PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – The line started at 7:00 am and just kept going.
People from across Pinellas County came to the Seminole campus of St. Petersburg College to apply for federal benefits for loss of food and wages as a result of Hurricane Irma.
Steve Hersey is a disabled veteran who was among those waiting in the line on Friday.
“Storm kind of messed us up pretty bad down here, so this support going to help us out a whole lot,” said Hersey.
For some, the heat and the long line were just too much—several passed out while waiting to apply.
Workers passed out water to those in line, and also helped people with disabilities to a cooling tent, but the heat still affected some.
Four hundred workers from the Department of Children and families processed claims as quickly as they could.
Once inside the processing tent, the application took less than ten minutes, but the line to get in lasted more than an hour for Florida many.
“Besides the extremely long wait in line, with the heat, it’s been great because it went super fast,” said Angela Jackson who lost power to her home during Irma and that caused her to lose all of the food in her refrigerator.
“All of the trees around us were all over our front yard, back yard, everything like that, you know some loss of income,” said Jackson.
The Food for Florida program is being run by the Florida Department of Children and Families.
“On our first day, we serviced about 2200 people, our second day, we reached almost 5000, we expect to double that today,” said Nichole Solomon with DCF.
The application tent will be at St. Petersburg college through Monday, October 2.
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