Ridgeview Tornado Relief Efforts

On October 12th of 2023, a tornado touched down in the middle of the night between 2am-3am in the heart of Citrus County, Florida, home to Ridgeview Apartments. This particular natural disaster came right on the heels of Hurricane Idalia, which came through the area only a month prior.

Ridgeview Apartments sustained significant damage during the EF-2 tornado that hurled windspeeds of 125mph. This particular event seemed to appear out of nowhere and due to the time caught many off guard as they rushed from their beds and scrambled for safe harbor.

Our Maintenance Superintendent, Miguel Valois lives on site and suffered massive damage to his own apartment. It was destroyed when a tree fell through the roof and into his home trapping him and his family. Miguel lead his family out of a window to safety and then made a call to Regional Manager, Kim Pruitt to fill her in on the situation.  Kim Pruitt, Dave Kennedy, Director of Maintenance, and Nic Price, Regional Maintenance Specialist, happened to be at the Florida Apartment Association Educational Conference at the time, and immediately packed their belongings and loaded up upon hearing from Miguel. They used their already extensive disaster recovery experience as well as the Royal American Disaster Recovery Plan initiated after Hurricane Michael to map out their recovery game plan.

The word was spread and many helping hands began to gather. The team at Forest Ridge and Colonnade Park leapt into action bringing supplies and man power to help clean up and assist with getting our residents the help they needed. Thank you  Jackson Baldwin, Terry McKinley, Chris Stanley, Bob Reeves, Eric Brennan, Jonathan Simon Natalie Lewandowski, and Janice Miller. Thank you Amber Rogers-Plant; Community Manager of Ridgeview and Miguel Valois as well.

Half of the apartments at Ridgeview became uninhabitable that night. Knowing this scenario all too well – Kim Hackett, Senior VP of Operations reached out to our friend Keli-Lynch Wright and the Hatching Hope Team who swooped in with comfort items for residents as well as supplies needed to ensure that residents had what they needed. They provided cleaning supplies, new linens, blankets, pillows, baby supplies, activities for children, and more.  We are incredibly grateful for their support.  The Red Cross was also a wonderful source of support, providing immediate living arrangements for our residents.

Once the shock wore off, residents were assisted in making their next move. LOPE(Letter of Priority Entitlement) letters were arranged from the U. S. Rural Development offices giving our residents priority at surrounding communities as well as assurance that they will have first right to refusal once their apartment homes are rebuilt and ready for move-in.

We wanted to take the time to thank everyone who stepped up and without a second thought devoted their time, energy, and effort to help those in a time of great need. We are incredibly proud of our team and believe that they resonate the mission our company was founded on. This would not have possible without you. Thank you on behalf of the company, your fellow employees, and our residents.

Below you can find articles covering the Tornado as well as photos.

https://www.wesh.com/article/florida-tornadoes/45519889#

https://www.wusf.org/weather/2023-10-12/citrus-county-digging-out-again-tornado

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