HORSESHOE BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Lisa Bregenzer’s waterfront home was her “little slice of heaven.” She watched sunsets and migrating birds from the porch, the Gulf of Mexico in the distance. There, she felt close to God and her late father.
When Hurricane Idalia tore through Florida in late August, Bregenzer lost everything in the northwest fishing village of Horseshoe Beach. For months, she and her husband slept where they could with friends, neighbors and family: in Tennessee, Georgia, West Virginia, eastern Florida.
For nearly 11 months, Bregenzer felt she was no better off than she was right after the storm.
“I’m spent. I’m tired. I’m weak. And I’m weary,” Bregenzer said in May inside a temporary, state-issued camper she lives in several miles away. “Everyday I am reminded of the storm.”
Almost a year later, many people in Horseshoe a