ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — As Florida prepares for Hurricane Milton, Monday was the anniversary of a hurricane that was an eye-opener for Northeast Florida.
That storm was Hurricane Matthew which slammed St. Johns County and surrounding counties on Oct. 7, 2016.
The rising water and the howling wind were common sights around the First Coast eight years ago exactly when Hurricane Matthew was a wake-up call, showing how vulnerable St. Johns County is to flooding.
Nicole Nettles' home in Davis Shores did not flood, but her mother’s house next door did during Matthew. The rising waters were so high, it almost completely covered her mailbox.
Nettles and many others learned lessons from that storm, lessons that they are now using to prepare for Hurricane Milton.
Monday, Nettles prepared her home, her mother’s home and her family business Blue Water Jewelers.
"The sandbags do not work. They only deter the water from rushing and hitting up against," Nettles said.
Since 2016, other storms have flooded St. Augustine, giving Nettles more times to learn what really works.
"They make these wonderful floodgates. But these are extremely expensive. So if you don’t have flood gates, what we do is we take the boards and we put them on the outside of the door and we use zip tape to seal the board. It's a game changer," Nettles explained. "It’s a roll of tape. It’s really think and waterproof when you put it on dry. See how it’s stretchy. So you can pull it across stuff and it sticks. So we do the whole edge of the door."
Other people told First Coast News they also had success with Gorilla Tape to seal up doors.
"You also have to seal up your dryer vents," Nettles said. "With any hole in your house, the water is going to get in. The water is going to come through the vent into your house through the dryer. So the zip tape is great for that too. I used it on everything at my mom’s house and it worked."
Also, Nettles suggests that you evacuate your home, take tools to unlock the flood gates and take your insurance paperwork.
"That's because when we evacuated the one time, we wanted to call and make claims while we’re sitting in the hotel room, but we didn't have the papers," Nettles said. "So take the bin with all your phone numbers."
Nettles is busy getting her mother’s home prepared for yet another storm. It's a lot of work, but Matthew - which flooded her neighborhood for the first time in decades in 2016 -- has prepared her for the task.
"It’s a pain," she nodded."But at the same time we live in a beautiful area, and I wouldn’t go anywhere else, you know."