CHARLOTTE CO., Fla. — One week ago, Fox 4 introduced you to a retired Lieutenant Colonel struggling to find any help to fix his roof tarp after Nicole.
And after the Army Corps of Engineers said they couldn’t help.
The owner of Epic Roofing Company saw our story on Jim Rafferty’s house in Port Charlotte and wanted to speed up the repair process. Now, not only does he have a new roof but also renewed hope.
“I was feeling pretty low there for a while, under the water. Now I feel pretty good.”
For retired Lt. Col. Jim Rafferty, it’s amazing what a difference a week makes.
"The roof is solid, I can’t see any lights up there.”
A new roof after Hurricane Ian destroyed the old one, leaking water into his home. Until recently.
"The crew that worked today worked very hard,” he says.
That crew being Epic Roofing. A local company from Charlotte County.
“Got the crew out here, got material dropped off and now he is fully dried in and now safe from the rains,” said Marshall Adams, owner of Epic Roofing.
It was something Jim says didn’t even seem possible. He said he was told the original time frame for that permit would be January.
"They got to see your tape, I think, on Fox 4 and realized we were in a quandary," said Rafferty. "They put their act together and got everybody going and came out today on Tuesday.”
It was after seeing Jim’s story Epic decided to help speed up the recovery process. The only roadblock was getting a permit in hand.
"We had them expedite the permit process and got the permit pulled today and have the inspection set up for tomorrow,” said Adams.
There’s still a couple of days of work ahead with an inspection set for Wednesday. Jim even has a general contractor lined up to help with the inside of his home. Something he says he can’t wait to get started on.
"Then I can go to work to get these walls back and get some furniture back and start living again."
