Hurricane Irma lingers with expensive toll from big washout in Mount Dora

Hurricane Irma — the gift from Mother Nature that keeps on giving to the grateful people of Lake County.

Or not.

The hurricane mess is in the past for most Lake folks but not for Maria Andrews and Mount Dora. Last week, city workers were moving her out of her home near the top of the Dogwood Mountain Reserve subdivision, south of U.S. Highway 441 between Lake Gertrude and Donnelly Street, and into an apartment, where she could spend as much as six months on the taxpayer tab.

While she’s gone, contractors being hired by the city will be working to fix what looks like the mother of all washouts, the one that prevents her from driving her car to the driveway of her house.