Shore Acres, still recovering from Idalia, sees flooding from weekend storms

ST. PETERSBURG — Eric Desonie floated in his kayak beside the RV he has called home since Hurricane Idalia sent a half-foot of water into his living room.

On Sunday, a little more than three months since the storm that gutted his Shore Acres house in St. Petersburg, Desonie was facing another flood.

This one was less damaging, but no less bothersome.

“I accepted this fact when I moved into this neighborhood,” Desonie said, referring to the neighborhood’s flood risk. “But it still sucks.”

Desonie was among thousands of Tampa Bay homeowners left drying out after a heavy storm passed through the region Saturday into Sunday, drenching streets, yards and homes with a downpour not seen since Idalia in August.

In the Shore Acres neighborhood, which flooded badly during that storm, the deja vu was especially strong.

Desonie bought his house on Venetian Boulevard Northeast in 2016. He has lived through three major floods since, he said. Damages from Hurricane Idalia have cost him north of $143,000 and forced him and his family to live in an RV in his driveway until repairs are complete.

Inside Desonie’s home, the ghosts of Idalia’s flooding remain. His house is unfurnished, walls are without drywall, clothes and pillows are stacked into neat piles as renovations drudge on until February at the earliest.

The new threat of water on this windy Sunday morning came as another mental hurdle in an already-dragging recovery process. Desonie’s garage saw about an inch of water from this December storm, and water was about three inches deep below his temporary home in the front driveway. But luckily, there was no major damage.

“I’m OK dealing with it because we have such amazing neighbors,” Desonie said. “They’ve been so incredible.”

Around 10 a.m. Sunday morning, some residents on this street were just beginning their day. One man, still in pajamas, searched for a dry patch for his dog to use the bathroom. A car whizzed through a flooded street, sending a wake into a garage door. Somebody yelled for the driver to slow down.

There is still evidence of Hurricane Idalia’s flooding scattered around this Shore Acres block: Homes have portable storage units in their driveways, old furniture sits on a submerged street corner and sand bags are stacked in side yards.

Across the street from Desonie’s house a neighbor, Karen, was out checking the high-water line that left an etching of leaves and debris on her house’s front walls. She didn’t want her last name published out of fear that she would receive phone calls from people wanting to buy her home “for pennies on the dollar.” It happened after Idalia non-stop, she said.

She’s lived here since the 1980s, and her home has seen major flooding four times, she said.

Today’s damage was an inch or two of water in her garage.

In August, Idalia sent more than three inches of water into her home. Even the sight of water coming close to her front door is “traumatic,” she said.

She’s still renovating from Idalia, and insurance has already reimbursed her $50,000 for the repairs. After Idalia’s flooding forced her to gut the kitchen, she’s had to purchase all new counter tops and cabinets.

The counter tops were scheduled to arrive Monday.

“I’m not even finished with these renovations and now I have to think about possibly doing them again?” Karen said.

Flooding was never really something Karen worried about — until Idalia came along.

“It stays on my mind now,” she said.

Down the road, Chris Lambeth, 51, had just finished a mile-long trek on his paddleboard down the flooded Shore Acres Boulevard NE to check on his cousin’s house on Carson Street Northeast.

Lambeth said his cousin just hung the last picture on the wall of his newly renovated home yesterday. They had spent months cleaning and repairing the house after flooding from Hurricane Idalia.

”His wife was in tears, thinking it was about to happen all over again,” Lambeth said from his board. “It’s just sad.”

Luckily, when Lambeth arrived to his cousin’s house, water had reached the front doorway but didn’t get inside, he said with relief.

”It takes forever for the water to get out of here,” Lambeth said. “So many people literally just finished remodeling.”

Kayaks and paddleboards took to the streets two hours before noon, as the tide was still receding across Shore Acres. Some teenagers were simply going for a cruise on their boats to take in the flooding, while others were on personal missions to check on neighbors’ homes or deliver information.

“I feel like I’m in Venice,” grumbled one kayaker as he floated down a flooded road.

Aaron Bruckler, a firefighter with St. Petersburg Fire Rescue, was one of two responders called to an electrical house fire in Shore Acres.

The roads were impassable, Bruckler said, so he was forced to launch a skiff to check on the house. Bruckler was lugging the boat down the street in knee-deep water near 46th Avenue Northeast.

“We got sent out here for a house fire,” yelled Bruckler from the dirty floodwaters. “They called 911 saying their house was on fire.”

Bruckler said he had to hike about a mile into the inundated neighborhood when traveling by boat became impossible.

It was a busy morning for the handful of firefighters dispatched to the flooded neighborhood to assist residents. About an hour later, Bruckler wade his way to a man who was stuck in his flooded SUV since 5 a.m.

The man had been trying to get his car out from a deep drainage ditch on the corner of 46th Ave NE for hours, he told Bruckler, and was frustrated that nobody had come to help remove his car after calling 911.

“We can get you out, but we can’t get your vehicle out.,” Bruckler said. “That’s up to a tow truck company or insurance, sadly. That’s unfortunately how the system works.”

”Well, the system sucks,” the man said.

“I can’t disagree with you on that,” Bruckler replied.