Tornado recovery slow for some

The tornado lasted just five minutes. But, a month later, many home and condo owners are just starting to see relief from the damage resulting from the Jan. 17 storm that cut a 1.14-mile path through Siesta Key  and part of the mainland. 

The result is a neighborhood  with roofs still dotted with blue tarps and a condo where more than one-third of residents are still displaced.

At Excelsior Beach to Bay condominiums on Siesta Key, 58 of its 166 units remain uninhabitable, according to manager Dan Watnem. Rebuilding is likely to stretch into the spring and even summer for some units.

Two of the condo’s buildings bore the brunt of the storm's damage. 

Building 7, where 24 units remain uninhabitable, will have its roof replaced, according to Watnem. 

Building 5, where 34 units cannot be occupied, has a temporary roof in place that will eventually be made permanent. Units on Building 5’s top floor remain in various stages of renovation.

Power to those buildings still has to come from generators.

Watnem said insurance companies require extensive documentation to process claims. Thousands of pictures were needed from the inside of damaged units.

“That in itself is a monumental task,” he said. “There’s a lot of processes people don’t know about — engineering, information gathering, inspections and county permitting.”

And all that must be completed before work can start and residents can re-enter homes.

For full-time residents, of course, that means finding other accommodations. For others, it may mean longer stays up North or a loss of rental income.

Watnem said roof and other repairs to Building 7 would start the week of Feb. 22. He hopes residents can return by April.

And for Building 5?

“Honestly, we don’t know," Watnem said. "We’re hoping by July.”

On the mainland, Ridgewood Lane resident Terry Castleberry’s roof sustained minimal damage. It has not been fixed, but it’s still weatherproof.

Castleberry’s home needs more than $25,000 in repairs. Adjusters from her insurance company came to the unit right away, she said. Once those adjusters submit a report, homeowners receive an estimate from their insurance companies, and then it's up to homeowners to get contractors in place for repairs.

She described the process as a "mixed bag" for her neighborhood.

“I’m hearing some frustration out there,” Castleberry said. “Initially, things went really fast. At the beginning, the adjusters came, the county came and cleaned up. Then, things slowed down. It’s never going to be as fast as you want it to be, but it’s reasonable.”

Another Ridgewood Lane resident, Greg Huffman, said that two companies estimated it will take between one to four months to repair the 25-square-foot area of his roof damaged by an oak limb. At press time he was still waiting for final estimates of the damages.

Viva Reinhardt, who lives down the street from Huffman and Castleberry, saw more significant damage to her home.

“I’m basically living in a cave,” she said. 

Many of her windows are still boarded up, so the house is always dark inside. Her back room, where part of the ceiling fell in, is cordoned off from her kitchen by a plastic tarp where someone wrote “under construction” and drew a smiley face.

Reinhardt, 87, has heat, but the tornado sucked insulation out of her home.

“It’s freezing here at night,” she said.

She received an 11-page itemized list from her adjuster detailing $45,900 worth of damage.

Reinhardt said she was frustrated that one month after the storm, she has to contend with broken windows and a damaged roof. For now, though, she’s still focused on the positive.

“I’m not going to complain,” she said. “I’m inside and have a table light, and the plumbing works.”