Peace River begins to recede

Well, the Peace River is starting to go down, but it is slow and it could take days. There will be lots left to clean up, but there are a lot of folks in DeSoto County who actually depend on the river to make a living. Fox 13's Kimberly Cuisant is going to show us how they're doing it despite all of that water. We know they're resilient. That is very true Linda. The resilience of Floridians to begin with and right now I'm in Nocatee in DeSoto County. You can see the Peace River still flowing right behind me and right across the way is where Fossil Recovery normally operates. Now they go out on the Peace River to search for fossils like Megalodon shark's teeth and other bones. They also operate on dry land but right now to navigate and to get to their dry dig sites they have to go through the river and this The spirit of working together really comes in with their partner, Up River Adventures. They are now using a swamp buggy provided by Up River Adventures to get them to their dry dig site. Now, what should normally be roads has turned into an extension of the Peace River. And after everyone got their equipment to dry ground earlier this week, they came up with a plan to keep operations going for not only themselves, but also their families. What we've done is gotten very lucky. In front of us here is our quote dry dig. It's really big. Now as you saw, and you will see if you haven't seen it yet in this interview, we just went through serious water. It is literally the only piece of land on this property that we can functionally run a dig right now. So when this tragedy kind of came out and happened, the wheels turned literally. We got on the buggy and said, all right, if we can get people here, let's keep going. So one of the things I pride myself, my partner in Up River Adventures and us, Because we always try to just keep up on one leg and keep things moving no matter what comes our way. This is how we make a living. This is how our employees make a living. This is how Upper River Adventures makes a living. And we all have to work together and just got to be innovative with what we're doing. And we really love working with the public, the tourists that come. We got to make sure that they have nice teeth to find. And a big thank you to Chris and Aaron, his wife there, along with their sons, Rowan and Asher, that took me out with them and Up River Adventures. I can tell you from going out, there is so much wildlife to see and so much to learn. So when the floodwaters do come down, don't be afraid to come out here. Don't be afraid to book a swamp buggy tour with Up River Adventures or a fossil dig. I can tell you, if you come out right now. It'll definitely be a once in a lifetime adventure and they haven't seen this water as we've been saying over the last week. They haven't seen this water this high since Hurricane Ian. At least it's not that high but this is still enough that's going to put them behind a little bit and that's where they need the help from people coming out to visit. And if you do come out here downtown Arcadia as I've said in the past remains dry. There's some great places. Merton's country The free market is amazing, so is is a coffee shop downtown, the Farmhouse Coffee Shop. I only had like a split second to go into each place, but so many nice people out here, such a good drive to get away from the hustle and bustle of just all the towns that we live in and maybe go back to the old Florida life that we all once knew at one point in time. I love, Kim, how they're helping each other, and come on, a swamp buggy ride. That is so Florida. Everyone should do that once, right? It was an adventure. That's the first time I've been on airboats but never a swamp buggy. All right. Well, maybe we'll get some people down there to try it. Kimberly Guzon reporting live for us. Thanks.