‘Not even 2 weeks’: In Siesta Key, first Helene then Milton’s landfall

SIESTA KEY — Near the place Hurricane Milton made landfall Wednesday night, like so many of the Gulf Coast barrier islands from Sarasota to Clearwater, it was hard to tell where the damage from one storm ended and the ruin of another began.

Siesta Key was silent early Thursday, save for a stiff breeze that shook the palms. At the turn from the bridge on Stickney Point Road, couches were thrown across the pavement.

Lingering floodwater pooled a few inches deep on the sides of Midnight Pass Road, where an egret waded in the dark hours after the storm passed.

The flooding was deeper on some of the curved lanes that parallel the island’s canals.

Doug Manning, 56, made it a couple hundred yards from his home in his new SUV before he had to stop. The rest of the way, he’d forged in his drenched sneakers.

Three times in 30 years storms had delivered water up to his patio on Commonwealth Drive. Then came Hurricane Helene, which flooded his family’s place with 19 inches in late September. Manning said he waded up to his knees through his kitchen. He and his wife lost their cars. They didn’t have flood insurance.

Now he was back, wandering in the dark to see what havoc Milton had wrought.

Piles of soggy debris loomed outside his neighbors’ homes — couches, mattresses, the detritus of lives lived in paradise reduced to indistinguishable heaps.

By 4:30 a.m., flooding had subsided. The lawn wasn’t underwater anymore.

Manning approached the front door.

“Oh wow,” he said. “This is nice. Nowhere near as high as last time.”

Two water lines stained the white paint. One, up to his knees, was from Helene. Milton’s imprint was level with the bottom of his calves.

Inside, Manning’s home was in a state of disarray.

There was no standing water, but a slick from the flood shone on the tile under the beam of his flashlight. Tools lay in a pile by the entryway. All over, the drywall was cut away. A disposable bag to curb dampness hung from a power cord.

Manning had ridden out Milton miles away, at a home that he said ended up being struck by a falling tree. But when he saw the storm was making landfall so close to Siesta Key, he had been almost hopeful. He knew the surge was projected to be the worst south of the eye — and now he wonders whether even 10 miles difference could have led to his house being hit even harder by flood water.

Still, the back-to-back punches are hard to comprehend.

“It’s not even two weeks,” Manning said.

“Not even two weeks.”

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