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HOMOSASSA, Fla. — Hurricane Helene caused storm surge of up to 10 feet in some parts of Citrus County, devastating many of the communities close to the Gulf.

In Homosassa, residents are beginning the long process of cleaning up, trying to get back to normal.

Just about everywhere you look west of Highway 19, there are piles of debris dragged out of homes.

The shock is now wearing off as people are working to repair the massive damage from Hurricane Helene.

Last week, Mother Nature unleashed a wall of water on the Nature Coast as Hurricane Helene arrived.

At ground level, mattresses, couches, soaked sheetrock, and piles of once-treasured belongings show the depths of devastation.

We met Wade Manis while he was getting ice.

"We have a lot of moving parts right now with pods, dumpsters getting drywall," Manis said.

He took us to his home on Deepwater Point in the Riverhaven Community.

Three feet of water filled his home, destroying nearly everything at ground level.

"At the end of the day it’s just stuff, right? We’ve got people helping us and we’re still alive," Manis said.

Two houses down, Jerry Bass was lucky to escape with his life.

"I fell asleep and I had a Ring camera right there," Bass said.

At around 3 a.m., as she watched floodwaters rise from the place where she evacuated, Jerry's wife Eve began shouting at Jerry through the Ring camera's speaker.

"I heard something. Jerry Jerry wake up, wake up," he said.

Jerry climbed out a window because his doors were sealed from the outside.

"I walked to the road, got in the middle of the road and then walked to the house," he said.

Bass managed to get to a neighbor's home on higher ground.

"Right when I got to the house, I felt something alive get on my leg and then I jumped," he said.

Pictures he took show the mess inside his home.

Jerry says he’ll never ignore an evacuation warning again.

"If it hadn’t been for my wife, it’d have been bad,"" he said. "It kicked my butt."

Kevin Flaherty and his wife Merry spent the day at the Spin City Laundry cleaning mud out of their clothes.

"Jeans and more jeans,"Merry said.

"Everything’s soaked in mud it’s a mess," Kevin Flaherty said.

Their mobile home was filled with two feet of water and is now covered in muck.

Cabinets, flooring, and furniture will all have to be replaced, and they don’t have flood insurance.

"Fortunately, we got out of there in time. Car is fine. Staying in a hotel for the last five nights. It’s going to be a lot of work," Kevin said.

For some of the people we’ve talked to, this will be the third time they’ve had to make storm repairs in the past year, and a few say they are considering moving away.

YOUR VOICEABC Action News anchor Paul LaGrone went out to get Your Voice after another divisive election. He asked voters about how they feel and how Americans can unite over the next 4 years and beyond.

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'I am 100% focused on the School Board.'

Ken Frink certainly has a government employee’s résumé.

Public works director. Assistant County Administrator. City Manager. Councilman.

Now, he can add “School Board member.”

Frink, who came within a few percentage points of winning outright in the August Primary, defeated Citrus High School teacher Victoria Smith for Citrus County School Board District 2.

Frink will replace the retiring Ginger Bryant, who taught a young Frink and later endorsed him to follow her on the School Board.

“I am absolutely elated the voters of Citrus County believed in me,” he said. “I am 100% focused on the School Board.”

Frink won with 60% — the 20-point difference similar to his margin over Smith in the Primary.

The win concludes an adventurous two years for Frink, who resigned as Crystal River City Manager after falling in love with, and then marrying, a Council member.

Their contrasts provided a choice for voters. Smith, classroom experience. Frink, government experience.

A civil engineer by trade, Frink has worked with Citrus County government and the Southwest Florida Water Management District, and he was elected to the Citrus County Mosquito Control Board.

Frink’s stint as Crystal River City Manager concluded when he married Councilwoman Cindi (Guy) Frink.

Frink raised about $70,000, including $15,000 he loaned the campaign. Contributors include out-of-town home and commercial developers who have projects pending in Citrus County. He’s spent much of those funds on mail pieces, radio and newspaper ads.

Smith’s collections total $46,300, including $10,500 from the candidate herself.

Her support included teachers’ unions in Citrus and Clay counties. Smith is past President of the Citrus County Education Association.

Smith battled concerns regarding her husband’s influence. Jimmie T. Smith is known for lobbing social media criticism at Citrus County public school educators.

In a “personal story” campaign video, Victoria Smith said that while she loves her husband, he doesn’t think for her.

“While we share a deep respect for each other,” she said, “we don’t always see eye to eye on every issue.”

CRYSTAL RIVER, Fla. — Citrus County residents and business owners are beginning the process of cleaning up after Hurricane Helene brought several feet of storm surge to their doors.

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"When he got to the corner, he called me back and said, 'I can't come. It's an ocean,'" Ann Jackson said, remembering a conversation she had with her brother early Friday morning.

Jackson owns a home not far from the intersection of U.S. 19 and NE Fifth Street, an area that saw water rise quickly. She said the neighborhood floods, but water's never gotten into the home she inherited from her mother nearly 30 years ago, where her brothers now live. Until, that is, Friday morning. By afternoon, the family had called in friends to help rip up carpeting and move water damaged items outside.

"We're gonna stay here. We're not leaving," said Jackson. "This is family property, and this is the first time that it has ever happened. Hopefully, it won't again - we can't say."

Even while dealing with her own flood damage, Jackson said she can't help but think of her neighbors elsewhere in the city.

"I just wish luck to everybody that was affected by this, because I know it's hard. I know a lot of people that live on the water, it's just a turnaround for them," Jackson said, referring to those impacted by Debby flooding last month and Hurricane Idalia flooding last year. The owners of Kane's Cattle Co. along N. Citrus Ave. are among them.

"I could say, 'not again', but it's also one of the risks we know we're taking by having a business in downtown Crystal River," said Morgan Sundberg, who owns Kane's along with her husband, Kason Sundberg. "It's nothing new that we see water and we see high water. However, it is pretty shocking that it was so close together."

Morgan said Kane's was closed for 90 days following Hurricane Idalia, but she said this time, the steakhouse was inundated with even more water.

"I got a walk-in cooler and a walk-in freezer right there — that storm surge picked them up and floated them over," said Kason about two large coolers, now tipped on their sides outside the restaurant.

Water still filled Kane's when the Sundbergs came to assess the damage Friday morning. Now that it's gone, they say the real work begins.

"Pulling out the drywall, pulling out the insulation and drying it up and making sure it's dry before we put it all back together," Morgan said.

The Sundbergs said they're trying to focus on staying positive.

"At the end of the day, we're gonna want everybody safe," Morgan said. "This can be fixed, this can be replaced. This is all material. So, at the end of the day, we're gonna smile."

As for when they'll reopen, Morgan told Spectrum News the goal is to beat that post-Idalia 90-day mark.