St. Petersburg’s Shore Acres assesses damage after Hurricane Helene

ST. PETERSBURG — Along the crisscrossing streets of Shore Acres, homes were tied together by a devasting string — waterlines at least 4 feet high marking low-level homes.

On Friday afternoon, residents were assessing damage from Hurricane Helene’s record overnight storm surge. St. Petersburg experienced more than 6 feet of surge, and according to the city, more than 100 miles of flooded roads.

“If you want to stand outside and scream, it’s okay,” Kevin Batdorf, the president of the Shore Acres Civic Association, wrote on the neighborhood’s Facebook group Friday morning. “We understand.”

Beth Cullen, 59, and her daughter Maddy, 18, were loading up their Tesla with clothes and essentials Friday afternoon. Earlier that morning, water had rushed into their the home, reaching up to the teenager’s waist.

“I was terrified, having panic attacks,” Maddy said. “It was really scary not knowing if the water was going to keep going up.”

Cullen, who works for Fox 13, was at the station covering the storm while the home flooded.

Maddy had planned to stay with her grandparents, Cullen said. But after Maddy’s father, Cullen’s husband, decided not to leave, Maddy chose to stay.

“I wouldn’t leave my dad either,” Cullen said.

The pair spent a harrowing night together as floodwaters gushed into the home. Power remained on in the bedrooms, and sparks flew above the water, Maddy said.

Eventually Maddy and her father made it to their attic, where they rode out the remainder of the surge, crouched in the dark for hours.

In the daylight, the home was in shambles. The refrigerator had overturned, the TV stand had cracked in multiple places, sludge and debris littered the floor.

From a street over, a stinging smell of burning blew over with the afternoon breeze. A home had caught fire overnight and was now a shell of blue concrete and steel.

A neighbor close to the charred home, Wesley Obenshain, 19, suspected an electric golf cart likely started the fire. Saltwater and electricity are a dangerous combination.

Obenshain’s stepfather, Dan Henry, 52, has lived in their Shore Acres home for over 20 years. They’d never flooded until Friday.

Their house, higher than most on the street, is typically the dry one. Henry had planned to stay the night, but after water had risen past the height they’d seen during Hurricane Idalia at just around 5 p.m. on Thursday, he decided it was time to leave. He rode out of the neighborhood on a paddle board.

“It just wasn’t worth it,” Henry said.

Around 2 p.m. Patrick Donohue, 65, walked barefoot with his girlfriend, Barbara Jones, 57, toward Donohue’s Shore Acres home on Alabama Avenue NE. It would be the first time he would see the house since Helene’s surge, having evacuated overnight to Tampa.

He expected to see some flooding, maybe a few inches or so on the lower level — a “good outcome,” he said.

In his few years living there, storms had never pushed water higher than his third step. Underneath his home, there was about a 3-foot crawl space, he said.

When he made it to his home, he stopped and stared.

“Look how high the water is, up to the window.”

Donohue unlocked his door, stepping over sandbags and tarp. Inside, the home reeked of stale seawater. The floors were muddied, and furniture had overturned. Water lines crept up to mid-doorways.

“Devastating,” Donohue said.

The 65 year-old had just finished an addition to the home. The brand-new floors were sopping, and the drywall darkened where it was still damp.

“I don’t know what to do from here.”

In another house along Overlook Drive NE, Bridgett Hickerson, 31, was on the phone with her roommate.

“It’s Bridgett, it’s devastating,” she said as she stood among her daughter’s strewn and ruined toys. “Like 3 feet of water.”

Hickerson had just moved in two weeks prior with her 5-year-old daughter, Lily.

Through tears, she said her important paperwork, like a birth certificate, was destroyed.

Her daughter’s drawings throughout her life, a cherished possession, were also wrecked.

“Everything is gone,” said.

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