‘Helpless’: Indian Rocks Beach residents rebuild as potential storm looms

INDIAN ROCKS BEACH, Fla. (WFLA) — The potential for another powerful storm in the Tampa Bay area is not welcome news to the people who are spending every hour of daylight ripping out the drywall of their homes and figuring out how to rebuild.

“If it gets all rained on again, it’ll start smelling even more,” Indian Rocks Beach resident Chris Fuller said.

Fuller has not one, but two boats in his backyard as he navigates where to go from here.

“We’ve already ripped all the drywall out of our house so if it floods again, it won’t be as big of a deal,” he said.

Fuller said he has no control over whether a storm uproots his life again.

“Helpless,” he said. “Helpless would be the word.”

Down the street, John Wells said he went to get supplies before the hurricane hit and wasn’t let back onto the island.

He got the devastating call from his 9-year-old son who was standing on top of a countertop as water poured into their home.

To him, nothing could be worse.

“No, I don’t think anything is going to hurt us like this again,” Wells said. “But we have a lot of rebuilding to do.”

As contractors rip out baseboards and tear down drywall, residents in Indian Rocks Beach are rebuilding their lives.

Rick Krueger owns three properties on the island.

He’s looking at next week’s forecast thinking, if a storm has to hit, might as well be now.

“What are we going to lose?” he said. “We lost everything.”

“Now we don’t have to get the furniture out of the way to squeegee the water out,” Krueger said. “Everything’s destroyed from 4 feet down.”

“We’ve already been knocked down,” he said. “Bring it on. Just don’t come next year when we’re all finished.”

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