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The storm-struck farmer from Ona

By LANE DEGREGORY
Published January 21, 2007

"Reaping a grim harvest" Dec. 21, 2004; links.tampabay.com

THE STORY: Three times that season, the farmer cleared his land.

Three times, he planted - and replanted - crops.

Three times, hurricanes destroyed everything.

Frank T. Basso Jr. was a third-generation farmer who worked more than 800 acres in Ona in Hardee County. During three months in 2004, he lost more than $1-million worth of land, equipment and crops. Creditors started calling. He sold off 100 acres to pay debts.

That December, Basso and 200 migrant workers were busy harvesting beans. Beans, the farmer said, were the only vegetable that would grow quickly enough to cash in on by spring. He was hoping beans would help save the farm.

FROM THE STORY: "It's devastating. What else can I say? To have to keep coming back here, after each storm, and think about having to start over. How can you keep starting over?"

THE REST OF THE STORY: A few months after harvesting those beans, Basso filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. He sold his farm, some of it to a housing developer, some to a phosphate mine ("which is even worse," he said).

He had to lay off 50 full-time employees and tell the migrant workers not to bother coming back.

"We had no choice," he said last week. "They were foreclosing on my vehicles, my home. We just couldn't go on anymore."

At 51, Basso had to find a new career.

He builds steel houses now. His company, Gulf Homes of Florida, constructs homes from recycled cars. It takes about seven cars to make a house.

"All our homes are affordable," he said. They average $150,000.

The best part? Because the houses are made of steel, hurricanes can't hurt them.

WHAT'S NEXT: Basso's company is starting to get contracts to build developments of steel homes. He is going to help construct 250 homes in Sebring.

And he's overseeing a project in LaBelle, the citrus capital of Florida. Soon dozens of homes will grow on land that used to be a citrus farm.

[Last modified January 20, 2007, 21:04:34]