by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
They’ve come in droves the past two autumns as hurricane after hurricane forces residents from their homes in the Gulf Coast region.
The past two years, more major hurricanes than many can name have battered the Florida-Alabama-Mississippi-Louisiana region, as well as Florida’s southwest coast. Homes have been lost and lives practically ruined. Many relocated to the First Coast area, some temporarily, some on a permanent basis.
Local real estate agents have been heavily involved in helping those displaced by hurricanes Ivan, Wilma, Katrina, Rita and others. Some have sold houses to these folks. Other have helped them find rental property. Still others have gone to Gulfport or Biloxi or New Orleans and helped hurricane victims gather what’s left and head east. Others have spent countless hours gathering necessities such as clothing and furniture.
Tom O’Connell of Watson Realty Corp. said he sold a home to a couple from the Florida panhandle because they liked this area and disliked having to prepare for several hurricanes every summer and fall.
“I recently sold a waterfront property to a couple from Panama City Beach who were hurricane weary,” said O’Connell. “(The husband) travels quite a lot via air and liked our proximity to the (Jacksonville International Airport). She was tired of having to chase someone down to put up shutters every time a storm approached.”
Linda McMorrow of Prudential Network Realty hasn’t sold a home to anyone from the panhandle but one couple from Sarasota did buy a house in the King & Bear at World Golf Village.
“They wanted a house in the middle of the region,” said McMorrow. “They wanted it between the river and the ocean, but not near any large bodies of water. They didn’t have a house that was damaged, but they wanted to get away from that target zone.”
Phyllis Staines, an agent with Re/Max Coastal Realty, said she tries not to look at natural disasters in any kind of positive or negative light. She said she realizes that it isn’t necessarily right to benefit from the ills of others. And while she hasn’t dealt directly with anyone affected by any of the hurricanes, one relative in the state has had enough.
“I have a cousin in Fort Lauderdale who recently sold his condo and is moving back to New Jersey because he’s tired of evacuating,” said Staines.
Melanie Green, the director of communications for the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors, said NEFAR doesn’t do anything as an organization to promote the First Coast area, but rather pushes its members to help out wherever and whenever they can.
“We do nothing relocation-wise and focus just on our members,” said Green, explaining that this policy ensures that the organization and others related to the real estate industry don’t take advantage of unfortunate circumstances. “Individual Realtors or real estate companies may target a certain market, but we do not suggest (disaster victims) come here as opposed to anywhere else.
“We do, however, have a group of members that have been real, real active since Hurricane Katrina hit.”
Green said she got a call from state Sen. Tony Hill who was calling on behalf of North Jacksonville Baptist Church, which was housing a large contingent of people who were displaced by Katrina and Rita. Green, in turn, put the word out and the local real estate response has been headed by Pam Bingemann of Bingemann Realty Sales, Paul Gunther of Vanguard GMAC Realty and Todd Smith of Blue Horizons Real Estate.
“They have been non-stop finding homes, furniture and even renting trucks to go help these people move here,” said Green, adding it took quite a while for many of the victims to receive FEMA or insurance money.
“Most of what we did was provide furniture to people who were moving into rental houses,” said Gunther. “Pam probably helped a couple of dozen families. She handled most of the leadership and spent her own money to rent storage sheds. I haven’t sold any houses to anyone, but I do have a rental home. Most of the people that come over here had with them what they could throw in a few bags. I went to a flea market one day and bought 75 bed sets.”
Perhaps one day many of those people Gunther and others have helped will come back to them looking for homes to buy.