STEINHATCHEE, Fla. — Residents returned to this coastal town Friday morning to find their beloved businesses flattened, homes swept away and roads flooded, a little more than a year after another hurricane devastated the village.
Hurricane Helene roared ashore the day before with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph, leaving residents in the community of 500 shaken and heartbroken.
“Every storm that we’ve had, it just keeps getting worse and worse,” said Susan Grant, 63, as she surveyed the damage outside her house on Friday.
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Her home was still standing, but rushing waters from Helene’s storm surge surpassed the 14-foot stilts it stands on and flooded the interior, ruining her furniture and sweeping away the entrance stairs.
While thankful she still had a home to return to, her longtime workplace and local landmark, Crabbie Dad’s Bar & Grill, was flattened to the ground.
“The whole building’s gone,” Grant, 63, said as she stood outside her home.
Across the region, at least 42 people were killed and millions left without power after the Category 4 storm careened through the Southeast.
Helene weakened to a tropical depression on Friday and was moving north with strong winds, heavy rain and “life-threatening” conditions, the National Hurricane Center said.
In the hard-hit Big Bend region of Florida, where Steinhatchee is located, flooded roads were impassable while others were covered in thick layers of mud, tree branches and debris. Some homes and docks were swept away while others were flooded.
Grant said her shed toppled over and was dragged across her property.
Nearby, a road damaged by last year’s Hurricane Idalia was stripped of its concrete and partially blocked by debris from two docks.
“It’s devastating,” Grant said. “People, they’ve worked around here a lot, and it’s just sad. It’s sad that we’ve had to endure this much in one year.”
The street in front of Gary Keen’s house was unrecognizable Friday after the surge retreated, leaving behind layers of branches, seaweed and other plant debris. Large chunks of wood several inches high spread out for yards across his property.
Keen and his family had to make a small path and climb over pieces of plywood, coolers and a sign from a business “that didn’t come from anywhere near here,” he said.
Part of his home flooded and he lost electricity and running water, but Keen was relieved his home was in better shape than others he’d seen.
“I don’t have a lot,” he said. “I’m just grateful to have my house.”
For many residents, their predicament has been made even worse by a lack of accessible flood insurance, which means they can’t afford to start repairing or rebuild their homes.
“You can hardly get flood insurance out here. If you do, it’s so expensive that a lot of people don’t have it,” said Paul Nawlin, 60, the senior pastor at First Baptist Church Steinhatchee.
Along the Steinhatchee River, docks were destroyed and the well-known Roy’s restaurant was caved in on itself, the structure collapsed and jagged pillars of wood toppled on top of one another.
Concrete cinderblocks and remnants of the restaurant, including pots and pans, bottles of wine and table knives and spoons were strewn on the road, along with tree branches.
Ron Bloom, the associate pastor at First Baptist Church Steinhatchee, said it was “heartbreaking” to see in shambles places that had been rebuilt as part of recovery efforts after Hurricane Idalia.
“We were just out looking at five of the houses that we rebuilt, and they’re gone,” he said, looking down, his voice catching.
“It’s just flattened,” Grant said of the beloved restaurant.
Daniella Silva reported from Steinhatchee and Alicia Victoria Lozano from Los Angeles.
