ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — On a drive through St. Petersburg’s Shore Acres neighborhood, you’ll see dumpsters, mobile storage units and many construction crews, most due to ongoing months-long cleanup after Hurricane Idalia in the fall.
Those efforts are now hampered again by a second round of flooding caused by storm surge this weekend.
Jim Burke has lived in a Shore Acres home for 24 years and says it has flooded just three times in the last three years.
The night before the powerful Gulf system impacted the area, he and his wife spent all day clearing out inches of water and drying it once again, so their ongoing renovation could continue.
“I’ve already done this twice,” Burke said pointing to his wrapped floor.
Many of his belongings have been stacked up in his house for months. He says thankfully his new appliances were not damaged.
“Just disheartening. I think it's just mentally, you're just tired,” Burke added, saying many of his neighbors still haven't been able to move back home.
It’s a sentiment shared by his neighbors in his battered, yet resilient community.
“Just got the insurance money released to us in the last couple of weeks. So we'd already made some progress on some of the stuff,” said Pete Boland, who lives nearby.
His home flooded for a second time this year.
“We've been sleeping on a couch since August so we're hoping to get our bedroom back real soon,” Boland added, saying he’s relieved his renovation just began. “I feel for the people that really got far along with renovations and have to tear out and do it again. It's pretty rough.”
He’s hoping the city can come together and look at some long-term solutions to keep the vibrant neighborhood from continually being underwater.
“It just seems odd that it happens so often so fast," Boland said. "We're just hoping that we have a nice long break here going forward. It's unfortunate but we're hardy, we're used to it and we're resilient."
Crews from the city of St. Petersburg were out surveying the area Monday and are encouraging impacted residents to report their damage here.