VENICE — Chris and Linda Johnson have lived in Venice their whole lives, and have ridden out a lot of hurricanes over the years — including Idalia a year ago and Debby, which was a tropical storm when it passed by Venice in early August.
Both storms did substantial damage to the South Jetty and Humphris Park, but Jetty Jack’s, the concession stand there that they’ve operated for nearly seven years, escaped essentially unscathed.
“The building stood strong during every storm but this one,” Chris said.
He said they were expecting the worst after Hurricane Ian in 2022, especially when they couldn’t even get on the island to inspect the building.
But when they went to the North Jetty to have a look across the inlet, it was OK.
So when Hurricane Helene was approaching, they took the usual precautions to protect it: took in the chairs and umbrellas, locked the doors, put the shutters down, with liners in place to shield the inside from rain.
But Helene wasn’t a usual hurricane.
They knew that after water got into their home on Lyons Bay, which had never happened before. They’d seen the water rise 3 or 4 feet, Chris said, but this time “the water kept rising.”