Homes and business owners in Jupiter Farms are working together to get back to normal after a tornado tore through on Oct. 9.
WPTV anchor Mike Trim spoke with South Indian River Water Control District executive director Chad Kennedy about the efforts to expedite the recovery process.
Kennedy said water control employees will expect to have about a dozen trees removed from canals in and around Jupiter Farms and Palm Beach Country Estates by the beginning of next week.
Kennedy also says road graters will be out in those communities, clearing debris off the roads and laying down shell rock.
Most of the EF1 to EF2 tornado damage was on Jupiter Farms Road, where Trim talked with the owner of Blue Ridge Farms. A group of Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office employees helped clear trees there this week.
Since the tornado hit, it has been a community effort to clean debris from the farm and help rebuild.
“My horses are alive, I’m alive, my family's alive and maybe it’s the silver lining of bringing our community together and these companies together," Blue Ridge Farms Owner Monique Richter said. "I mean, there were six different landscape companies and I’m sure they all competed against each other, but they were all working together.”
Ricther tells me, despite her damage, she held a support event for Furry Friends Adoption in Jupiter, an organization that also took on severe damage.
Richter said she asked people to bring animal food and supplies to Blue Ridge Farms in exchange for pumpkins that had been scattered from the farm’s pumpkin patch.
The result was much of a trailer filled with animal food and supplies.
The South Indian River Water Control District will hold a public meeting updating progress this Thursday at 5 p.m. at its office at 15600 Jupiter Farms Road.
