JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Some people in the Jacksonville area are still dealing with the effects of a strong storm that blew through the region this weekend.
In Spring Park, a massive oak tree fell and left a family with nowhere to go this holiday season.
The tree crushed the air conditioning unit and fell across the backyard. Thankfully, it missed the house, but now the issue is the septic tank. A woman who lives in the home said her family now has to be out by the end of the week.
Sandralyn West’s backyard was still a mess on Monday as crews worked to clear debris.
“I just heard a loud, loud bang, like the house was coming up out of the ground or something,” West said. “This big giant tree landed and had crushed the air conditioner like a piece of paper.”
The damage spanned her backyard and even mangled the chain link fence on the opposite side of the house.
The concern now is sanitation, and the possibility of sewage rising to the surface of the yard and possibly backing up through the plumbing into the house.
“It’s Christmas time, you know,” West said. “I have big plans to cook a big dinner for my family and for my other grandkids that come over to see me during the holidays, and all of that stuff. And now all this stuff has been canceled because I can’t cook. I can’t do it.”
But the damage is doing more than just uprooting her family’s holiday plans, it’s also uprooting her family.
“I’ve asked them to give me some time because I have no money. I have nowhere to go,” she said.
She said within a matter of days, they need to be out of the home. That includes her grandkids and her brother.
“He is disabled, and I’m disabled, too,” West said.
She’s now scrambling to find what for many people, would be something of a Christmas miracle in Jacksonville these days — an affordable place to rent.
“It’s been a good house, a great home for me and my grandkids for six years…and it’s heartbreaking. You know, it makes me want to cry because I don’t know where to go right now. I don’t know what we’re gonna do,” West said.
She said her landlord has been great and she feels blessed no one was hurt. But she said their maximum budget for rent is $1,000. Meanwhile, the median rent is about $1,600 a month in Jacksonville.