Peace Creek residents need help getting home

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For 6 hours Saturday, volunteer airboaters provided rides to and from the Peace Creek RV & Mobile Home Park to the Park's residents that wanted to inspect their homes, retrieve what belongings they could carry and secure their property. It was the first time since September 25th that the Park's owner and manager had been able to access the property and assess the damage.

October 4, 2004

Lake Wales, FL -- Residents of the Peace Creek RV & Mobile Home Park, near Lake Wales, Florida had not seen their homes for more than 7 days, since evacuating prior to the arrival of Hurricane Jeanne. Until today, they could only stand at the entrance of the Park off Hwy 27, look across a now one mile expanse of water that separated them from their homes and wonder what condition they were in or if they existed at all. The access road to the Park now lays under 4-8 feet of water and the new lake, created by Hurricane Jeanne, completely surrounds their homes. Not even the Park's owner or manager had been able to access the Park and assess the damage.

At 9:00 AM today volunteers from the Florida Airboat Association, organized by Robert Dummett of Lake Wales and safety committee chairman for the Association, arrived at the Park's entrance, unloaded their airboats and provided the residents with rides across the vegetation and debris filled water to the Park to inspect their homes.
For some the elderly residents and those who had moved to Florida from the North, it was the first time that they had ever ridden on an airboat and they found the rides a to be an exhilarating experience, helping them cope with the despair that they found within the Park.

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