Pinellas County braces for severe weather impacts: 'Here we go again'

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Pinellas County and the City of St. Petersburg are bracing for potential impacts of severe weather expected Tuesday afternoon. 

The county warned some communities should prepare for flooding and strong winds. 

"If you are in a low-lying coastal area that has flooded in the past, especially from storms like the one back in December, from Aida or Idalia, make sure that you are protecting your home, protecting the items inside your home, moving your cars to higher ground," said Ashley Giovannetti, the Pinellas County communications project coordinator.

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One area familiar with the impacts of severe weather is Shore Acres. On Sunday and Monday, the City of St. Pete took proactive measures for residents. 

Mutiple sandbagging sites opened for residents to pull up to. City crews also distributed sandbags door-to-door in Shore Acres and Riviera Bay. 

The city also sent streetsweepers and drain cleaning crews to Shore Acres on Monday. Still, residents were on edge Monday. 

"Wow…this is exhausting," said Kevin Batdorf, the president of the Shore Acres Civic Association. "I can’t recall having a flood in December ever, and I’ve been here since 1986, and now we’re expecting one in January." 

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Batdorf expressed concerns for residents with storage containers in their driveways.

"Can you imagine? You go through a storm like Idalia where 45% of the homes in Shore Acres had water, some people were able to save their items. The stuff they could save, they put into a storage unit in their front yard, then we had a storm in December, which flooded some of those storage units…" he said. "Now, here we go again. These people can’t catch a break. They really can’t catch a break."

Some neighbors moved items from their storage units into their homes. Others positioned sandbags up to their unit.

Kaitlyn and Austin Williams and their young children recently moved back into their home after having to gut and renovate it from Hurricane Idalia damage. 

"We were out of the house for maybe two, three months," Kaitlyn said. "It took that long to have it gutted, fixed, the whole nine yards. Even when we got back into the home, we still had repairs to finish." 

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The family said the December storm a few weeks ago brought floodwater to their doorstep.

"I’m sure everyone in this neighborhood is just as exhausted as we are," Austin said, "The fact that we just remodeled this whole house, don’t want to go through it again. Had to replace everything. Furniture, toys, clothes…"

The St. Pete Police Department will monitor the area on Tuesday and be on standby for road and bridge closures.