- July 24, 2025
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It was not the way Jimmy Gula wanted to be featured on the front page of the East County Observer.
But there he was in the Oct. 17, 2024, edition, standing in front of his Westwinds home, surveying the damage done by Hurricane Milton with the headline reading, "Blown Away."
Gula had lived in Lakewood Ranch for 20 years before making the move to East County's Westwinds 10 days before Milton made a direct hit on his neighborhood on Oct. 9. His wife Jeanmarie had died in 2021 and he wanted to downsize. A retired postman, Gula had delivered to the Westwinds community in East County and he fell in love with the neighborhood and the people.
In the photo, Gula was looking at a huge pile of rubble that had collected just outside his home. Part of the heap was his carport, which had been destroyed. The roof of his Florida room had been badly damaged and some windows in the back of his house had been blown out.
While he faced many thousands of dollars in damages (he didn't want to say the amount), he felt fortunate because he had stayed elsewhere when the hurricane hit so he did not risk injury.
Eight months later, Gula's contractor just finished repairs on his home in time for a new hurricane season in Florida.
"It has been (frustrating)," Gula said a week before the Atlantic hurricane season begins on June 1. "But I expected to be on a waiting list because so many homes needed to be fixed."
Gula, 70, signed with a contractor in November to do the repairs, but the workers didn't get to his house until earlier this month. He admitted he was getting nervous.
He would see workers from the company he had hired in his neighborhood, and would go to give them a nudge, hoping he would be next in line.
"I waited six months because the contractor was full up," he said.
While Gula admits to being "uneasy" as the next hurricane season approaches, he also believes Milton, which tied with Hurricane Rita (2005) in being the most intense hurricane ever recorded over the Gulf of Mexico, was a once in a hundred years storm. It had built to a Category 5, then fell to a Category 3 before following a straight line path out of the Gulf in hitting Manatee County.
"It took 102 years for that kind of a hurricane to hit us last year, a direct hit," he said. "The odds are that it won't happen again, but you don't know."
Gula was asked if now, eight months after Milton, he regrets moving to Westwinds.
"Absolutely not," he said. "It is very nice, and very quiet here. For me, it's conveniently located. I run the Home Plate Express concession at LECOM Park for the Pirates. In 20 minutes, I am at the ball park. Everything I need is around here."
But does he regret leaving Greenbrook, especially since Lakewood Ranch tends to weather storms well?
"I had lived in Lakewood Ranch for 20 years and my neighbors were fantastic," he said. "In Greenbrook, my house never had any problem with (storms). And I would admit that if I had come here a couple of weeks after (Milton), I would have said, 'I ain't buying this.'"
Even so, he is OK with his decision to move and is confident it will be smooth sailing from here.
His sister, Teresa Braud, lived just off Lockwood Ridge Road when Milton hit. She has since moved to the Austin, Texas suburbs.
"She said, "We've had it," Gula said. "But there is no thought in my mind about going back (to the Northeast)."
A week before hurricane season, Gula was checking on some insurance quotes for his home, but he wasn't confident he would be able to find anything that made sense. After selling his Greenbrook home a year ago, he had paid off his new Westwinds home and decided not to get the hurricane insurance because of the long term record of hurricanes not hitting directly in that area.
"Who knew a Category (3) hurricane would hit?" he said. "That was the last thing on my mind two weeks after moving here."
He thought he would get some help from FEMA, but that fell short of what he expected.
"I had a guy from FEMA come over here and walk around," he said. "I got $300 for the food I had to throw away. A month later, at the end of November, a guy from FEMA came out and took pictures. But they sent me $700."
That was only a tiny percentage of the money he paid out to fix the damages, but he chooses to look forward.
He wanted to spend more time talking about the willingness of people to step forward to help after the storm. He said one man, whose grandmother lived in the neighborhood, was driving past when he saw Gula looking at the pile of scrap next to home that had been blown off various homes in the neighborhood.
"I was thinking, 'How am I going to get this out of here,'" Gula said. "But he stopped and helped me clean everything out."
They moved all the debris to the street and the man was a huge help because he knew how to cut the electrical cable that was wrapped around some of the scrap.
"He was a guardian angel out of nowhere," Gula said. "I didn't even get the guy's name. I wish I could find out because I would like to take him to dinner. I did know that his son played baseball for Braden River High."
It only took a couple of weeks before all the debris was removed from the neighborhood.
Despite the financial hit, Gula said he feels fortunate.
"There are still a few houses in here that will get bulldozed," he said. "My basic structure wasn't damaged. (Following the hurricane) I was able to live here and I didn't have to live in a FEMA trailer."
Gula said he knows the construction standards have changed — his manufactured home was built in 1982 — and he feels the work he has had done on his home will make it better prepared to handle a hurricane such as Milton.
It will have to be since he isn't moving.
"I am going to be here until I get planted," he said.