There was hardly a place to park Friday at the annual Greek Festival at Archangel Michael Greek Orthodox Church that runs through Sunday, and this was before the doors opened at noon. It’s perhaps not surprising, given that this year’s festival is a Citrus County tradition.

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“It started over 40 years ago at another location. But here it’s been 30 years, and it has grown,” said Pam Masoud, who has chaired the event the past 15 years.

It’s understandable, especially when the aromas of Greek specialties hit the nostrils and tempt tastebuds. From classic Greek cuisine to pastries and even groceries, the festival is akin to an open-air bazaar, with merchant tables vending jewelry and even items one wouldn’t expect seeing, such as specialty dog biscuits.

On top of all that was the entertainment, and Friday’s opening featured Alejandra Oliver, who has been belly dancing since 2007.

“I’ve been here since 2019,” she said, making this her fifth year at Archangel Michael Greek Orthodox Church.

But without question the star of the festival is the food, and there was plenty. At one table Nicole Snyder and Marvin Heath were enjoying their favorites. She was eating pastitsio, which she likened to a Greek version of lasagna. Heath was enjoying a lamb dish. Each have been coming to the festival for decades, in good measure because of the food.

Other than the food, Snyder found another reason she was enjoying herself.

“I like the DJ. He plays authentic Greek music,” she said. “It makes me feel like I’m in Greece.”

Being told that was (pun intended) music to DJ Fotios Kokalidis, from Tarpon Springs.

“It’s my hobby,” he said. During the week he teaches the Greek language to students at the Plato Academy schools located in the Tampa Bay area.

Want to go?

Archangel Michael Greek Orthodox Church is at 4705 W. Gulf-to-Lake Highway (State Road 44) in Lecanto.

The festival continues Sunday from noon-5 p.m.

Steve Steiner can be reached at: steven.steiner@chronicleonline.com.

CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. —

Emergency leaders in Citrus County are going around Crystal River, assessing the damage from severe overnight storms.

That's because of downed trees, powerlines and flooding.

Related:First Warning Weather Day: Tornado watches issued in Central Florida

Related: Understanding the difference between tornado watches and warnings

Saretha LaFritz showed WESH 2 News Thursday what was left of her apartment. It has no roof. She and her husband, Jeremiah, were sleeping when the tornado rolled through.

It turned their unit and others in the Ridgeview Apartment complex in Crystal River into splinters just after 3 a.m. Their daughter and son were in rooms where walls and windows were sucked out.

“We're really lucky that we're still alive and in one piece because we really did not hear a warning. We were all in bed,” Saretha said.

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They lived here for more than a decade.

“That’s our entire life! We have been here for 13 years. Now everything is gone. Pictures. Everything we had,” Jeremiah said.

Their neighbors, Violet Sweeney and her mother, Jennifer Boyer, were in tears talking with WESH 2 News and recalling the horrible night.

“You hear this thing coming, and the walls shaking back and forth, and you can literally hear your house shaking, and you're crying, and you're shaking, and I'm like, please don't let me die,” Sweeney said.

“You could hear all of the trees snapping. I thought we were going to die. We were praying. And then it was over,” Boyer said.

But it's just the beginning for them and their neighbors in the 48-unit complex. Many of the homes are unlivable, and the Red Cross is stepping in to help find temporary homes, likely in local motels.

Another neighbor, Courtney Colbert, showed us where she and her family, including three children, huddled for safety: the bathtub! They made it through without a scratch but feared the worst.

“It sounded like a train coming through, and our entire house shook, and then it was over.,” Colbert said.

“It’s not something you can prepare for. It happens in the blink of an eye. And at the end of the day, there is nothing you can do to stop it. We just tried to get through it, and that is the best that we could do,” her husband, Richard Howell, said.

Some local merchants may be looking for new homes as well. Along Highway 19, you could see vehicles flipped over, kayaks at a local rental place strewn about, and a dive shop appeared to have imploded. On the ground, a metal roof looked like the top of a sardine can that had been peeled off a strip center.

Ryan DeLarco owns Sparky’s Green Rides bike shop and a building that houses some of his neighbors.

“My roof is actually right behind me right here, as well as all over the parking lot. Me and my fellow business owners have had total devastation. Everything has been ripped out,” he said.

A lot of these businesses only recently reopened following destruction at the hands of Hurricane Idalia in late August.

Now, a tornado has them rebuilding again. Some tell us they don’t have insurance on their properties.

Related: Possible tornado reported in Central Florida after severe weather slams area

See more photos below:

Citrus County

Citrus County

Citrus County

Citrus County

Citrus County

Citrus County

Citrus County

Citrus County

Storm damage at Ridge View Apartments in Crystal River

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has secured a $9 million settlement with Ameris Bank over allegations that it avoided underwriting mortgages in predominately Black and Latino communities in Jacksonville, Florida, and discouraged people there from getting home loans.

The bank denied violating fair lending laws and said it wanted to avoid litigation by agreeing to the deal, which does not include civil monetary penalties.

It’s the latest settlement over a practice known as redlining, which the Biden administration is tackling through a new task force that earlier this year reached the largest agreement of its kind in the department's history.

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Between 2016 and 2021, the Atlanta-based Ameris Bank's home lending was focused disproportionately on mostly white areas of Jacksonville while other banks approved loans at three times the rate Ameris did, the government said.

The bank has never operated a branch in a majority Black and Hispanic neighborhood, and in one-third of those areas it did not receive a single application over the six-year period, even though other banks did, Attorney General Merrick Garland said.

“Redlining has a significant impact on the health and wealth of these communities. Homeownership has been one of the most effective ways that Americans have built wealth in our country. When families can’t access credit to achieve homeownership, they lose an opportunity to share in this country’s prosperity,” Garland said at a news conference in Jacksonville announcing the settlement.

CEO Palmer Proctor of Ameris Bank, which federal officials say has nearly $25 billion in assets and operates in nine states across the Southeast and mid-Atlantic, said in a statement, “We strongly disagree with any suggestion that we have engaged in discriminatory conduct.” Proctor said the bank cooperated with the investigation and reached the agreement in part “because we share the Department’s goal of expanding access to homeownership in underserved areas.”

Garland has prioritized civil rights prosecutions since becoming attorney general in 2021, and the current administration has put a higher priority on redlining cases than before. The anti-redlining effort has now secured $107 million in relief, including the Ameris settlement, which a judge must approve.

A $31 million settlement with Los Angeles-based City National in January was the largest for the department.

The practice of redlining has continued across the country and the long-term effects are still felt today, despite a half-century of laws designed to combat it. Homes in historically redlined communities are still worth less than homes elsewhere, and a Black family’s average net worth is a fraction of a typical white household's.

The Ameris case is the first brought by the department in Florida, said Roger Handberg, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida. “For far too long, redlining has negatively impacted communities of color across our country,” he said.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said combating redlining “is one of the most important strategies for ensuring equal economic opportunity today.”

Ameris Bank will invest $7.5 million in a loan subsidy fund made available to people in majority-minority neighborhoods under the settlement and spend a total of $1.5 million on outreach and community partnerships, as well as open a new branch in those neighborhoods, along with other requirements as part of the settlement.

Associated Press writer Ken Sweet in New York contributed to this report.

Ask some of the hundreds who stayed in their coastal home, ignored an evacuation order, got flooded out and were one of the 73 who had to be rescued by law enforcement.

For them, Idalia was a nightmare.

But those high and dry in Lecanto or on the county’s east side, who may have seen tree debris in their yard or some road ponding, are probably wondering what all the fuss was about.

It could have been worse. It could have been better.

“We are very blessed we did not get the brunt of this storm,” Emergency Management Director Chris Evan said.

It started Saturday, Aug. 26, when the county opened sandbag sites in preparation for a tropical system that, at the time, was near the Yucatan Peninsula. Idalia eventually became a depression, then a tropical storm and then became a Category 1 hurricane as it passed the western tip of Cuba.

We know the rest: Idalia revved up when it hit the hot Gulf waters, took on speed and reached Category 3 status. Some feared it would go all the way up to a Cat 4..

Idalia finally made landfall near Keaton Beach at 7:45 a.m. Wednesday as a high-end Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 125 mph.

