A Manatee County family is cleaning up after a tornado touched down on their property near Myakka City.
But now they have another problem to worry about.
Flooding.
Debbie Rhoden gave us a look at the damage on her property.
Her 15 acre lot is now littered with fallen tree limbs, but that’s not what she wanted to show us.
Her property looks like a swamp, and that’s a problem.
“You can see [the Manatee River] coming out of the banks. Its flooding out,” said Rhoden.
This week’s downpours have led the Manatee River to flood.
Water has submerged much of her property and she has to watch for alligators.
“The alligators do come closer. So yeah, I try to look out for my dogs and cats because I have had one eaten by a gator before,” said Rhoden.
This family has been dealt with quite a blow. They have tornado damage, flooding, and if that’s not enough, they had a brief hail storm Friday morning.
“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh what else is going to happen,’ you know?” said Rhoden.
So now, the cleanup begins, and these crews have to be very careful.
“A broken limb will kill you. Anything bigger than six inches will really do some damage,” said Saul Franco with Pete & Ron’s Tree Service.
The mess won’t be cleaned up overnight.
“Its horrific. It’s really horrific to think about how we’re going to get all this done. I figure it’ll take me two years, probably three years to start looking normal again,” said Rhoden.
The family doesn’t mind the mess and the water because at the end of the day, no one was hurt.
