- December 21, 2024
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The scene across Sarasota is not uniform when it comes to the impacts of storms.
While some residents are heading into Hurricane Helene feeling fully equipped, others are still enduring the results of Hurricane Debby in August.
While walking through the streets around his home on Irving Street in Pinecraft, Sy Suire sees few lights in the houses nearby.
He said his own house is one of the few in the area that was habitable after the storm, while a few houses have been condemned.
Pinecraft, a predominantly Amish community, has been the epicenter of flooding that took place during Hurricane Debby.
With a total of 17.78 inches of rainfall according to National Weather Service data, the storm brought historical rainfall to Sarasota.
Suire calls the current interior of his home a "construction site," with drywall having been removed, although he said he is fortunate to have an upstairs where he can sleep.
He also hopes that with lower amounts of rainfall predicted than those of Debby, the effects of the storm will be less significant.
Nonetheless, he said there will still be challenges ahead as storms continue to impact the area.
"I don't know how long-term sustainable it's going to be to even live here," he said.
He said he is sure he will now be required to purchase flood insurance, something he had not had at the time Debby took place.
"They redrew the flood map, and I was no longer in a flood zone, so I canceled my flood insurance in June," he said.
He also said mortgage and insurance costs have risen.
"I don't see how the home values can be anywhere near what they were before this flood, because any prospective buyer is going to know that this is a prone flood zone," he said.
After the five feet of water that entered her Pinecraft home during Hurricane Debby, Sherry Nelson is hoping that she and the two others in her household, and their two dogs and four cats, can lodge elsewhere for the storm.
She has a motel reservation in downtown Sarasota, while she hopes to hitch a trailer to their pickup truck to house the animals.
"We don't have other family here and we don't other have other houses to go to, so we've been trying to put the greenboard up, and stuff like that, and here we go again," she said. "So what are we getting ready to do? Have faith in God."
During Debby, she said, someone — she doesn't know who — had arrived at the door with a boat, helping those in the home to safety.
She also said the community's Amish residents were extremely involved in helping everyone else in the area.
"They're absolutely wonderful people..." she said. If these people come back in this community, I'm sure that this community will rebuild and be back again, because they're Amish; they do a lot of things by hand and do a lot of stuff the old-fashioned way."
She is confident that there is hope for the community.
"There's a lot of people that lost a lot of things, but there's a lot of people working to get it back together," she said.
Flor Chaves, who lives in Southgate, will be staying in her home for the storm.
Nonetheless, she has seven other Sarasota residents, for a total of 12 people, are coming to stay with her due to her home's hurricane-resistant qualities.
She said she sees a newfound concern about hurricanes in Sarasota, following the impacts of Debby.
"I think everybody was so relaxed," said Chaves.
Her stops for stocking up on items included Pinecraft Discount Market.
"From here, I'm going to have to go and get some batteries, and fill out my bathtub with water," she said.
She said for her, the preparations are beginning to feel more challenging.
"We don't get used to this," she said. "For some reason, this year, I think because we're getting older, it bothered us more than before. I think 10 years ago, 20 years ago, it wasn't bad, but now it's kind of more scary."
Siesta Key residents and businesses were prepared to take on the storm.
"I can't believe we were better off here than they were out yonder, which was really upsetting, obviously, to see," said Tiffany Abbott, referring to downtown.
Although not leaving the island, as per the evacuation order, she did seek a change of location by evacuating to her friend's home, which has a generator and is more hurricane resistant.
Businesses in Siesta Key Village were also confident in their ability to endure the storm.
Jacque Slayton, manager of The Hub Baja Grill, said it would be taking basic precautions, including sandbags, and that it has been fortunate in the past.
"I feel like we're pros at this now," she said.
