Seawater mixed with mud replaced the usual scene of gyros and baklava on the Tarpon Springs sponge docks the morning after Helene rolled through.
Bill Gresko is a sponge diver and rode out the storm on his boat, the Agios Fanourious, parked at the sponge docks. He said the water got up to the height of door handles, and he was afraid his boat was going to float onto Dodecanese Boulevard.
“Well, I prepared big time. I had the engine ready to start to move all my lines I can do from the boat,” he said. “Everything was prepared.”
The water went over the seawall, but wooden poles attached to the wall kept him from floating away.
Just down Dodecanese Boulevard, George Christo was throwing out all the food he had stored at his restaurant, The Limani. Four feet of water had inundated everything in his kitchen.
“So all the refrigeration is destroyed,” he said. “We're going to start clearing up, we're going to buy new refrigeration, new equipment and everything.”
Christo said he lost between $15,000-$18,000 in damages.
“I don't have a flood insurance. They ask me for so much money. They ask me about around $10,000 a year,” he said. “And that's for a little place.”
Christo stayed in his restaurant until about 1 a.m., and walked home when the water got too high. He vowed to keep his business going.
Nearby, Candace Redwine was throwing out everything in her gift shop, the Spiceman's Kitchen, that was 3 feet or less off the ground. She got in around 6 a.m., and there was no electricity and the streets were flooded.
And she has no flood insurance, either.
“I probably lost about $10,000 to $15,000 worth of stuff,” Redwine said. “We don't have flood insurance down here. Most of us don't. If we are able to afford it, then they won't give it to us down here. A lot of us, they won't just want to insure us down here for flood.”
When asked if all that is going to come out of her own pocket, she said, “Absolutely. Same thing happened last year.”
That was Hurricane Idalia. But she only had two inches of seawater in her shop, which destroyed the wood floors. This time around, there's bare concrete flooring.
When asked if two hurricanes in two years was enough to make her think of moving out of the sponge docks, Redwine said, “Absolutely. I'm sitting here thinking, you know, how many more years this is going to happen? How many more years am I going to have to deal with this? Yeah, it's tough.”
Seawater was still sloshing around the floor of Fatty's Place gift shop, long after the storm surge from the night before slinked back into the Gulf.
Three people were picking up gift items, wringing them out and dragging them out to the curb. Employee Kathy Esquinas said 80% of their merchandise was damaged beyond repair.
“It just looked like something I've never seen in over 20 years,” she said. “Never have I seen this store, street or anything devastated the way it is.”
Both fellow employee Marie Lee and Esquinas vowed to keep on going.
“We just all got to work together, we just gotta get it together,” they both said. “This can't stop us from having a great community.”
Both have been through several hurricanes and said this won't stop them from doing what they do.
“I'm seasoned. I think I'm gonna stay, but it's not for everyone,” Lee said.
“You gotta have some thick skin and love this community to rebuild everything, put everything back every time. And it's a good thing that we do,” Esquinas said. “We are Greek Strong here.”
And with that, they dragged a few more sodden trash bags out to the curb.
