RIDGE MANOR, Fla. (WFLA) — Weeks after Hurricane Milton, one Hernando County neighborhood is still struggling to recover.
Lakes near Ridge Manor flooded the community after Milton struck, and now residents are finally getting inside their homes.
Martha Talbert drove three hours on Tuesday to get back to her home. She said this is the first time she will get inside to see the damage.
"I have nothing left," she said.
Talbert's home is destroyed with mold covering every wall and all of her furniture.
"I haven't been inside," Talbert said. "Nobody, as far as I know, has been inside. [I'm feeling] very sad, very sad. It shouldn't have happened."
Tuesday was the first time her front door has been opened, and her neighbor, Jimmy Kerr, went inside to see the damage.
"It's unbelievable still; I mean, I've lost all my life right there," Talbert said.
"It's terrible, and I know everybody in the neighborhood," Kerr said. "I walk my dog, and we all talk. So, they're all your friends too, so it's not just you, it's everybody you know going through it.
Kerr's home also had feet of water inside.
"I would have never in a million years," he said. "I've lived here since I was six, and even the worst in '04 when we had a hurricane every week for a month, it never even touched the houses on Lakewood — let alone engulf the whole entire neighborhood."
He spent his day trying to drag items out of his house to begin the cleanup process. This is the first time he has been able to get to his home without a canoe.
"They've been pumping the lake back in, so that's when we started seeing the decrease," Kerr said. "It was just sitting there for a couple of weeks before they started pumping, not going anywhere. So, once they started pumping, we started to see it go down."
These residents who have lived here for decades are asking how on earth this flooding happened.
"I'd like to get some answers as to why so much water got in and some answers as to what are we going to do, is this going to happen every time we have a hurricane now?" Kerr said.
"Try to get some answers from the county commissioners, what's going on, what happened to cause this? Something had to happen," Talbert said.
Neighbors said they will continue to help one another out during these trying times, especially since not everyone can come home yet.