CLEARWATER, Fla. — Hurricane Idalia was the latest test from nature for Clearwater Beach neighborhoods — the water stuck around for some time.
"I was more concerned about the seawall and the water coming over the seawall. When I looked out my front door and saw water up in my driveway, and the streets as flooded as they were I was not prepared for that," Loriana Zukowski said.
She's lived in the North Beach area for several years and says despite them being lucky with storms, this time was different. Water quickly rose in the neighborhoods despite Hurricane Idalia's eye missing the area.
"Just a few houses up and north of that, those homes were flooded. It was significant," Zukowski said.
Those who stayed through the storm waded through water surveying the damage left behind.
"I couldn't see anything. Everything was flooded. The ground was gone. The streets were gone. The sidewalk was gone," Jasper MacFarland said.
He got out his paddle board to navigate up and down the street, trying to make the most out of his home and one of his cars being flooded.
"It's kind of like a fairy tale. I didn't really know what was gonna happen," MacFarland said.
The aftermath was an ongoing cleanup for weeks. The community says this is the worst it's flooded in years. A combination of high tide and storm surge brought water into unexpected places.
"The future concerns me, but not enough for me to leave," Zukowski said.
But flooding during storms won't be the only concern in the future. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, sunny day flooding days are rising, too.
"Sunny day flooding basically refers to non-rainfall flooding," 10 Tampa Bay chief meteorologist Bobby Deskins said. The increase will make it harder to deal with storms in the future.
"What we're seeing now is a rather rapid increase in sea level rise. It leveled off for a little while, but we did about a foot over the last century. We think we could do almost another foot and about 30 to 40 years," Deskins said.
NOAA's newest data for annual high tide flooding shows the number of sunny day flooding days in the area increases from 0-5 days we're seeing now to 75 days by 2050.
"We're going to have a much greater chance of flooding. We're going to see larger portions of our area see flooding. Plus, if you think about it, you raise the water levels, you're gonna flood more of the land near the coast," Deskins said.
That's why the city of Clearwater and Pinellas County continue to closely monitor flood plains and sea level rise, working to identify what they call "Repetitive Loss Areas" based on data like insurance claims, drainage complaints, infrastructure, topography and weather events associated with flooding.
The goal is to develop mitigation strategies to alleviate the risk homeowners face.
"They've been doing a lot of cleanup. They've had the pump trucks going around. I mean, they're doing what they can, but at same time maybe we should be building berms and stuff in some areas. Maybe start thinking about doing stilt homes and stuff in the future," MacFarland said.
For now, homeowners who got flooded this time around will work to get back on track and stay vigilant for what the future could bring.
"It is what it is. I mean this is nature and if you want to live here in paradise, you have know that those events can happen and be prepared for them the best you can. I guess it just comes with the territory," MacFarland said.
The city of Clearwater is partnering with Forerunner, a tech organization offering a flood resistance platform, to try and help homeowners be able to locate if they're in a high-risk zone and the potential threat to their area. This tool can be extremely helpful as the risk of flooding increases in the coming years.