'It's just unbelievable': Dunedin army veteran struggling with FEMA, insurance after storms
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DUNEDIN, Fla. (WFLA) — A United States Army Veteran is struggling to recover from Hurricane Helene after his home was severely flooded. He said his insurance company and FEMA are not helping him out in the process.

Several mobile homes in Honeymoon Park are for sale.

“Just where the water line is — that’s where it landed, right so it flows, it came from the Gulf, it came straight down the street,” Tammy Zamensky said.

She said the storm pushed out many of her neighbors.

“They’re gone. They never came back,” Zamensky said.

Her neighbor, 90-year-old Charles O’Donnell, lives up north now, and wants to come home, but said he’s been getting the runaround and never thought it would take this long to get assistance.

“I thought FEMA would hop right in. I thought the state would do what they could to help. And I thought the insurance companies would be honest,” O’Donnell said. “The insurance agent has disappeared. It is frustrating.”

O’Donnell’s daughter has been emailing back and forth with an insurance adjuster about her father’s case. In one message, she wrote how it had been nearly 60 days since they communicated. The adjuster responded, the same way he had in previous emails, by saying he would forward the message to his supervisor.

O’Donnell said FEMA put him up in a motel, but time ran out, so he left to have a place to live. He also said FEMA told him they closed his case and didn’t approve him for assistance in repairing his home.

“It’s just unbelievable that people would act this way in a disaster the size that we had instead of reaching out and helping people,” O’Donnell said.

He said it feels like he’s in limbo and no one cares. Though he’s states away, his neighbor and friend wants him to know that she cares.

“I miss you and I hope you’re well,” Zamensky said.

News Channel 8 On Your Side reached out to the insurance company involved and is waiting for a response.

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