As residents cope with tornado disaster, FEMA starts offering aid in Palm Beach County

THE ACREAGE — Team members with FEMA knocked on Franklin Ashurst's door, one of their many stops Tuesday as they walked door to door in communities devastated by tornadoes.

Soon, they determined Ashurst hadn't yet applied for federal aid, so they helped him do so. All around his neighborhood, traces were everywhere of the damage: There were piles of tree branches and personal belongings reduced to shattered debris at the foot of nearly every house.

Ashurst is among those being visited by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The agency's Disaster Survivor Assistance workers began visiting residents Tuesday, helping ensure those eligible indeed register for federal assistance, FEMA spokesperson Renee Bafalis said.

"We can assist you in several ways with housing assistance and other needs assistance," Bafalis said. That "would include things like just simple repairs to get you back into your home safely, child care expenses you may have, if you had a vehicle that may have been damaged during the storm and that was your only vehicle to go to and from work, we might be able to help you with that as well."

The damage to Ashurst's property might be deceiving to passers-by: While the front of the home and the lawn look almost unscathed, the back is laden with piles of wood, tree branches and debris. Ashurst said the tornado even took out an entire mobile home that used to stand in the backyard.

Related Articles

The tornado also took out two doors in the home's master bedroom, leaving Ashurst to put up a mattress in the space, which was still there on Tuesday.

When the tornado came through the usually quiet Acreage neighborhood, Ashurst said he and his niece, who was with him, did "exactly what we were taught to do."

"We all went in that bathroom in the center of the house and huddled in the bath and prayed to God that we would live through this," he said. "It seemed like a long time but I'm sure it wasn't."

A regional effort

These FEMA teams plan to visit communities across Palm Beach County as well as set up multi-agency resource center. It would be meant to help the hard-hit neighborhoods, including some in Wellington, Loxahatchee Groves, the Acreage, Palm Beach Gardens and Jupiter Farms.

The damage resulted from an unusual outbreak of strong tornadoes that tore through parts of Florida last week as Hurricane Milton made landfall on the state's west coast.

Another one of the Acreage homes visited by a FEMA on Tuesday belongs to William and Kristina Machan, who watched a tornado damage their cars and property in less than two minutes.

Kristina Machan said she'd had a "gut feeling" about Hurricane Milton and had gotten her closet ready just in case, but in the moments before the twister touched down near their dark blue-painted home, she heard something "really loud" and thought her husband, William Machan, had simply increased the TV volume.

"I'm like, 'Why are you turning up the TV?' And come to find out it was not the TV," she said.

The fence surrounding the Machans' house was completely overhauled, and while their house remained relatively intact, the back patio was damaged.

Had the tornado lasted any longer than it did, Machan said she thinks they "would have nothing left."

Another resident, Amanda Neto, recalled the harrowing, violently loud tornado that barreled toward her family's home last week, whipping around debris that destroyed their fence and the screen around their pool, broke one of their windows and damaged three of their cars.

"I heard my mom screaming for my dog to come inside, and I was so focused that I didn't really think anything of it," Amanda Neto said while standing with her dad, Elcio Neto, outside of their still-shuttered home on Tuesday. "I saw it coming in the distance, so I started running toward my parents' room. ... That's when one of our windows broke, and I screamed."

Neto posted a recording of the tornado from the family's deck camera on TikTok, and the video has since has garnered more than 10 million views. In it, Neto's parents can be seen desperately trying to corral their two dogs inside, seconds before the tornado screeches across their back deck.

Applying for aid

For people who believe they may qualify for FEMA aid, applications may be done through www.disasterassistance.gov , through a toll-free registration hotline at 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) or by downloading the FEMA app.

FEMA cannot duplicate what insurance may cover, Bafalis said, so people should be reaching out to their insurance companies first.

"FEMA's role is to supplement what the county and the state need, and so we're here to help in that regard," she said. "We cannot make you whole again, we can only help you get back on your feet."

Assessing the damage

County, state and federal officials have been stepping in to help people put the pieces of their lives together after Hurricane Milton.

As of Tuesday afternoon, according to the county's Planning, Zoning and Building Department, these were among the properties affected, categorized by the extent of damage:

— Five homes in unincorporated parts of Palm Beach County saw "major" damage, meaning they require extensive repairs and won't be livable for a long time.

— There were 18 homes with "minor" damage, meaning some repairs will be needed on the structure to make them habitable again.

— There were 58 homes listed as "affected," meaning structures saw minimal damage but are still habitable without repairs.

— Four businesses and one church also were listed as "affected," with minimal damage.