NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — This Wednesday marks two weeks since Hurricane Ian slammed into Florida's west coast as a category 4 hurricane.
It killed more than 100 people, and damaged the homes of millions, many of whom are still just beginning to make repairs.
One East Texas native who caught the other side of Ian's wrath recalls what he and his community went through while bearing the storm.
Former Bullard resident Wyatt Hunt recently moved to New Smyrna Beach, Florida. A city on the Atlantic coast, about 200 miles inland from where Ian made landfall.
But even that far away, his community found itself in the middle of a long recovery effort.
"As the eye got closer to us, that's when all the water started picking up," Hunt said.
Hunt moved to New Smyrna Beach with his wife where they started a family. He recalls being in the heart of Hurricane Ian as it made its way towards his home.
"We've lost our roof for sure, like portions of our roof came off most of our shingles are missing," Hunt said. "We were nervous, but I mean in our area, nobody's ever even heard of flooding the way that we experienced it now. We weren't really panicked too much, but it was just crazy how it came out of nowhere."
As Ian inched closer flooding started to pick up, but Hunt said his home only got about a half inch of water inside.
"We were real blessed," Hunt said. "A lot of the people in our neighborhood and even our city lost everything."
Hunt’s neighborhood isn’t in a flood prone area so many residents like himself don’t have flood insurance.
He said many people are going through FEMA or if they do have insurance, they are now fighting a battle to get their claims processed.
"It's not easy for a lot of people and then my buddy, they were told it would be a month to a month and a half before they have any answers on what's going to happen in their house," Hunt said.
Hunt also mentioned that after the storm passed, Florida reminded him of home here in East Texas because everyone started helping each other out like when we have tornadoes.
He also said he tried to bring some sandbags to a buddy of his and couldn’t make it out in his truck because the water continued to rise. It got to a point where everybody had to just pack their stuff above ground until the waters receded.