ENGLEWOOD — Hurricane Helene’s surge pushed water into Englewood’s Lemon Bay and up into Gottfried Creek, flooding homes in a low-lying neighborhood.
The home of Richard “Dickie” Jean and his partner, Maria Cumming, was one of those.
It’s normal for Crestview Drive to flood during a summer rain, but the storm surge and high tide was nothing like Jean had ever seen before.
“When the water got to the edge of the house, that’s when I went in, and I killed the power of the entire house to try and save anything we could save and not have a fire,” Jean said. “We sat in the chairs, and we were talking about leaving.”
The water kept rising, and it began to rush in through the sliding door in the back of the house by Gottfried Creek.
“I said ‘Maria, we have to go,’” Jean said. “The whole street is flooded.”
The couple’s friends, Scott and Donna, drove to the house and were walking across the floodwaters with Home Depot buckets to try to build sandbags, hoping they could prevent the water from coming any further.