ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It was a stressful night for both employees and anyone else who had their car parked in the lower lot of the Vinoy’s parking garage.
“It was chaos, for me you know I work here. I’m like, ‘Oh my God, what am I going to do?’ It was just one of those situations where it was like what can I say from in there? What can I get out of there?,” said Valet Parker Frankie Zorilla.
Zorilla was headed into work at the Vinoy when he realized things were going downhill fast. Almost 3 inches of rain soaked the area in about 20 minutes.
“I was in there and it was waist-deep. I was thinking, ‘Oh my God! Alligators could come out and get me!’ It was scary, real scary,” Zorilla said.
While the street flooded and waters got knee-high, the rain flowed into the parking garage. It left dozens of cars feet deep underwater. On Friday morning, crews continued to use a generator to pump the water out of the garage.
“We get some pretty good rains. Our streets get flooded a lot, but this is probably the heaviest I’ve seen in a long time,” Skip Wilkinson said.
He lives in the area and was just passing by. Like many others he was shocked, but people who have cars parked underground are frustrated.
“There’s more water in there now than there was two hours ago! Then I went back and they announced that all of the cars in the valet were flooded,” said Vinoy Guest Dennis DeLong.
DeLong is here from Raleigh, North Carolina. He can spot his brand new Honda Ridgeline from the road. He hasn’t been given any guidance, but says he hopes the hotel will pay him
“I hope they buy me a new vehicle!" DeLong said. "A brand new one to tell you the truth, because if it’s got water in it I know it’s no good."
10News reached out to the Vinoy Resort to see how they’re handling this unexpected incident. They have yet to respond to calls and messages.
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