Everglades City residents thankful on holiday despite Hurricane Irma losses

Shayleeann Deleon, 8, pours gravy onto her turkey as Harold Mays, left, helps himself to stuffing during a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, Nov. 23, 2017, at the First Baptist Church of Everglades City. Marilyn Bartlett and other members of the congregation rallied together to host a Thanksgiving meal for area residents in the fellowship hall.

On almost any other Thanksgiving, Marilyn Bartlett would be home on Chokoloskee cooking a holiday feast for friends and family.

But in September, Hurricane Irma flooded Bartlett’s trailer and destroyed almost everything inside.

With nowhere else to cook and knowing there are many other families in the community in similar circumstances, Bartlett and some of the women from the First Baptist Church of Everglades City took over the church’s fellowship hall kitchen Thursday to prepare a meal for residents still recovering from the storm.

“So many people have been displaced,” Bartlett, 67, said as she prepared turkey, ham, sweet potato casserole and fresh green beans. “We just thought it would be nice to cook and share food with everyone.”

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Everglades City and the nearby communities of Chokoloskee and Plantation Island were some of the hardest-hit areas in the state when Hurricane Irma pounded Florida on Sept. 10.

The hurricane sent a 10-foot storm surge of bacteria-laden water into this blue-collar fishing village, flooding hundreds of homes — many of which were uninsured — submerging cars and killing at least one man.

Capt. Bill Miller hugs Chokoloskee resident Dorothy Weeks during a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, Nov. 23, 2017, at the First Baptist Church of Everglades City.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency was slow to get boots on the ground, and some have complained about the agency’s stinginess with assistance. Many people are living in travel trailers parked in their yards or with relatives.

But 2½ months later, despite losing so much and having so little, area residents said they still have much to be thankful for.

“Things are getting so much better than they were when it first happened,” said Judy Barton, whose Everglades City home was destroyed by Irma.

“We have a lot to be thankful for, even though we lost everything," said Barton, who also helped cook the church feast. "You have your family. You have your health.”

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About 50 people turned out for the church’s 2 p.m. Thanksgiving meal, saying a short group prayer before lining up to eat.

Shayleeann Deleon, 8, was the first in line. She was there with her great-granddad, Capt. Bill Miller, 76, a fishing guide whose Plantation Island home was destroyed by the flood.

Shayleeann said she is thankful for the people who have helped her and her “papa” since the storm.

“It’s been hard because we keep going back to the house and I have to see it and I don’t like to see it,” she said. “It makes me sad.”

Everglades City and Chokoloskee residents gather for a Thanksgiving meal on Thursday, Nov. 23, 2017, at the First Baptist Church of Everglades City.

Miller said he and Shayleeann lost everything in the hurricane — appliances, furniture, clothes. But he is thankful for the two good Samaritans who have helped him gut his house, and for the church friends who have let him and Shayleeann stay with them.

“It is through the Lord these people have come through, and I give him all the thanks,” Miller said.

Joe Bullinger, 84, who ate a Thanksgiving meal at the church, looked down and noted the plywood floors, which have been stripped since the flood.

“There’s a big difference between what we want and what we need,” he said.

Earlier in the day, about 50 people stopped by Doug Meyer’s Finer Meats food truck, parked next to the Everglades City Masonic Lodge, for a free Thanksgiving meal. Meyer, whose family owns a large meat market in Minneapolis, has been providing free food to residents six days a week since mid-September.

On Thursday he packed turkey, mashed potatos, cornbread, stuffing and green beans into white foam containers. He had a small table set up under a tent behind his food truck, but most of the people who stopped by took their food home.

“They’ve been thankful from the beginning,” Meyer said of the Everglades City residents. “I think that overwhelming stage is over. Now the reality has set in that we have to get our houses back in order.”

Don McKinney, 71, was one of the first to stop by the food truck. He wore jeans and rubber fishing boots and picked up meals for his wife and himself. They’re living in a 16-foot Coleman travel trailer.

Normally on Thanksgiving they’d cook a meal at home, but now they don’t have an oven.

“I’m thankful for everything I’ve got,” said McKinney, who is also a fishing guide.

Across the street, Johnnie Potter’s home was flooded with 5 feet of water. It will be torn down in the coming days.

He, his wife and daughter have moved in with his other daughter, Diana Valdez, and her family nearby. Crammed into the one house, Valdez joked that “we’re one big happy family.”

But they, too, are thankful. They have insurance. That helps. They also have one another. And they have their community, filled with strong, resilient people.

“Even though we lost so much,” Valdez said, “the amount of love and the amount of generosity of people around here … it’s been humbling to see that.”

Daily News staff photographer Katie Klann contributed to this report.