A sobering realization

KISSIMMEE — Scott Rose didn’t know where to start.

Standing in front of his teenage daughter Michelle’s purple bedroom -- exposed after the hurricane -- Rose, 34, shook his head.

Amid tufts of soggy insulation, Michelle’s belongings were scattered everywhere: a makeup brush, a library card, a baby chick stuffed animal.

Everything was in ruins. The carpet he recently installed. The computer, scanner and printer he just bought for his kids.

Rose shook his head again. “I’ve got to watch ‘em take it with a bulldozer,” he said.

Osceola County officials have deemed the mobile home unlivable.

So Rose, his wife, Dena, Michelle and the couple’s other children -- Charity and sons Chase and Parker -- have a week to pack up whatever they can salvage.

Then they have to start over.

Bulldozed dreams

Rose likes a good storm, likes to be scared. It’s the thrill-seeker in him.

He planned to ride out the hurricane in his mobile home, near Kissimmee Gateway Airport. But his mother called, begging him to come with his wife and kids to her house nearby.

Finally, Rose relented. The family headed to his mother’s place as the first rains hit. When Charley struck with full force, Michelle curled up on the floor under a blanket.

After the storm, Rose insisted on seeing how their home had fared. At first glance, Rose didn’t think the place had suffered much damage. Then Michelle screamed.

When he saw what remained of her room, Rose hurled a bottle at a wall. He punched his car.

Amid his anger and frustration came a startling realization: Had the family stayed there, “my daughter would have been dead.”

Digging out

The night of the storm, Rose couldn’t find Pounce, his cat. He worried he would unearth Pounce in the rubble, but the cat reappeared Saturday, as did Speedy the gerbil.

Michelle stumbled on a wall hanging printed with a pot of gold, a rainbow and a baby picture of her and Rose.

Seeing her destroyed home once was all Dena Rose could take. It upset her so much that she hasn’t returned. She deals with the insurance company, while Rose packs up.

“I think only hourly,” Rose said. “I can’t think daily. It’s just too much.”

Rose tries to keep a sense of humor despite the family’s uncertain future. In the debris, he found a plastic bag filled with notes from Michelle’s boyfriends. He dangled the unopened bag in front of her. Michelle dove for it, snatching it from him.

Right now, the family is staying with an aunt and uncle just up the street. Rose knows they can’t do that for long -- his relatives don’t have room for six more people.

But Michelle saw an upside: “I get new stuff,” she said. “I want a bigger bed.”

Her father sighed. “Let’s have a roof first,” he replied.

Then they can worry about filling the space under that roof.