(8 Oct 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
++BLACK FRAMES BETWEEN SOUNDBITES FOR SECOND INTERVIEW++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Clearwater Beach, Florida — 8 October 2024
1. Demetri Kousathanas taking bike out of garage while prepping for hurricane
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Demetri Kousathanas, Clearwater Beach resident:
"Preparing for round two, you know, trying to salvage whatever very little is left and secure, whatever I can."
3. Demetri Kousathanas walking bike to vehicle
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Demetri Kousathanas, Clearwater Beach resident:
"That’s just too much going on to even think of it. It’s surreal. You know, just keep moving and that’s it. You know, because if you stop and think, then it’s, it’s. It’s not good."
5. Demetri Kousathanas putting bike in vehicle
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Demetri Kousathanas, Clearwater Beach resident, regarding cleaup efforts from Helene:
"They were going nonstop until yesterday. So they removed already a lot of stuff. But there’s just so much that they you know, it’s not physically possible to keep up."
7. Shot of beach
8. Debris from Hurricane Helene
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Arnie Bellini, Clearwater Beach homeowner and venture capitalist:
"We said that we’d jump in. And so I started calling some friends in the area, CEOs of companies that could make a difference. And I said, ‘Let’s all band together and see what we can do.’ And then my company, ConnectWise Capital, put up a half a million fund to pay for the efforts. And I’ve been incredibly heartwarmed at seeing how the community has come together."
++BLACK FRAMES++
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Arnie Bellini, Clearwater Beach homeowner and venture capitalist:
"All of this debris becomes missiles. You know, we’re looking at 160 mile an hour winds hitting Tampa Bay. Every one of these things becomes a missile that starts making more damage. But even beyond that, it’s
the debris. I mean, we are a destination for holidays and vacations, and we would be garbage island instead of Clearwater Beach Island. And so we’re just trying to do our part to make a difference."
++BLACK FRAMES++
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Arnie Bellini, Clearwater Beach homeowner and venture capitalist:
"These guys and people have been amazing and we have cleaned up our our our goal was to start on the northern tip of Clearwater Beach and move south. And so that’s how we’re measuring our progress. We’ve gotten pretty far down. We’ve got a couple blocks down now and we’re making a difference. We’re excited about it. "
12. Shot of tourism building
STORYLINE:
A Clearwater Beach, Florida resident who house was badly damaged during Hurricane Helene was back Tuesday getting items before Hurricane Milton arrived.
Demetri Kousathanas said he had to move out of the house since Helene.
"Preparing for round two, you know, trying to salvage whatever very little is left and secure, whatever I can," he said Tuesday.
He said he can’t emotionally process all that is going on right now.
"That’s just too much going on to even think of it. It’s also surreal. You know, just keep moving and that’s it. You know, because if you stop and think, then it’s, it’s. It’s not good."
Clearwater Beach homeowner and venture capitalist Arnie Bellini put up $500,000 to hire private contractors to haul away debris from his neighborhood ahead of Hurricane Milton.
He said the sheer scale of the storm debris from Hurricane Helene — and the hard deadline to remove it ahead of Milton’s expected arrival — is too much for city contractors to keep up with, so Bellini said he’s doing what he can.
AP video by Haven Daley and Kate Payne
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