RUSKIN, Fla. — In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Spectrum News highlighted Ruskin Methodist Church.

Senior Pastor Tom Emigh said they were determined to rebuild despite the severe flooding damage to the interior.

What You Need To Know

  • It has been three months since Hurricane Helene hit the Gulf Coast of Florida 

  • Ruskin Methodist Church is still making repairs after flood waters entered the church 

  • Senior Pastor Tom Emigh is hopeful that most of their repairs will be finished by Easter

Three months later, there's still a lot to do. 

"We've moved a lot of our furniture and stuff that wasn't immediately needed out here to just sit and wait while we were trying to put the church back together," he said. 

From the walls to the floors, flood waters touched nearly every surface.

The church may not look the same as it did before the storm, but progress is being made.

"It looked like a building that nobody cared about, that wasn't true," he said. 

Volunteers stepped up in a way the pastor never imagined. 

He learned from every person who held a hammer or picked up a broom, how much this building means to the community.

"To patching the walls and painting, gently taking down all the banners and cleaning them up, some of them 30 years old, It feels now like it is loved," he said.  

Emigh is hopeful that most of their repairs will be finished by Easter.