with the ability to help.
100% of that money goes to impacted Clearwater residents and business owners.
That's especially important to the businesses and its employees working hard to get back up and running.
"You make good money being a waitress or a server. I mean, the tourism that comes down here, it brings good money to you. I mean, I live off of it, and I live well. And without it, it's pretty rough. It's pretty rough. So we'll come back, though, for sure."
If you want to donate or apply for assistance, you find the information here.
A state report says hundreds of frail elderly nursing home residents were stacked side by side, head to toe in a small church with no working air conditioning or refrigerator during Hurricane Helene.
