- December 20, 2024
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During Hurricane Milton, Ormond Beach resident Ed Budgen and his wife heard the exact moment their neighbor's live oak tree uprooted.
Thinking it was lightning, they peered out the window, only to watch the tree fall on Budgen's Chevy Silverado.
"There goes my truck — those were my exact words," Budgen said.
As a handyman, and owner of his own company, Budgen & Sons, his truck played a big role in his livelihood. But since the hurricane, he has made due with the transportation he still has: his wife's dark pink Chevy Spark. He can't fit a ladder on it, but he's picking up as many jobs as he's able to do.
"I call it a go-kart," Budgen said of his wife's car.
Budgen founded his business in February 2021. His family's roots in the community, however, date back several decades, as his great-grandfather owned the Daytona Cab Car Company — he also was responsible for building a dog house in 1940 for Daytona's town dog Brownie, and later establishing a bank account in his name.
Due to Hurricane Milton, Budgen lost almost two weeks of work. As the tree that damaged his truck fell also damaged his home's power line, his was the only house in their street without electricity for a week.
But the neighbors, he said, have been very helpful. One brought his family a generator after the storm, and he'd come home and see full cans of gas sitting on their porch. Another neighbor provided them with food and transportation when needed.
"It gives me hope for humanity," Budgen said. "There's probably eight or nine neighbors around here that just did everything they possibly could to help us out."
But the best way his neighbors helped? They found him jobs to do.
"They're putting me to work because they know it's close by and I don't need a truck to get there," Budgen said. "We're just taking it one day at a time."
