SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. — Communities in Sarasota are drying out after being dumped underwater by Hurricane Debby early last week.
The Laurel Meadows neighborhood, just like Pinecraft, was abuzz with a cacophony of construction activity with the rebuilding process kicking into high gear.
As impacted families continue to pick up the pieces, many are pointing a finger at developers and contractors.
The neighbors have voiced concerns about the impact of fast-growing development in the county and the domino effect it could be having on the environment.
"I'm not sure why the water ran like a current from south to north," said Jody Valvo, a Laurel Meadows neighbor.
"And for it to just be an extra couple inches of rain, it had to come from somewhere else," said Michael Vance, a Laurel Meadows neighbor.
With their belongings on the curb, the neighbors who are figuring out how to rebuild after Debby, are still grappling with how they ended up in this situation.
"Absolutely, the influx of houses is amazing, because Sky Ranch wasn't there when Ian happened," Valvo said.
"Before anybody can really, really feel safe in this neighborhood, they're going to have to go back and check all the surveys for all of these places that were built. They're going to have to check all the runoff and see how these things flowed and why are we now a bowl when we never were," Vance said.
Parts of the areas affected by the floods are in District One, which has a seat at the county commission that's on the ballot for the primaries.
While early voting has already commenced, the issue of over-development has been raised to the fore by the storm and candidates vying for a commissioner seat are speaking out about it too as the issue could impact their race.
"Over-development in Florida is dangerous and that's what we're seeing after the storm and I cannot imagine what if this was a Cat 4 or a Cat 5 hurricane," said Alexandra Coe, District 1 Candidate in the Sarasota County Commission race.
"It's going to take us months to calculate exactly why the water went where it went. Do I think that it was because of just one thing, absolutely not, I think that there were multiple factors here," said Teresa Mast, District 1 Candidate in the Sarasota County Commission race.
The candidates have been talking with the neighbors all week and assisting with galvanizing help and support.
"People are angry. They are really, really angry and they should be angry because a lot of this could've been avoided," Coe said.
"This was a historical, 200-year storm, and unfortunately the amount of water that was taken on in the time that it came, we could just not have predicted, no one knew. It's just heart-wrenching. I mean I hope I never see it again," Mast said.
Meanwhile, the message from some of the neighbors in this community to county leaders, present and future, has become louder and clearer in light of their current predicament.
"I can tell you that everybody in this neighborhood is not going to vote for anybody who wants to vote for more development until the infrastructure is put in place to make sure that this doesn't happen to another neighborhood again," said Valvo.
Officials are expecting high voter turnout for the August 20 Primary Election and encourage folks to have a plan and utilize early voting opportunities. Early voting runs between 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 18 between at six early voting sites in Sarasota County.
The community is also being asked not to go collecting and scavenging through dumped-out furniture and belongings from the flooded neighborhoods because some of the flood waters were possibly mixed with sewer water.
In addition, to help impacted neighbors out, FEMA teams are going door-to-door to in Sarasota and Manatee counties. Folks have 60 days to apply for federal assistance after President Biden's disaster declaration.
Sarasota County also has a Multi-Agency Resource Center at Sarasota Christian Church on Ashton Road to help people out. The center opens from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.