Famed swimmer helps rebuild homes damaged by hurricane

KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) - Marathon swimmer Diana Nyad has been helping rebuild homes in the Florida Keys that were ravaged by Hurricane Irma.

The Miami Herald reported Sunday that Nyad spent a week in the Keys and during that time learned to use power tools with her team of 18 volunteers working on three homes on Big Pine Key. Thirty homeowners on Big Pine have applied for help from Habitat for Humanity.

Irma slammed into Florida last September and resulted in at least 80 deaths.

Nyad in 2013 made history when she succeeded on her fifth attempt to swim from Havana to Key West. Landing on Key West’s Smathers Beach on Labor Day, she became the first person ever to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage.