Hurricane Debby brings flooding, travel disruptions to Longboat Key

When warned about Tropical Storm Debby, Longboater Karen Pashkow did her normal storm preparation shopping to stock up on the evening of Aug. 2.

She went out one more time during the weekend on Saturday and saw people buying the essentials as she did the day before. After doing last-minute chores and preparations, she hunkered down inside her condominium to watch the Olympics and let the storm pass.

Monday morning, Pashkow found herself still watching the rain on Sarasota Bay and thought, “When is this going to stop?”

Most Longboaters like Pashkow were surprised by the impact of Hurricane Debby. She said Longboat Harbour Condominium was flooded along the walkway by its seawall and heavy debris prevented many cars from exiting the parking lot.

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Pashkow's husband Sparky and other members of the Longboat Harbour Yacht Club secured its boats on Sunday evening. She said one of their neighbor's boats was mostly underwater Monday morning due to the amount of rainfall.

For those who live on the Gulf side, more precautions were taken. At Seaplace Condominiums, they packed up the beach and pool furniture. Resident June Hessel said that elevators stopped working throughout the night and there was some flooding on the ground floor of her building.

“Each year, we get evacuated at least once,” said Hessel. “Last year, we went to a hotel and we were back on the island in two days. This year, we didn’t even get evacuated. I feel like it has been much longer than last year and it affected more. It was the whole weekend and now it is still raining on Monday.”

The Rev. Brock Patterson checked on the Longboat Island Chapel Monday morning and found lots of debris to clean up in the midst of its renovations. He said that the worst flooding he saw when driving down Gulf of Mexico Drive was in front of Zota Beach Resort. 

Many businesses and community spaces were closed on Monday including The Paradise Center, the Longboat Key Chamber of Commerce and Temple Beth Israel. TBI took precautions beforehand on Friday by securing a tarp over its roof due to its roof renovations. 

Owner of Longboat Key Fitness Petar Sibinkic drove onto the island early on Monday morning and said St. Armands Circle wasn’t flooded at 7 a.m. Besides a few cancellations due to safety concerns, most of his clients came to work out at the gym if they lived nearby. While checking on his friend’s home, Sibinkic did turn around because of flooding by St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church.

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After reading through people’s experiences on Facebook, Longboat Key Chamber President Kim Verreault echoed everyone’s concerns about the impact Hurricane Debby had on the area. She said the one that broke her heart the most was hearing that most of the turtle nests on the beach had washed away.

“I did read somewhere that turtles are very smart and most of them have multiple nests,” said Verreault. “So, I hope a good majority of them are safe. Besides that, this ended up being far more than what anybody anticipated. From everyone that I have talked to from the Chamber and in Sarasota, the magnitude of this took everybody by surprise.”