Preparing for the worst

On Tuesday, Aug. 29, Citrus County started preparing for the worst. The spaghetti models showed we were on a bullseye for a large, dangerous hurricane.

A mandatory evacuation order went out for coastal areas. Some heeded it and many didn’t. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a widespread state of emergency for much of Florida, including Citrus County.

Gas stations around the county started seeing an influx of cars. People hit the grocery stores to stock up on water, canned goods and other items needed for a potentially long stay inside their homes.

Unlike past storms, though, there was plenty of water still on shelves right up to landfall.

The county opened shelters. Schools closed. County government shut down. People went to bed Tuesday night fearing the worst.

And then somewhere around midnight, the storm’s path started changing ever so slightly farther north, toward the Big Bend area. Citrus was still in the cone and very much in the storm-surge warning but folks started to sense that maybe we would be spared the worst.

Underwater

Folks on the coast woke up Wednesday to water in their homes and impassable roads. The storm surge reached 7 feet overnight. Thankfully, it didn’t get up to the projected 11 feet and it came in fairly slow. That, said Evan, saved lives.

Crystal River Mayor Joe Meek that morning surveyed his city from an airboat going down a flooded U.S. 19. It was, he said, a sad day.

“Most of the city is underwater,” he said.

Sheriff Mike Prendergast said 73 people had to be rescued from flooded homes on Wednesday. A day later, Prendergast went up in a helicopter with U.S. Sen. Rick Scott to survey the damage from the air.

The county received news Thursday morning that the federal government declared Citrus County a disaster area, speeding up the process to get storm-affected residents back on their feet.

Citrus County and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on Friday deployed Disaster Survivor Assistance (DSA) teams into areas impacted by the storm surge.

Working together

Hurricane Idalia is nothing but a memory for the majority of Citrus Countians.

But it’s still fresh in the minds of all those hundreds of coastal residents who will live with the storm’s aftermath for weeks and months.

But Citrus County has been here before and it will get through it, Crystal River Mayor Joe Meek said.

Evan echoed those comments.

“We are a very resilient community,” he said. “People step up and help one another.”

Michael D. Bates is a staff writer with the Citrus County Chronicle and can be reached at mbates@chronicleonline.com.

Congratulations Citrus County: You’ve been named the fifth-best place to retire in Florida.

SmartAsset, a financial technology firm, ranked 10 counties in a new report. It looked at four criteria, including tax burden, access to medical care and opportunity for recreation and social activity.

The firm established an average ranking for each area and Citrus County scored a 71.85 on the best places to retire index.

“First, we looked at state and local tax rates, considering two types of taxes: income and sales,” according to the study. “We calculated effective rates based on a retiree earning $35,000 annually (from retirement savings, Social Security and part-time employment).”

SmartAsset subtracted income taxes paid from the gross income to determine disposable income. Sales taxes paid were calculated based on the disposable income being spent on taxable goods.

“Next, we determined the number of doctors’ offices, recreation centers and retirement centers per thousand residents in each location,” the study said. “Finally, we measured the number of seniors in each city as a percentage of the total population.”

Here are Citrus County’s rankings:

Tax burden: 14 percent.

Medical centers per 1,000 residents:1.34.

Recreation centers per 1,000 residents: 0.23.

Retirement communities per 1,000 people: 0.12.

Percentage of seniors: 36 percent.

SmartAsset ranked Sumter, Sarasota, Martin and Charlotte counties as the top four, respectively.

Frank Calascione, the county’s economic development director, said the combination of a relatively low cost of living and high quality of life makes Citrus County “a great place to live and a great place to retire.”

Calascione said he believes visitors are drawn here for those same reasons.

“We have beautiful and abundant natural resources, quaint downtowns, and lots of hidden gems that both visitors and locals can enjoy,” said Calascione, who is also interim director of the Citrus County Visitors and Convention Bureau.

“Visitors can enjoy a wide range of experiences and have the option of a budget-conscious vacation or a high-end vacation, or something that combines a little of both,” he said.

To see the SmartAsset report, visit https://smartasset.com/ retirement/retirement-calculator #Florida.

Michael D. Bates is a staff writer with the Citrus County Chronicle and can be reached at mbates@chronicleonline.com.