St. Pete assessing damage from Debby, from flooding to downed trees

Crews waiting for water to recede in St. Pete

St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch said the city is seeing unprecedented levels of water following Debby.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - It’s a scene that’s all too familiar for Shore Acres residents: flooded streets, tow trucks saving trapped cars and sometimes getting stuck themselves. Now, Debby is forcing them to deal with it all again.

"We have to put everything together before we go, before we leave the house," Dania Beedle said.

"We’re getting good practice," Scott Beedle said.

"Every time we go, we do it faster," Dania added.

The Beedles have lived in the St. Pete neighborhood for two years. They’ve been through this before.

Less than a year ago, Hurricane Idalia flooded their home with six inches of water, and they lost almost everything inside.

PREVIOUS: Flooding mitigation underway in Shore Acres to address years of neighborhood issues

"We stay in a hotel every time that we have this problem. So, we have to spend a little bit more money, and we were just staying downtown last night, and now we are just coming to see how the house is," Dania Beedle said on Monday.

After trekking through the floodwaters on Monday, they got back to their home to see the water was creeping in again.

PHOTOS: Hurricane Debby blasts Tampa with heavy rain, flooding

"We’re seeing unprecedented levels of tidal influx, as well as rain and storm surge at the same time," St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch said.

Welch said infrastructure investments the city made in the past year, like pumps in Shore Acres, seem to be paying off.

"We understand the power of storm surge and we made some significant investments in personnel and infrastructure in response to what we saw with Idalia and the no-name storm in December, so we had crews out cleaning storm drains, lowering the levels of lakes and ponds, doing all the prep to make sure we were in the best position to handle the floods and the rains that came, and I think it’s paying off, but we definitely need to continue that investment in our infrastructure," Welch said.

"I’m getting real good feedback, but again, when we complete our assessment, we’ll know how that infrastructure held up," he said. "The track of the storm could have been much different. This was, again, a tropical storm that was well to our west, and given how far away it was, you've seen the impacts."

Those final assessments will come when the waters recede, Welch said. City officials said crews responded to more than 50 downed trees falling on cars and falling close to homes. Thankfully, there are no reports of injuries.

"This is a significant rain event, a 25-year storm, could be a 50-year storm after we get those last few bands in this afternoon," Welch said.

Welch toured some of the damage Monday afternoon.

St. Petersburg Police closed several streets across the city Sunday and Monday because of flooding and downed wires. St. Pete Fire Rescue crews responded to more than 320 calls overnight and Monday. FL Task Force 3 has been deployed to Levy County, which includes members of St. Pete Fire Rescue.

READ: Catfish appear on flooded streets in Pinellas Park

All power for traffic lights had been restored as of Monday evening. According to St. Pete officials, about 400 city team members have been a part of damage assessment.

Dell Holmes splash pad and park are closed due to flooding. City golf courses were closed Monday and will be closed Tuesday. Childs Park and North Park library are closed due to power outages.

Crews will be out Tuesday to continue assessing damage in low-lying areas of St. Pete. City teams will also finalize a debris plan and share that and recovery resources with the community on Tuesday.