Holiday Park's bounce-back

NORTH PORT — Holiday Park, a community of mobile homes off of Tamiami Trail, had more than 300 homes destroyed by Hurricane Ian.

A total of 57 new homes rolled into the community in the two years after. But a number of empty lots, where homes used to be, remain.

A group of community trustees and staff members shared Holiday Park's Hurricane Ian story with The Daily Sun.

UNRECOGNIZABLE

"It's night and day nowadays,” said Shawn Slattery, a board member.

He moved in to the park 11 days before Hurricane Ian wreaked havoc on the area, Sept. 28, 2022.

Like many, he left town and came back home after the storm with his fingers crossed, praying to still have a home.

Slattery said that though some were lucky, of their 800-odd homes, more than 300 were blown to bits.

And the damage did not stop there.

Various amenities and other features were bent, snapped or destroyed.

Trustee Jim Oliver said he knows the park like the back of his hand. But after Ian, it was unrecognizable.

Debris scattered the streets of Holiday Park and original areas of note were so damaged that Oliver got lost navigating while probing the park.

The community just recently celebrated its 50-year anniversary and — since it was built, a damaging storm had never happened. Oliver said he and residents even spoke about a native burial ground, claiming there was a thought that it protected them from violent storms.

Ian, with little regard for such a notion, infiltrated anyway.

Over eight hours of 140-mile-per-hour winds and scattered tornadoes crushed homes like soda cans, and Oliver said that some of the homes destroyed had been in the park for decades.

One of the homes destroyed was that of Architectural Control Committee member Tim Seelow.

He lost his house just six weeks after moving in.

Ian's wrath was seismic. But it was no match for the togetherness of Holiday Park.

'WE STICK TOGETHER'

After Ian, entities from outside the gate, like the city of North Port, a sister community, and The American Red Cross, came to the rescue.

But so, too, did each and every neighbor in Holiday park.

Seleow said the community came together to clear the wreckage for trucks to get in.

They also helped their neighbors.

Community members alike were either doing manual labor or making food, getting gasoline or doing water runs.

Even those they did not expect to chip in did so, Oliver said.

Elderly ladies drove around and let people sit in their car for cool air, and also gave out ice cold water as the sun beat down on Ian's victims. The less social neighbors even sprung to action as well.

Palm Bay, their sister park on the other side of the state, also came to the rescue and put together a caravan of essentials, including ones people forget about, like deodorant.

"This community is fantastic. We stick together,” Oliver said. “I was overwhelmed by the amount of help.”

SOME EMPTY LOTS REMAIN

Trustee John Rabideau gave a tour of Holiday Park to see what it looks like today.

He spoke about the aftermath of Ian and how life goes on nowadays.

Ian is merely a memory now. Residents are more concerned with daily life and the upcoming "winter olympics," a set of games including bocce ball, where community members compete against one another.

Rabideau had little damage to his house that he has lived in since 2012. But multiple homes just across the street were wiped off of Holiday Park's map.

That area, like many others across the park, are now just empty lots.

Some still have the fading memory of a gravel driveway remaining, while others have been taken over completely by lush, green grass.

His next-door neighbor, too, lost their roof. The roof-damaged house, luckily for them, still remains as well.

Rabideau, like many locals, had to stay at North Port High School during the storm.

Coming home afterwards was scary, but he still does not know what he and others who kept their home did to be so lucky.

Ian, Rabideau said, was peculiarly selective in Holiday Park.

Some homes were ravaged while others were left alone completely. He thinks tornadoes caused by the storm could be an explanation for the odd selectiveness.

BOLSTERED BEAMS, CEMENTED FENCES

Rabideau, tucked under his Vietnam veteran hat, rolling around on his golf cart, said Holiday Park has had a number of revamps with Ian in mind.

A jet-black fence wrapping around the community is cemented in, rather than sledgehammered in to the sandy soil.

Canopies and other amenities were also tended to, while new homes trickled in, filling some empty lots.

But an abundance of people gave up on living somewhere like North Port out of fear of another storm coming, he said. They moved away and will likely never come back after such a traumatizing turn of events.

He, however, loves where he lives.

With some medical conditions, the 79-year-old said the Florida heat is good for him. He will simply have to live with the storms that come as an unwanted side.

Rabideau and others are thankful that their tightly knit community still remains, in spite of Ian's best efforts.

“I couldn’t figure out why we were so blessed," Rabideau said.