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Cedar Island resident details horror of finding home washed away after Hurricane Helene

What's left of Jody Griffis' home on Cedar Island in Perry, Florida after Hurricane Helene. (Photo courtesy Jody Griffis)
What's left of Jody Griffis' home on Cedar Island in Perry, Florida after Hurricane Helene. (Photo courtesy Jody Griffis)

Before Hurricane Helene, you could drive up to Jody Griffis’ stilted home on Cedar Island near Perry, Florida – now only the stilts remain.

He was anxious about this storm from the beginning. “I'm on the coast, not on a canal so I'm looking at the gulf,” Griffis said. “[They're] saying 16-18 feet [of storm surge], so if we get to those levels, we're gonna be in trouble in our house.”

“To be honest with you,” he continued, “I'd rather it hit us directly, because we don't get the storm surge if it hits us dead on.”

Before Helene hit, Griffis was adamant he’d always live in Big Bend. He said if it came to it, he would buy a camper and live there until he could rebuild.

“I love my home. I love coastal living. I'm not gonna give that up for anything or anybody.”

But he knew he and his wife couldn’t stay for the hurricane. They decided to drive roughly 20 minutes south, and slightly more inland, to his brother’s home in Steinhatchee. As the storm began to build, so too did his anxiety.

“It's starting to make a turn. I'm watching leaves in the yard off the porch lights right now. I was told recently, [I am] an hour from the eye making landfall. Unfortunately, I think it's going to B-line [right to] me. I hope it doesn't, but it is gonna be close.”

Moments later... he lost power. And after firing up a generator, he was able to take a call from WUFT News.

“I just actually had one of my neighbors that lives in Georgia, but has property out at Cedar Island just text me and said that Cedar Key's getting hammered. You know, ultimately it just, I hope that people got out with this one. I had a bad gut feeling about it. I'll know more tomorrow when I'll even get to my house, if I have a house."

Griffis said he had to dodge power lines while driving back to Cedar Island in the wake of the storm.

“You get that hollow pit gut feeling. The corner store it was completely down. Then you see debris fields way over on the other side of the road where there isn't supposed to be anything but wood.”

Griffis said, “It's kind of surreal. And then the realization hits, and then we get closer to Cedar Island and I go in and I see my neighbor's house isn’t on their foundations or their pilings or piers anymore, they're absolutely gone. You have houses in places that aren't supposed to be houses. I mean, they're on the side of the road, they're in the neighbor's yard.”

Griffis says when he and his wife reached his driveway, his house was gone.

“My yard's never been cleaner. And it just knocks the air out of you. There's nothing there. So it's kind of surreal.|

Griffis says for now, he and his wife are living at his brother's place back in Steinhatchee.

He filled out paperwork with the American Red Cross and is trying to get a trailer to put on their property on Cedar Island.

If they get it, Griffis said they will live there until they can rebuild a stronger home, resilient in the face of future storms, just like the rest of the Big Bend community.

Griffis sent this video of his return drive on Cedar Island to his home:

Cedar Island.mp4

Aileyahu is a reporter for WUFT News who can be reached by calling 352-392-6397 or emailing news@wuft.org.