Gulfport residents surprised by flooded streets from storm surge

GULFPORT, Fla. (WFLA) — Parts of Pinellas County are expected to get five to eight feet of storm surge. Streets started flooding early Thursday afternoon.

Around 4 p.m., water rushed the boat ramp at the Gulfport Marina and started pushing water into the parking lot and onto the street. At this point, the flooding touched the driveways of houses on 29th Avenue South.

An hour later, the salt water took over the entire parking lot. You could not see the lines on the ground for the parking spots. Water rushed in from under the fences and made its way to the front steps of those houses.

Later in the evening, Tifton Street saw flooding up to the hood of cars. Neighbors said some houses flooded out.

Karen Hughart has lived in the area for five years now but is a native of St. Petersburg. She described the flooding on her road.

“It’s awful, horrible,” said Hughart. “For five years I’ve never seen the water past that stop sign. Now we’ve had some tropical storms as you know and a category 1 about three or four years ago, and it never ever came past that stop sign.”

The intersection at 57th Street South and 26th Avenue South was flooded. Residents near there said they’ve never seen it this bad.

One man said he took his boat out, and near the intersection stop sign, water was up to his chest.

A SUV near there was covered up to the hood.

“I’m really really worried about my neighbors and other folks in Gulfport because we’re not used to the water coming up this bad with a storm already passed us and a low tide,” Hughart said.

She and others in the area are expecting a big clean up come Friday.

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