PJ Ornot is used to spending time in flooded homes. He was a Coast Guard rescue swimmer for 24 years. But last month, a natural disaster literally hit home.
“It was a little bit weird coming into your own flooded home,” he said.
Three and a half feet of water wrecked his house in Crystal Beach.
“Couches were in my dining room. The bed was against the wall. Windows got broken from debris from outside that was floating and inside as well. It was trashed,” Ornot said.
Now, like so many others, Ornot and his family are without a home and dealing with the challenges of renovating or rebuilding.
He’s spent hours navigating the permitting process to get work done.
Tuesday he found out an inspector from Pinellas County did come to his home.
But because he was given no advance notice, he couldn’t show the inspector the inside of the home.
“The rules seem to keep changing halfway through the game. No one really knows what to do. It’s like do you do this? Do you do this? That rule worked yesterday, but it doesn’t work today. Lack of communication seems to be the biggest thing.”