North Texas teens make trip to Florida to help with hurricane aftermath
Three North Texas teenagers made the trip to Florida to help those who are dealing with the aftermath of recent hurricanes.
Brett Chasteen, JP Sims and Josh Damian raised money on social media and drove to hurricane-ravaged Central Florida to roll up their sleeves and assist with the recovery efforts. While in Florida, they cut away trees, removed debris, handed out water and more.
"No charge. We’re just out here to help. They were more than happy that we were doing that and so blessed that we were out to help them," said Sims.
One woman's home had a massive tree fall on it during a tornado outbreak.
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"You could tell she was overwhelmed and she said it was just bothering. She couldn’t go to bed knowing literally there was a tree on her house. It was a massive tree too, about 10 inches, maybe a foot in diameter. That was a pretty big," said Chasteen.
The three 18-year-olds managed to cut enough of the tree away and remove it.
"Just seeing the joy coming from the people as we were helping them. We’d go door-to-door some days or just go walk and see what people need it," said Sims.
The three friends are no strangers to work. Each runs their own small business doing handy work in the Burleson and Granbury area.
"Me and Josh were walking down the street and helped the lady and an older man put together a generator that they just bought, a real heavy generator. It would’ve taken them hours to put together, and we were able to help them out," said Sims.
After watching the devastation of hurricanes of Hurricanes Helene and Milton the group decided to target the hard hit Sarasota County area, where thousands were without power, flooded out and overcome with damage.
"It was a blessing that God allowed us to be able to come out here and do that with each of our separate businesses and all the skills we have, being able to do that and help others, just give back. Give back to the people," said Sims.
The 18-year-olds are now on their way back home.