Siesta Key beachgoers, merchants taking Helene in stride

By Jim DeLa
| 1:25 p.m. September 25, 2024

Kimberly Ramalho, left, and Katie Capone sit on Siesta Key Beach Wednesday, Sept. 25. The two friends were enjoying the weather a day before Hurricane Helene is due to pass by on the way to a predicted landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida.

Siesta Key
Neighbors

Crowds were thin Wednesday morning on Siesta Key, where evacuation orders have been issued in advance of Hurricane Helene’s predicted arrival.

Some stores and restaurants were open, though, and business was good. “The last two weeks have been miserable,” said Chanda Sommervile, the general manager of the Broken Egg Cafe. “but this week has been great.”

Her staff was wrapping up the second seating of the morning and she was hoping they would be able to close soon, to let her staff get home to prepare for the storm. “By noon at the latest,” she said.

Down the block, Dan Patterson was cutting and screwing plywood sheets to protect store windows of the Siesta Poke restaurant.

Patterson, the maintenance manager for a group of stores including the MVP Pub, says this was his first hurricane. “I’ve only been working with these guys for 6-7 months,” he said. “This is the first time I’ve seen everybody prepping like this.”

He said he wasn’t too worried about wind damage, although he expected some flooding. Patterson said the stores’ managers were rallying to prepare for the weather. “We’ll teamwork it and get it done.”

Dan Patterson, the maintenance manager for a group of shops on Ocean Boulevard in Siesta Key Village, puts up plywood to protect shop windows Wednesday, Sept. 25 as Hurricane Helene nears.

Down the road, the parking lot at Siesta Key Beach has plenty of spaces. The wind was up and high clouds were keeping the full sun at bay.

A small tracked loader was pulling the colorful lifeguard stands away from the shoreline, dragging them a couple of hundred yards up the beach to protect them from the 4-7 feet of expected storm surge.

People were still walking and biking on the beach, before being forced to hunker down tomorrow.

Near the water’s edge, friends Kimberly Ramalho and Katie Capone were relaxing in beach chairs, seemingly unconcerned about the impending weather.

Capone, visiting since Sept. 11 from New Jersey, said she had been scheduled to fly back home Thursday, when the storm is set to arrive. “I just pushed it to Tuesday,“ she said. “Here we are. It is what it is.”

Both women were content to simply take things in stride. “Yesterday was a beautiful beach day,” Capone said. “And Friday will be amazing.

“We just have to get through the rough stuff. We’ll be fine.”

author

Jim DeLa

Jim DeLa is the digital content producer for the Observer. He has served in a variety of roles over the past four decades, working in television, radio and newspapers in Florida, Colorado and Hawaii. He was most recently a reporter with the Community News Collaborative, producing journalism on a variety of topics in Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties; and as a digital producer for ABC7 in Sarasota.