Gulf Coast beach towns reel from back-to-back hurricanes but promise a 'comeback'

SIESTA KEY – Scott Giorgi worked outside his waterfront home Friday loading hurricane debris into the bed of his black pickup when a tossed tree branch shattered the truck’s back window. He shrugged it off and kept hauling.

What’s one more window to fix when two hurricanes in two weeks battered your island home, pushing six feet of sea water inside and throwing debris everywhere?

After Hurricane Helene brought storm surge into his home on September 26, Giorgi tore out his ruined drywall. When Hurricane Milton struck late Wednesday, he joked there was at least less in the house to be damaged.

Despite a second round of clean up, the financial advisor and Marine veteran said he wasn’t leaving or second guessing his decision to move to the Gulf Coast island four years ago.

“That’s what I live here for,” he said, pointing to his fishing boat, which sat docked in his backyard lift having survived both storms.

Up and down Florida’s Gulf Coast, along a 100-mile stretch from Sanibel Island north to Treasure Island, unwelcome visits from two powerful hurricanes left residents stunned and weary. But lured by these barrier islands — one of the state’s most captivating but fragile ecological gems — most said they were determined to rebuild.

The storms also left regular visitors to the islands — whether from as close as Orlando or as far away as London — monitoring the damage online and mourning the wreckage of beloved vacation spots known for their postcard-perfect sunsets, fine fishing and laid-back vibes.

“So sad! So many beautiful beaches ruined! Praying for everyone’s safety!” wrote a New York woman on St. Pete Beach’s Facebook page.

“Hope you can rebuild this amazing place,” wrote an English man on a page for Anna Maria Island.

Milton made landfall on Siesta Key, located just off the coast of Sarasota. Helene made landfall farther north in the Big Bend. Combined, they unleashed punishing winds and storm surge along miles of some of Florida’s most beloved beaches. Some places got hit twice.

Those who have never been to one of these dozens of narrow islands strewn just off Florida’s Gulf Coast — hit by six major hurricanes in the last seven years, with many casualties and hundreds of millions of dollars in damages — might not understand the devotion their residents and visitors carry. But it is powerful.

Hundreds of fans of The Mucky Duck restaurant, in business on Captiva Island since 1975, cheered online Thursday when the waterfront restaurant posted on Facebook that it was “gathering our village” and would rebuild.

The restaurant suffered a “pretty good smack in the face” from Helene, which pushed sand to its entrance, and then more damage when Milton crumpled parts of its building, according to its social media posts.

“The Mucky Duck has been loved by our family for 30 plus years! Sending love and prayers as you rebuild,” wrote one customer.

Siesta Key was mostly silent on Friday but for the whir of generators on an island still without power and water. The key is usually crowded with visitors eager to enjoy white-sand beaches but only a few locals walked the narrow winding roads and beaches to assess damage — walls ripped away, roofs lifted off homes and ruined belongings piled on curbs.

Sean and Korie Trevino, who live part time in Chicago, own a property on the island they often rent to tourists. It suffered some roof damage and water entered the garage, but Korie Trevino said she was optimistic tourists would be back within a month.

And the couple will be, too. “We’re gonna be back down here again for Thanksgiving and we’re not changing our plans,” she said. “So we do feel that everyone is very resilient.”

Tatyana Stewart, who was pulling ruined items from her Siesta Key home, said her home probably faces nine months of repairs. Water crashed into her street and rose four feet inside her house when Milton hit – and at that point she hadn’t finished cleaning from Helene.

But she, too, was determined to rebuild.

“You gotta pick up your sticks, no matter how heavy the load is,” she said.

Helene sent more than two feet of saltwater rushing into Jeff and Andrea DeNight’s home on St. Pete Beach, wrecking most of their belongings and destroying both their cars.

The same happened to most of their neighbors.

As Hurricane Milton approached two weeks later, they were still without power.

Their community already was mostly deserted and looked like a junkyard, with the homes’ contents — waterlogged couches, splintered dining chairs, sheets of soggy drywall and shredded pink fiberglass insulation — piled on the curb waiting to be hauled away and getting moldy in the heat.

The DeNights feared Milton would do more damage, but the second storm left them alone.

“For us, Milton was a non-event, thank God,” Jeff DeNight said.

Just before Helene struck, the couple had won a “yard of the month” award. After the storms, they planted that “yard of the month” sign like a flag into the pile of debris by their front lawn, a little effort to keep up their spirits.

“This will always be a beautiful area,” he said. “And we’ll get over this.”

Kim Bassos-Hull and Andrew Hull live on the north end of Siesta Key in a cottage that is more than 100 years old. They evacuated as Milton approached, riding out the storm at a friend’s new home in Sarasota built to withstand hurricane-force winds.

Thursday, with the roads still closed, Andrew Hull kayaked back to Siesta Key to assess damage to their home for the second time in less than a month.

Their house was flooded with about a foot of water, just as it had been when Helene struck, a palm tree had been blown onto the roof – and a stingray was trapped in their pool.

Hull, retired from the Mote Aquarium where his wife is a biologist, used a net to fish out the animal and put it in a nearby canal.

Though they face another cleanup, Bassos-Hull said she, too, is trying to be positive. She’s encouraged by the Sarasota Strong hashtag being shared online — similar to slogans echoed for other beach communities — and the way residents are helping each other with clean up.

“I feel like they’re going to do all that they can to make a comeback,” she said.