Shore Acres neighbors help each other as Hurricane Idalia cleanup continues

ST. PETERSBURG — If his house wasn’t torn apart, Gary Grudzinskas would have enjoyed watching workers pour gallons of concrete on his floor. It looked like a gray pool of soft ice cream, pushing into the corners of his Shore Acres bedroom that seven weeks ago had 4 inches of water in it.

“It’s fascinating isn’t it?” said Grudzinskas, 60, a technical writer who has been living in a rental across town with his three teenagers since Hurricane Idalia walloped his neighborhood on the morning of Aug. 30. He maintains fairly good humor considering the trauma he and his neighbors have endured since the Category 4 storm spared much of Tampa Bay but seemed to target Shore Acres and adjacent neighborhood Riviera Bay.

An assessment by the city of St. Petersburg found that of the 1,466 homes around the city that suffered damage from the hurricane that day, 1,206 of those homes were in Shore Acres — a staggering 82% of the flood damage in just one area. Nearly half of all homes in the neighborhood had some degree of damage, the city report said.

The fires and floods and damage were intense, but the many touching moments of neighbors helping neighbors is one of the reasons Grudzinskas is rebuilding rather than moving away from his home of 29 years.

“Somebody offered to bring me a refrigerator. A total stranger,” Grudzinskas said. “We had food trucks handing out food, restaurants catering meals. We got gift card donations to take the family out. People just show up and help each other.”

Carolyn Ganley, a fifth grade teacher at Largo’s Plato Academy, lives alone with her two dogs and had to return to work two days after the floodwaters swamped her recently remodeled Shore Acres home. She said the neighborhood’s lively Facebook page has been a lifeline.

“Neighbors have cooked for me. A woman made me this big Filipino meal,” Ganley said. “You can go on there and ask for anything and total strangers will show up. They moved my boxes, helped in the yard. People just show up.”

What wasn’t showing up were the permits needed to replace structural damage like flooring and walls until the city expedited them for the flooded neighborhoods. And some banks have been slow to approve the payments coming to the homeowners from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to spend on repairs, a piece of red tape that surprised many.

“The city of St. Petersburg is committed to expediting the rebuilding and recovery by accelerating the permitting process with the hope of helping affected individuals return to their homes as soon as possible,” said James Corbett, City Development Administrator. While major repair work is underway, he said, the city waived its rules for on-site recreational vehicles and trailers. And for six months, code enforcement will suspend issuing citations.

Meanwhile, it’s been a huge learning curve navigating the bureaucratic process of working with FEMA, said Kevin Batdorf, president of the Shore Acres Civic Association.

The process of getting a grant from FEMA to elevate your house, he said, is byzantine. The homeowner can’t apply directly. The application has to come from the city, which sends it to the state who then sends it to FEMA. If FEMA approves the grant, the money goes first to the state, then to the city and finally to the homeowner.

“You couldn’t design a more complicated system. It takes three to five years to get that grant,” Batdorf said.

In the weeks after the storm, Babycycle handed out free diapers and hygiene products. Fourth Street Pizza showed up several times to hand out free food, as did the Slammer Shop and high-end restaurant Il Ritorno. The city offered a free camp for two weekends so parents could drop off their kids while they worked on their houses. Food trucks Fo’Cheezy and Taco Cartel showed up to give away lunch.

A Shore Acres Relief Fund has been started, and a “Shore Acres Strong” logo that emblazons shirts, cups and tote bags at crafty-dos-co.square.site goes toward the fund. It has so far raised about $7,500, a fraction of what is needed. But it will go toward a partnership with the Riviera United Methodist Church and Pineapple Projects to help supply neighbors with lost belongings like furniture, Batdorf said.

Meanwhile, The Ale and the Witch in downtown St. Petersburg worked with Cycle Brewing to make a beer called Rising Waters IPA, with the proceeds going to the fund. And Shore Acres kids will have a special night of trick or treating on Halloween in Arrowhead Park since many neighbors aren’t in their homes to hand out candy, Batdorf said.

“Across the bridge nobody knows anything about what happened here,” Batdorf said. “The debris has been picked up from the front lawns so anyone driving by won’t see that the houses are gutted behind those doors. Life looks normal if you are just driving by.”