By Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh ——Bio and Archives--October 17, 2024

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We flew to Sarasota a week after hurricane Helene flooded Siesta Key to check on our family’s vacation home. We landed on a sunny day and, as we exited the airport, as always, the stifling humidity hit us like a tropical jungle.

The beauty around us was undisturbed and we were hoping against all odds that our home somehow survived the 3-4 feet of water that flooded from the nearby canal. The windows were thrown open by friends and neighbors but the smell and the mold growing on the walls to the flood line caused our hearts to sink.

Everything was soaked and damaged except things set high above that had not molded yet, including the TV sets. The electrical wiring was shot. We were told that it would cost upwards of $100,000 to rebuild this very modest beach house to its original state. There was no flood insurance; it is expensive in Florida and most people cannot afford it. They took their chances as this part of the island has not flooded in 80 years.

The island’s streets were lined on both sides by mountains of debris, furniture, mattresses, lamps, refrigerators, washers, dryers, splintered wood, doors, lamps, anything a person had in their household that was not completely waterlogged and smelly.

Stores in the village were boarded up and empty, others, built much higher, had survived and re-opened, waiting for the tourists that were not coming. We were just two of the few who dared to fly here.

The beach was flat as a pancake, as far as the eye could see and quite smelly from the sewer that rose up and mixed in with the ocean water. The lifeguard towers were placed back in their original locations, standing guard, lonely and shuttered.

We managed to get two hours of beach time with some of the workers taking a reprieve from the unpleasant task of ripping apart someone’s flooded home. The ocean water was a sickly greenish yellow, no doubt not fit to swim. Few dared to enter it.

We drove to St. Armand Key - the devastation there was just as bad. The Circle that used to house fashionable businesses and restaurants looked like a war zone. Longboat Key was flooded as well.

The Marina in Sarasota was flooded, and debris was piled high. Very few of the piles of debris had been removed anywhere – the county, the city government, and the local help were organized but overwhelmed by the massive amount, tons and tons of discarded stuff that had to be hauled away.

We spent three nights in a hotel at the foot of one of the bridges entering Siesta Key. By Monday morning, the order came to evacuate the area, so we decided to drive to Miami as advised by the hotel clerk.

When hurricane Milton........

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