Sarasota businesses left cleaning up after flooding from Tuesday downpours

SARASOTA, Fla. - Water flowed inside Jazzy Cabera's pet grooming business off of U.S. 301 in Sarasota while cars were stalled out near Washington Boulevard after Tuesday evening's rainstorms. 

"This has never happened, this is chaotic," Jazzy said. 

She worked Wednesday morning along with her family to clean up mud and muck left inside her business. 

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"The water is coming in here just like an ocean. I’m putting towels, and it’s pushing the towels and the water is going straight," she said. 

It's unlike any storm Jazzy has seen, and it brought upwards of eight inches to parts of Sarasota County. She said she was stuck inside her car with nowhere to go as the downpours took over the area. 

"Once my sister called me that she was stuck, I had to come. I don’t know how, but I made it," said her brother Alex Cabera. 

Her brother rescued her from her car Tuesday evening as more than 100 cars stalled out in the floodwaters. They’re now searching for her cat, Fendi, who ran off in the storm. 

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Alex also owns "What You Need," a thrift and collectibles store. His business was swamped with water, destroying some merchandise. 

"I’m going to clean as much as I can. Take it day by day," he told FOX 13. 

Five minutes away off of Apricot Avenue, Kim Livengood, a co-owner for The Bazaar, said the rain didn't stop for two hours. Artists with The Bazaar on Apricot and Lime worked to clean up the water damage Wednesday.

"It’s about a 500,000 square foot building, and we probably got an inch and a half throughout the entire place," Livengood said. 

She said she was trapped inside her business and watched as her parking lot turned into a river. 

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"I have never seen anything like this before," Livengood said. "Water is an interesting thing and you don’t want to wade out in it, because I wasn’t sure what was in it, so I had to wait for the water to recede."

Before it did, the water seeped in and caught business owners off guard, leaving them with a mess in the morning. 

"The important thing is everybody was safe, nobody got hurt at the end of the day, everything is stuff," she said. 

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