- May 1, 2025
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Prior to hurricanes Helene and Milton, Kay Kouvatsos thinks Siesta Key had a false sense of security.
"They've been telling us for 28 years, high water, flood risk, surge. It never happened," she said. "I think a lot of the residents took that as a huge wakeup call."
As co-owner of the staple restaurant Village Café, with her husband Tom Kouvatsos, she's looking ahead with concern this year.
“We’re praying for the best,” she said. “None of us are confident this isn't going to happen again, but we're hoping that it's once in 100 years not going to happen again.”
Six months after the storms, businesses and residents in Sarasota and beyond are reflecting on what went right amid the devastation and what they might do differently even if mitigation will only go so far in staving off ever more damaging storms in a coastal area.
Siesta Key resident Dino Speranza calls himself "definitely a little more apprehensive" than in the past.
Never before, he said, did he spend four to five days without power or running water, also noting during Hurricane Milton, he lost part of the roof of his home.
“I don’t know what I can do differently than what I did, but it makes me a lot more anxious…” he said. “I definitely will be extra diligent about being prepared.”
Resident Carlos Peralta said if his family faces a similar situation in the future, the one thing they would do differently is avoid the hardship of staying at home during repairs.
“When we talk about dealing with flooding, especially at the scale of 5 feet of water, there is little that you can do to prepare,” he said. “Nothing can stop too much water from entering your house, but we are taking everything that we have and using it to make it a smarter decision moving forward.”
Amid their apprehension, owners of Siesta Key businesses have found some strategies for the future.
Kristin Hale, operations director at Siesta Key Oyster Bar, said over the last "couple of years," the restaurant had "pretty much perfected" its process of securing the building.
She said last year it added new improvements, including foam caulk in the door frames and self-inflating sandbags.
“I feel like you can only do what you can do, and then just pray that the building is there and standing when it's all over, so it’s definitely an emotional time for us," she said. "It’s scary.”
Kay Kouvatsos said after Helene's storm surge, they were determined water would not enter the restaurant again.
She said they succeeded with Milton in preventing any floodwater from entering, sealing off all doors inside and out with silicone tape.
“We now know to do that again,” she said.
Nara Horn of Siesta Key Fudge Factory said as the store lost a lot of its inventory previously, it will be placing more in storage, while also bringing in signs from outside.
"(We’ll) probably pick up a couple things that are valuable, but at the end, if the storm takes it, then it takes it, and there's nothing we can do; we just have to come back and re-build again," she said.
However, preserving the beauty of the outdoors is also a consideration.
Helene Hyland, a board member of the Siesta Key Chamber, is undertaking a private study with another resident to explore which plants are the most floodwater-resistant.
“If you ride down Midnight Pass Road and down Ocean Boulevard and Beach Road, you can see where the plants are dead," she said. "You don't want to replant with those."
She said it surprised her that a highly resilient plant was hibiscus bushes.
"If you look anywhere, you'll see hibiscus now," she said.
Residents agreed that whatever actions they take, it will be necessary to hope for the best.
"It feels like there's been (a hurricane) every single year for the past couple of years, so hopefully, fingers crossed, we can avoid that this year," said Hale.
The community of Longboat Key is also taking its own lessons away from the storms.
Harry's Continental Kitchens celebrated 45 years of serving the Longboat community early last year. Though the prospect of repairing the three-prong family business ravaged by hurricanes Helene and Milton was imposing, co-owner Lynn Christensen said they didn't even question whether it was something they would tackle.
"We got out here as fast as we could and took care of what we could to get open as soon as we could," she said.
Christensen explained a few factors went in the business' favor in the lead up to the storms. She, along with Harry and Hal Christensen, moved the main office to a building at a higher elevation.
"We did that because the only building that would flood when we had past hurricanes was our office," she said.
That proved fortuitous, as Helene sent floodwaters rushing throughout the area where their restaurant and deli also are located. They made the switch to underground fiber service the summer before the storms.
However, the foot-high storm surge still damaged essential electronics, causing systemic POS "quirks" they are still navigating.
Reflecting on their reaction to the damage, Christensen said her family is grateful to the core 25 to 30 staff members who went above and beyond to clean, repaint and repair all the buildings as quickly as possible, officially opening doors Nov. 8.
"I think the season may slow down quicker than we wanted it to, but we'll make it work," she said. "We're looking forward to Easter."
She said this helped not only for the business to salvage as much of the peak tourism season as possible, but also put them in a position to meet the needs of the many repair crews and residents sifting through the aftermath.
Christensen learned the importance of having such dedicated staff members who helped with the speedy rebuild, even going out to get replacement kitchen equipment from off-island when needed.
Looking ahead, she said her family has learned to tackle what it can control and have patience with what it can't.
"I taught me to not think it won't ever happen," she said of the atypically strong storms. "We've lived on the island for more than 50 years. ... It's easy to think of the 'would have, could have, and should have' in being prepared. If I've learned anything, it's to really be prepared."
