‘It is heartbreaking’: Flooding from Hurricane Debby impacts Sarasota residents

SARASOTA, Fla. (WFLA) — First responders spent the day going door to door checking on residents near the Pinecraft community along Bahia Vista Street.

Sarasota Police said hundreds of people had to be rescued and brought to higher ground as a result ofResidents along Courtland Street helped neighbors impacted by floodwaters retrieve personal belongings from their homes. Elderly residents were rescued by kayaks and small boats.

Sandra Rees, who has lived in the area for 32 years, only recalls seeing significant flooding once before when she first moved to the area, but never this bad. She considers herself incredibly lucky to have not been impacted, but felt devastated for her community.

“It’s awful,” Rees said. “It is heartbreaking. People carrying their plastic bags with their photos and things in it, it is so sad.”

A few streets to the south, Khylan Robinson spent some time on her kayak checking on her neighbors. significant flooding.

Going up and down those streets, I had a knot in my chest, scared to death that I was going to find someone’s pet or an old person that couldn’t get out of their house,” Robinson said.

She admits she never thought this storm would have such a devastating impact.

“You just expect it to be a normal storm and then all of a sudden, people are losing their homes and their lives and their livelihood and everything they have,” Robinson said. “My neighbor and our friend, we went into his house and it was waist deep in his kids’ rooms and his room. He tried to put as much stuff up as he could, but there was so much that wasn’t salvageable. I am pretty sure the whole house is going to be just unusable, unlivable, which is horrifying because that is our next-door neighbor, that could have been us.”

Robinson did suffer damage from the flooding, but like many others in the neighborhood, considers herself lucky to have been spared from the worst.

“People are in water up to their chest, or up to their armpits in water,” Sarasota County Assistant Fire Chief Tim Dorsey said. “So it is very deep in places, it just depends on where they are.”