George Wiltshire has had enough of life in Florida.
With the help of family members, Wiltshire dragged all of his belongings out of his single unit at the Pine Lake Mobile Home Park in North Lakeland on Tuesday morning. Some items, such as a washing machine and a lawn mower, went on a trailer, but much of the material was left at the curb, simply refusing to be taken to a landfill.
“I’m getting out of here,” Wiltshire, 62, said.
Wiltshire, who has lived in Pine Lake for seven years, plans to move to Kansas next week to join his cousin Jacob Gullett, who helped him clean out the mobile home Tuesday morning.
Extensive damage was visible throughout the park, which is located on the east side of US 98 between Duff and Wilder roads. Piles of belongings lined the street in front of many units: mattresses, bedding, furniture, clothing, skateboards, paintings and children’s toys.
Wiltshire described how the park was littered with roofing that had been blown off units during the storm. One carport was wrapped around a utility pole, Gullett said.
A creek bisects the park and Wiltshire said it flooded when Hurricane Milton dropped a deluge on North Lakeland last week. At least one large tree fell into the creek and blocked the flow of water, Wiltshire said. The water poured into his home and reached a depth of 8 to 10 inches, he said.
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After the storm subsided, Wiltshire was trapped in his 55-foot home.
“It was so blocked I couldn’t get out,” he said. “The water took the steps at the back of the house and threw that son of a bitch down and blocked the back door where I couldn’t get in the back door. And when I got to the front door, I ended up pushing and pushing and pushing until I could get out of there.
Many of his neighbors’ houses were also flooded.
“He’s in such bad shape,” Gullett said. “I mean, you should see his couches – his couches are soaked. There is simply no way this house can be saved. The smell of the water there…’
“There’s already mold and mildew,” added Wiltshire’s sister, Hazel Stephenson of Lakeland.
“The floor in there is soft,” Gullett added. “If you remove the carpet, it falls through the floor.”
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A tag on the mobile home indicates it was built in 1943, Wiltshire said. Insurance companies don’t offer policies for units that old.
“I’ve never lived in a trailer park, and I’ve never seen things like that in Florida,” Wiltshire said.
“I was born and raised here, and I’ve never seen it this bad,” Stephenson added.
Wiltshire, who is legally blind and has other disabilities, presented a sad inventory of the belongings he said were destroyed by water intrusion: space heaters, a pressure washer, generators, a lawn mower and some power tools. He said he makes money by doing repair work.
Wiltshire said three of his chickens and his rabbit died during the hurricane. Other residents brought him animals that died, and he buried them together.
Pointing to a neighbor’s mobile home, Wiltshire said the woman living there had left to live with her sister. Elsewhere in the park, some residents removed belongings from their homes and loaded them into vehicles.
The owner of Pine Lake could not be reached Tuesday and the park manager, Tom Kelly, could not be reached. His mother, Rose Doecks, said she has lived in the park with her son for 17 years. She said the park had only flooded once before, and that was just an inch of water.
Doecks said she had no idea yet how many residents might leave the 63-unit park.
“Some people say they’re moving, but I don’t know,” she said. “I feel very sad for them. I don’t know what to do. We can do nothing for them but pray for them. That’s all we can do.”
Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.
