Reed Savidge and his wife, Ginny, have owned and operated Ace Hardware stores on Longboat Key for over 37 years.
Over that time, they have never filed an insurance claim for anything − until this week. Hurricane Milton peeled shingles from their Gulf of Mexico Drive store’s roof which caused extensive water damage.
“We lost a piece of our roof, which just allowed a ton of rainwater to come in, but we’re getting there. We’ll get it done,” said Reed as he and his wife and son, Charles, cleaned up debris from the store’s interior and exterior on Friday.
One-two punch: Hurricane Milton storm surge finishes destruction Hurricane Helene started
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The Savidges were among the many Longboat Key residents who returned home Friday after Cortez Bridge reopened. Many homes on the key sustained damage from Hurricane Helene a few weeks ago, so homeowners didn’t know what to expect from Hurricane Milton, which hit the area Wednesday night.
Reed Savidge is unsure what happened to his Holmes Beach store, but he’s already taken steps to reopen the Gulf of Mexico Drive store.
“We already have a roofer who is going to put a temp roof on for us, and then come back and put a permanent roof on it. And we got someone to come in tomorrow and look at our interior and help us out with it.”
Despite everything, Savidge said the damage is pretty much child’s play compared to what other residents are facing.
“I’m not complaining,” he said, adding the store had no damage from hurricanes Helene or Debby. “We’ve been lucky for a very, very long time so I guess it was our turn. The dice rolled up on us.”
Jentzen Barton, Longboat Key assistant fire chief, said most of the damage from Milton was because of wind.
“We got really lucky with storm surge. We didn’t get the big storm surge across the roads with all the beach sand and all the stuff flushing into people’s homes like Helene did to us,” he said.
“It was more isolated for wind, and power lines and trees. Our biggest problem right now is access, which we are getting through that now. We got our main roads cleared. The majority of people are cleared. A lot of people stayed home so that really helped us, but we didn’t have anyone trapped in homes.”
He said some Hurricane Helene debris was blown into yards, but the trash did not become projectiles that damaged residents’ homes.
“Our common areas that normally flood, they flooded because of the rains but nothing outside of water levels,” Barton said.
For a second time, Gulf of Mexico Drive residents Joe and Mary Finelli cleaned sand and debris from their yard on Friday. The couple’s home was damaged during Helene, but Milton only blew a few window shutters and a gutter off the house.
“Wind-wise we seemed to do pretty good. Helene was worse. We got a lot of surge from Helene on the ground floor,” Mary Finelli said, adding the storm surge brought in about a foot a water into the ground level of their three-story home.
“For Milton, we had (stacked) a foot and a half to 2 feet of sand up against the back slider doors. The sliders held. The flood vents let the water and sand in, so it made it messy in there.”
The second hurricane developed so quickly that Mary Finelli said they haven’t even filed their first flood insurance claim yet.
“My poor agent, we were supposed to meet Wednesday, and then all of this happened,” she said. “He’s a nice guy. He said, ‘We’re going to file Milton and Helene together.’”
The Finellis, who are originally from New Jersey, retired to Longboat Key in 2007. In 2012, they built their dream home – up to hurricane code. Something the couple says was a wise investment.
“Life doesn’t come without challenges,” Mary Finelli said, noting that despite back-to-back hurricanes, they are on Longboat Key for the long haul.
A few residents on the Key didn’t have any damage from the storms. Les and Sam Beggs who live in the Gulf Shore development on Gulf of Mexico Drive were among those homeowners.
“We were very fortunate, we didn’t get any of the surge from Helene and wind this time, we didn’t get anything. I don’t know if this building here kind of protected us or those condos over there or what,” Sam Beggs said, adding his daughter’s home – two streets over – also was not damaged.
“People back toward the bay were not quite as fortunate. There are a lot of roofs off back there. It’s not good back there,” he said.
Chris Udermann, who lives on Poinsettia Street in the Village near Sarasota Bay, said he’s endured about six to eight hurricanes since moving to Longboat Key in 2005 – but the last two were the worse.
“Helene was the worst, Milton second because we didn’t have any water here for Milton. For Helene, we had 36 inches of water inside the house. For Milton, we got no water inside because it was more of a wind event for this part of the key this time – which is not usual,” said Udermann who lost part of his roof and had damage to a screened-enclosure.
“I’ve been picking up shingles all day long plus tree limbs. I lost several sections of my fence in the back. The water line came up over the top of my landscaping bed for Milton. After Helene, my screened in area was packed full of that gross ocean stuff,” Udermann said, while pointing to the ocean line in his flower bed.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Hurricane Milton: Longboat Key resident clean up for second time
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