"I don't know if we'll be able to come back from this ... it's a lot. This is our happy place," a resident said.

Residents in Florida returned to their homes with shock and sadness Friday as they began picking up the pieces from Hurricane Helene's trail of destruction.

The once sun-drenched community of a few dozen Gulf-side pastel homes in the small community of Dekle Beach, Fla., were largely reduced to rubble after Hurricane Helene’s triple-digit wind speeds and rising waters arrived on Thursday and tore through the area overnight.