TAMPA, Fla. — Myakka City was hit hard from Hurricane Ian, and people are still dealing with the damages, including broken fences leaving livestock wondering into the roads. Making it dangerous for drivers.


What You Need To Know

  •  Fences were damaged due to Hurricane Ian

  •  Livestock from farms were seen on the road due to broken fences

  •  People are working together in Myakka City to help each other 

Kary Zarem is busy working. “It’s a lot of work. We’ve been at it since the storm,” he said.

He owns a tree removal company and on this day he’s cleaning up the damage left from Hurricane Ian at someone’s house. “I mean, we pulled a huge section of this tree off of this house here that fell down from the storm,” he said.

He’s a cattle farmer and owns 100 acres of land. “We were out there mainly getting stuff off the fences at first, you know, so we can get them patched back and finally finish the job,” he said.

He and other community members have been lending a hand to help repair livestock fences that broke during the storms. The main goal is to keep the animals safe and off the roads. “We checked on the neighbors and made sure they were all right checking if they had supplies fuel wed kind of got together and did what we needed to,” he said.

Just this week, a driver died after crashing into a loose cow that was in the road.

According to Randy Warren, the public information officer for the Manatee County Sheriffs’ Office, there have been three or four instances where a car hit loose cattle since the storm.

“Since the storm, there are fences that are down, there have been cows that have been getting out, I mean we see incidences that involve hogs and deer, you know, dogs sometimes even a horse, they may be out because gates are down and gates can accidentally be left open,” he said.”

Kary said one of his cattle got loose once, which prompted him to want to help others.

“When it comes to cattle, they want to get out. They want to explore and move around where they haven’t been. Unfortunately, you know, the lights scare them just like deer and they panic and run out in the road. it’s unfortunate when that happens, but people need to slow down,” he said.

It’s a community effort to help one another during times of need, but also creating awareness to keep people and livestock safe.

The sheriff’s office said the deputies have been very active in the area helping repair fences and to advise people to keep a close eye out for animals in the road.