PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — The line grew longer and longer in the empty lot off Tamiami Trail.
A man in a sweat-soaked bandana came out of the tiny trailer, held his hands out wide and yelled over the generator: Three racks of ribs left, four orders of brisket, but plenty of pulled pork.
”I’m doing my best, I’m only one person,” said Doug Alexander.
His food truck, Scooby’s BBQ & Grub Shack, pulled into the Port Charlotte lot two hours before sundown Thursday evening. He usually roves around Brooksville, Spring Hill, New Port Richey and Port Richey in Pasco and Hernando counties, but on Thursday, he packed up his blue pickup truck and trailer with a pizza oven in tow and drove 3½1/2 hours south.
Alexander enlisted young men in the line to hand out free bottles of water. Every break to sip some Sprite and drag on a Kool cigarette, he asked if there were any first responders. They got whatever they wanted for free: Barbeque, pizza, burgers.
”I wanted to help these people out,” Alexander said. “They don’t got s—t.”
Cars peeled into the lot. Folks who have seen better days asked around if the food truck took debit cards, or if there was any food left.
”It would just be nice to have some warm food,” said Garfield Scarlett who waited in line for over an hour to take meals home to his family of three. “There’s no convenience stores, nothing.”
Pulled Pork sandwiches went for $12, a half pound of brisket for $15.
“That’s the business to be in right now,” Scarlett said.
Susie Brenner gripped her 15-year-old deaf chihuahua, Chi Chi, stressed from the commotion the night before. The roof above her ground-floor apartment off Toledo Blade Boulevard caved in. Brenner and her wife, Linda, put potting soil outside the front door, but water still came in through the master bedroom and bathroom.
”It’s horrible,” Brenner said. “We were here for Irma and it was nothing.”
Rick Legault and Rosa-lee Mitri-Reed’s third-floor apartment’s balcony had leaks through the lights. Their balcony door leaked water. A light post fell in the parking lot and they saw a tipped over semitractor-trailer.
They ventured out with their three children, ages 12, 9 and 6, to find hot food. They ate through their pizza while playing Mouse Trap, Candy Land, Trouble and Battleship.
”They’re willing to have something they normally don’t eat just to have something warm to eat,” said Mitri-Reed.“
“Absolutely,” said 12-year-old Dominic.
Faye Vidulich swiped through the photos of damage to her home while waiting in line to pick up food for 8 people: Her two kids, their spouses, their kids and her husband and herself.
Vidulich’s roof’s shingles were all gone. The ceiling of the front porch came down and insulation flew everywhere. The screen of the porch blew off and was twisted. Her bench flew across the street.
”We got hit hard. It was scary, longer than Charley,” she said. “A lot of damage. A couple of trees fell on houses. A car.”
After a long wait, the half-cheese, half-pepperoni pizza for her grandson was ready.
”We’re alive,” she said. “We’re happy.”
Alexander came back out. No more barbeque. Only pizzas and a few burgers.
”I’m sleeping here in my truck and serving breakfast tomorrow,” he said. “Eggs and French toast on the griddle. 10 a.m.”
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