Woman still living in shed after Ian destroyed Orlo Vista home

By Bob Hazen

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    ORLOVISTA, Florida (WESH) — From the street, you might think Marisel Jacobo’s house on Ronnie Circle in Orlo Vista is in good shape a year after Hurricane Ian. But in reality, it’s not where she lives right now.

She lives in a shed in the backyard.

“That’s what I’m living in,” Jacobo told WESH 2 News. “That’s where I spend my nights, and my days when I was out of work. And it’s really hot. It has no insulation, it has nothing, and with this weather, it’s so hot.”

The shed is big enough to fit her bed and the few things she was able to save from her house when Hurricane Ian swamped the Orange County neighborhood. Several feet of water filled her house. At the time, Jacobo had just undergone major surgery and could not get out of her house on her own.

She says she spent five hours in the flood water until firefighters were able to rescue her.

“I lost everything from my kids, my grandkids. Everything I worked for for 27 years, gone in one blink,” Jacobo said.

The flood was only the beginning of her problems though: for the past year she’s been trying to get her home repaired, but hasn’t been able to get her insurance company to cover the damages.

“It’s a year, and I try, try, and nobody gives me an answer. Asking for help, no help,” Jacobo said.

Her policy is with the state-run Citizens Property Insurance, and she also had flood insurance. Jacobo says the flood insurance company agreed to cover replacing her floor and walls, but she can’t renovate the house until the roof is fixed, which she says leaks large amounts of water any time it rains. She says Citizens is refusing to pay to repair her roof.

WESH 2 asked Citizens about the issue, but a spokesman said he could not discuss individual policy issues.

Jacobo says she has a lawyer working on the case, but does not know when it could possibly be resolved. In the meantime, she’s still paying for her house and insurance, even though she can’t live in her property.

“Look at the house. It’s still the same. It’s not safe to stay here,” Jacobo said. “But I don’t have a place to go. I can’t pay the mortgage and pay one more rent. I can’t.”

So, until she can figure out a way to get her home fixed, Jacobo says she’ll continue sleeping and living out of her backyard shed.

“It’s so scary, it’s really scary,” Jacobo said. “It’s no kind of life like that. This is no life.”

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