United Way of South Sarasota County in need of storage for storm relief supplies, building materials
VENICE, Fla. - A small fraction of items needed for continued home recovery following hurricane Ian are being stored on site in Venice.
"One of the houses we are getting ready to start in 2 weeks, this doesn’t even start to make a dent," said John Livingston, Disaster Recovery Construction Manager for United Way South Sarasota County.
Nearly two years after Hurricane Ian hit, he still has more than 100 homes on his construction list, with little space for storing supplies.
"We have two pods and the truck right behind me for storage space. If I’m prepping for 11 houses and two of them are down to the studs, we need warehouse space," Livingston told FOX 13.
The pods and truck were donated and give the group about 500 square feet of storage. The group already has donations waiting and needs a space with up to 5,000 square feet of storage.
"We have great partners. We have Good360, Restore Global, Convoy of Hope who are all willing to donate materials, but we have nowhere to store them locally. Our closet one is way south of us where they have a warehouse and to transport back and forth is near impossible," said Chief Operating Officer Chris Johnson.
A two-and-a-half to three hour round trip to retrieve furniture or a few construction items puts United Way of South Sarasota County behind schedule. Finding a place to store materials has been next to impossible.
"We’ve checked with the country, we’ve checked with the cities. We’ve checked with independent places. What happened is after the storm, so much of the storage space that was available was damaged, especially in south county, so we found that anything we were going to try and find was at prime prices that we couldn’t afford," said Johnson.
As the Long Term Recovery Group prepares for this hurricane season, they are hopeful someone can answer their calls for help.
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"It would be phenomenal if somebody could see it in their heart to help United Way of South Sarasota County. It’s not just helping us, but it’s helping the community become whole and more resilient," said Livingston.
To help United Way of South Sarasota County, you can contact John Livingston at 651-235-1912 or email jlivingston@uwssc.org or cjohnson@uwssc.org.
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