TAMPA – With Hurricane Milton approaching, the Tampa Bay community raced to pick up the pieces and clean up from Hurricane Helene.
When Tampa Mayor Jane Castor put out a call for local companies to help, Nick Friedman, co-founder of College HUNKS Hauling Junk & Moving, stepped up.
His company partnered with Tampa to help remove trash and debris from Helene before Milton strikes.
“Our communities have been knocked down, and now, we’re getting kicked,” Friedman said. “But this is a resilient country, and we will make it through.”
Friedman’s home, his parents’ and in-laws’ homes were flooded and damaged by Helene. He wanted his business to help prevent others from going through the same pain of rebuilding.
Many local streets were lined with water-damaged items – soaked mattresses, ruined furniture, and other debris – that were put out for collection after Helene.
With Milton closing in, the concern was those items becoming dangerous projectiles.
College HUNKS crews had removed 39 truckloads of debris the Sunday and Monday before Hurricane Milton’s arrival.
The moving and junk removal company has more than 200 franchise locations nationwide, including hard-hit areas like Tampa and Asheville, N.C.
“In Asheville, some of our HUNKS are even sleeping, eating and showering at our office there because they lost their homes, and then, they’re going out on our trucks to help with the cleanup,” Friedman said.