SARASOTA, Florida – After flooding left homes in Laurel Meadows inaccessible for nearly a week, Friday is a new day for many.

Although the houses are still flooded, most of the water has drained away.

Like so many of their neighbors, the Gregory family returned home to see the damage Debby had caused.

“I feel terrible. I’ve just been crying, I don’t know where to start,” said Kim Gregory. “All my beautiful furniture, all the things that we take time to pick out and put together and spend money on – all gone.”

The last time Kim Gregory saw the inside of her house, she had to kayak right into her living room.

“I drifted in here, literally on a kayak, and couldn’t get out. I just broke down and cried my eyes out,” she said.

Fortunately, no kayak was needed for the return trip on Friday.

But she returned to an unrecognizable version of her dream home.

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“I loved that bedroom and miss it so much. There is so much space. We have two big closets, a beautiful bathroom, a walk-in shower. This was our dream house,” she said, showing us what’s left of her bedroom.

There was water in every room. Kim remembers opening cabinets and water pouring out. Water pipes are now leaving stains on walls and furniture in the house and by the pool.

“I only built this patio in February and decorated it beautifully with great plants and furniture. I spent a lot of money on it in April. And now it’s just filled with poop.”

Their cars are gone too. The Corolla parked in front of it may still look good now, but at some point it was almost completely submerged in floodwater.

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Even baby photos are ruined by this.

“We lost all our baby photos when me and Greg (her husband) were little. That was hard. That was really hard. I like to think back on those, especially now that I have a granddaughter, and I want to see where I was and where my daughter is.”

The Gregorys are worried about the future, and for good reason.

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“We need financial support from the government, from FEMA and from everyone else. I personally and many of my neighbors feel that when the news stops reporting on this, they will forget about us and we won’t get the help we need. And we need that help,” she said.

We have presented your concerns to State Representative James Buchanan.

“I want to thank the person who asked you that question, because that’s a question that’s on a lot of people’s minds today and will continue to be,” he said. “I’m in close contact with our colleagues at the local and state level. Of course, we need to find out exactly what happened and deal with it. But the first thing we need to do is make sure people have a place to go and that they can get back on their feet.”

We continued to talk about the big concern of this neighborhood: that this is not a flood zone, despite the enormous amount of standing water. Nearly a week later, there is still standing water in Laurel Meadows.

Rep. Buchanan says he is working to get a consistent data point for flooding across the state.

“What we need, and I’ve been working on this for a number of years, is consistent data points across the state, not just in terms of the low-lying areas like we can see on an elevation survey or a FEMA map of where those low-lying areas are, but we also need to know how the water flows through a basin and through our state, and that needs to be not just within local jurisdictions, but statewide and interconnected.”

Representative Buchanan believes this will help alleviate problems such as those in the Laurel Meadows neighborhood.

“So we can make informed decisions and decisions about how the water is moving. And also, local governments can use this data to make important decisions about the most vulnerable communities and how to protect them. It could also influence development decisions in certain areas. The legal framework for this is already in place. It’s just now being implemented through some of these flood hazard assessments that local governments have started. And that’s one of those things in a case like ours. We need to find out what happened, whether there was any failure at any level and give people a sense of security because that’s important,” he added.

But for people like the Gregorys who need immediate help, Buchanan has this to say.

“Please ask them to contact our office at 941-429-4560.”

On Friday, Governor Ron DeSantis released an update on the state’s response to Hurricane Debby, which included “Activate Hope.”

Activate Hope provides Florida residents with resources for groceries, household supplies, home repairs, etc. Anyone seeking assistance through Activate Hope can fill out this form.