CASSELBERRY, Fla. – Even though Seminole County was not directly hit by Hurricane Helene, families still felt the impact more than 200 miles away.
News 6 drove through Casselberry Friday morning and saw a few downed trees and branches. A spokesperson for the county says the damage was minimal, but there is some debris and power outages.
A large tree fell and damaged a duplex in a neighborhood near U.S. Highway 17-92 and Plumosa Ave. Both families who live there were inside at the time and are OK.
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Willie Johnson was in his bedroom watching a football game around 9 p.m. when he heard what sounded like an explosion.
“First I thought it was a transformer that blew,” said Johnson. “Then, I look up and there’s a tree on the roof.”
Johnson showed News 6 reporter Catherine Silver where the tree hit the back corner of the home and a power line.
“You can see it’s like a whole nightmare,” Johnson said as he took our crew inside.
His son’s room was also damaged, but luckily the young boy was not in his room at the time.
“You can see it tore right through the wall right here,” said Johnson. “Tore the ceiling fan. Tore up everything.”
Johnson showed us where he was standing when the roof caved in.
“This branch fell right beside me,” said Johnson. “When it broke off it shook the whole roof and brought it back up,” said Johnson.
Johnson has to pack up all of his family’s belongings and find another place to stay because the damage is so severe.
“They’ve got to come out and assess it, get the insurance adjusters to come out and look at it and stuff before they can start doing any work to it,” said Johnson.
News 6 spoke to a woman who lives next door with her two kids. She told us the damage wasn’t as bad on her side of the duplex, but they were still waiting for someone to come out and assess the safety of the structure.
A crew with Duke Energy came to the neighborhood Friday afternoon to look at the power line behind the home. News 6 watched as a team started cutting some of the branches that had fallen.
Their crews will be working throughout the day to restore power across central Florida. You can check current outages by clicking here.
Seminole County residents can report damage to the Office of Emergency Management. You can fill out a Damage Assessment Form online.
If you are physically unable to clear storm debris, you can get assistance from the Office of Emergency Management as well. A recovery program can connect volunteers with you to help. You can contact them at 407-665-510.
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