- December 26, 2024
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Hurricane Helene shocked many Longboat Key residents on Thursday, Sept. 26.
Although Helene made landfall more than 200 miles away, Longboat Key was not immune to the side effects of a Category 4 hurricane. The storm surge produced by Helene flooded many Longboat homes and caused catastrophic damage to some.
Many Longboat Key residents chose to evacuate, but some didn't.
Whether it was experiencing the tropical-storm-force winds and battling a flooded house, or it was not knowing if their home was going to be okay, Longboat Key residents have many different stories about Helene's arrival.
Though Maureen Merrigan wasn't in the area when Hurricane Helene hit, she had many concerns when the storm threatened Longboat Key with high storm surge.
"It's nerve-wracking," she said, explaining that her concerns were all over the place — for friends, for her Longboat property and for the future of the area's water quality.
Having grown up on Bradenton Beach and now having owned a home on Longboat Key for about 30 years, Merrigan said this storm was the worst she'd seen.
"It's more flooding than we've ever seen," Merrigan said. "No one's ever seen anything like it."
Merrigan received updates on the storm from afar when Helene hit. During the storm, there were a couple of people that Merrigan knew that stayed. Those few people sent updates to other neighborhoods.
Something that struck Merrigan was how quickly Helene developed. Merrigan said, earlier that Thursday, the residents who stayed said everything seemed fine. Then, later in the day, reports started coming in that the flooding intensified quickly.
Merrigan flew to Longboat Key from Vermont after Helene passed to assess the damage. At her elevated house on the north end, water only intruded in the garage and entryway.
But at a separate ground-level condo she owns, the damage was far worse.
"It was like a washing machine at that place," Merrigan described.
It appeared that the strong storm surge broke off one of the sliding glass doors to the condo, allowing water to flow freely into the condo — with it, about one-third of Merrigan's furniture.
She said she has no idea where that furniture ended up.
Not only do the Condensa and Carter families own Performance Pilates and Sips in Whitney Plaza, but the family also lives on Longboat Key. All decided to stay on the island throughout Hurricane Helene.
The family moved to higher ground — a friend's condo building — before the storm took its worst hit on the island. After Helene passed, Lorenzo Condensa and his parents, Emily and Mike, went to check on their home and family businesses.
At Whitney Plaza, both Performance Pilates and Sips were flooded. At their home near Juan Anasco Drive, the water damage was far worse. Most of their belongings had been damaged by the storm.
Before focusing on their house, the family wanted to get their businesses back in order.
They quickly got to work. Lorenzo, his sister Justina Carter and her husband Chris Carter spent days after Helene cleaning out Sips, which is owned by the Carters. They had to remove drywall around the bottom of the coffee shop and hoped the refrigerators were salvageable.
Lorenzo Condensa and his parents, Mike and Emily, also worked quickly to get Performance Pilates back in shape to open their doors. They were able to open the studio for a couple days before Hurricane Milton — projected to be stronger than Helene — caused another evacuation.
Throughout the process and before the Milton evacuation, Lorenzo Condensa had been documenting the businesses' recovery process through videos he would post to Longboat Key Facebook groups.
Even though it was a difficult situation for everyone on the island, Lorenzo Condensa said he had hoped to bring a little bit of positivity to the people watching his videos.
Luis Ortiz and his wife, Christine, have lived on Buttonwood Drive since 1993. Hurricane Helene was unlike anything they had ever seen.
"We've been here for a very long time and have never seen anything like it," Luis Ortiz said.
The Ortiz family said they have always had a household "policy" that they would only leave for a Category 3 hurricane or above, but would stay for anything else. They stayed in their Buttonwood Drive home for Hurricane Helene.
Both Luis and Christine said Helene was sort of a "deceiving" storm, being a wider storm and bringing more water than they had anticipated.
Luis Ortiz described the day as being trapped in a fish bowl, watching the water rise around them and eventually flooding their house. At around 5 p.m. that Thursday afternoon when Helene passed Longboat Key, Luis Ortiz said they could see the tide start to encroach on their property.
Water entered their house from both sides, and the couple tried to save as many things as they could by raising them or putting things on countertops. In the end, about 2 to 3 feet of water came in the house.
Over the years of living in one of the island's lowest-lying areas, both said they've seen more frequent flooding and drainage problems become more and more apparent.
After coming back from her relaxing trip to Italy, Paradise Center Program Manager Debby Debile was taken by surprise by the news of a hectic hurricane.
Sticking to her Florida roots, Debile wasn’t nervous hearing about Hurricane Helene. With many of her neighbors at Spanish Main Yacht Club staying, she decided to hold down the fort in her home.
“We didn’t know what a surge was,” said Debile. “We really didn’t think we would be hit that hard since it wasn’t hitting us directly, but 100% of everything in our house got flooded. It was about four feet of water.”
Debile recalled watching her garage fill up like a bathtub and ruining her cars. The wind was so loud that she left her upstairs bedroom to sleep on the couch.
As a yoga teacher who helps others center themselves, Debile said it was hard to find peace herself after being on the island during Hurricane Helene. Through the traumatic experience of losing her home and her car, she decided not to make any appointments the week after the hurricane.
Debile hopes to provide healing yoga classes once the island returns to normalcy, but she first is prioritizing grounding herself.
“A student from Sarasota tried to drive here this week to take a yoga class,” said Debile. “She didn't get here because the traffic was so bad, but I told her that I am emotionally exhausted, so I could definitely not teach a class. I'm struggling because I'm not grounded, and I have to be really grounded for my job.”
No questions asked, Bonney and Len Libman immediately packed bags to head to a hotel when an evacuation order was issued in Longboat Key due to Hurricane Helene. The one concern they did have was how their orange tabby cat, Selly, would react to staying in a hotel.
“You know cats,” said Len. “They are really homebodies. So, new environments are the worst. It is so much easier with dogs because they love to go to new places. But we came into this hotel with Selly in a carrier.”
As soon as the Libmans’ arrived at their hotel and let Selly out of her carrier, she immediately sought a hiding spot. When under the bed wasn’t an option, she was confused about her next move.
For the next five days, Bonney said that not being able to hide well brought out Selly’s sassy side.
Thankfully, the Libmans' home was untouched when they arrived back on the Key. The Libmans did have one thought after the hurricane: Selly was the most excited of the three to come back to her comfort spots at their condo.
As June Hessel visited the lobby of the Hilton Garden Inn on North Tamiami Trail, she saw lost souls amongst her friends from Seaplace Condominiums during the week of Hurricane Helene.
A group of Seaplace residents went to a hotel in Sarasota together on Sept. 25 to follow mandatory evacuation orders from Longboat Key during the recent hurricane.
It intrigued Hessel to see how the lobby was filled with a diverse group of people, from children to elders, looking for companionship, especially if they were alone. She loved talking to the residents from different parts of the area and bonding with them over this tragedy.
Along with chatting with other hotel guests, the group took this as an opportunity to explore Sarasota. One day, Hessel and her close friend Sandy Endres went to the Cine Bistro to watch a movie. On other days, the group explored different bars and restaurants to mingle and watch football.
Hessel was also amazed at the hotel staff who helped the guests during their stay.
"I never really thought about how the hotel staff work day and night during hurricanes, so we are truly so thankful for them," said Hessel. "While we are trying to relax during this crisis, they don't even go home."
Leaving to return to the island on Sept. 30, Hessel even made friends with Longboaters they hadn't met before. Though the island faced immense destruction from the hurricane, Hessel said she looks forward to seeing her new buddies around the Key.
Even with an evacuation order for the Key, Barbara Pressman thought it was best for her and her son to stay at their condominium, especially since she had just gotten a new cat.
“It was very interesting to see how a new little kitty reacted to the storm because, of course, this was her first hurricane,” said Pressman. “She was going back and forth from the window sills following the rain, not as scared as I thought she would be.”
During the storm, Pressman was frightened and uncomfortable due to no power or water. Her curious kitty running around did bring her some relief. Pressman was grateful the water only came up to her porch even though her Islands West condominium was on the Gulf side.
When Pressman woke up the morning of Sept. 28, she found sand piled high all over her porch, unlike any other tropical storm. She was thankful that this was her biggest problem after checking in with her friends from the rest of the Key.
It is hard to spot one resident from Longboat Harbour Condominiums alone because this group runs in a pack. Evacuating from Longboat is no expectation.
Resident Karen Pashkow said that even when having to move to two different hotels during the evacuation, she still found her friends from the condominium at both places.
“The trick to evacuating from Longboat is making sure to book a hotel for a week because it is easier to cancel days than to add more since all the hotels are booked,” said Pashkow. “Thankfully, we were able to get together with our friends at both hotels because this can be a really isolating time for people. We just had so much fun every night. Misery loves company.”
The Longboat Harbour crew spent the week learning how to play the tile game Rubicube in the lobby most nights. They also visited a new restaurant every night since they never got to try out Sarasota restaurants.
Along with spending time with her friends, Pashkow took the time to get to know other people from the area. The most heartbreaking story she heard was about a couple who was living in her hotel because their new home was destroyed by Hurricane Debby in August.
Coming back to the island, Pashkow’s first-floor condo was completely dry. But, she was shocked at the debris she passed coming back onto Longboat Key. This past week, Pashkow and her husband Sparky spent their time helping friends clean up their homes that were affected by Hurricane Helene.
“When I heard that Longboat was hit hard, it really didn’t hit until I was on the island,” said Pashkow. “It really breaks your heart seeing the sand piled up taller than your car and people’s belongings in the street. For some people, they are just here temporarily, but this is our home, so it feels unreal.”
