ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — People in one of St. Augustine’s frequently flooded neighborhoods have started to prepare for Hurricane Milton’s impact.
A few Davis Shores homeowners had a neighborhood meeting Sunday afternoon to share their plans for Milton – who’s staying, who’s going and what they’re doing to get their homes ready.
Parts of Davis Shores were underwater during Hurricane Ian, so one homeowner went out of her way to make sure hurricanes like Milton won’t have such a massive impact.
“Most of the time it’s great," Kim Craig said.
Craig loves her view of Salt Run from her home in Davis Shores, except for when it turns into the view of a hurricane coming in.
Hurricane Ian in September 2022 wreaked havoc on the waterfront neighborhood.
“We had about a foot of water come in," Craig said. "Pretty much everything was destroyed at that point.”
Six weeks later, Hurricane Nicole flooded the neighborhood again.
That’s when Craig made the costly and time-consuming decision to lift her house.
“I didn’t really have a choice because things like this happen again, and we’re probably going to have water again," Craig said.
The house is 8 feet higher now, and Craig figures Hurricane Milton will be the first real test to prove if it was worth it.
“You can see it’s still kind of under construction because the whole thing had to be redone," Craig said. "We’re just going to clean up around here and make sure there’s no loose debris that could fly around.”
While Craig finishes what she can ahead of the storm, St. Johns County officials have already started their preps as well.
“There are plans for the St. Johns County emergency operations center to move to a level two operation on Monday," St. Johns County Spokesperson Wayne Larson said. "We’ll have some further announcements on sandbags, sheltering and potential evacuation information.”
Larson pointed out the county is still in a local state of emergency from Hurricane Helene.
“Our public works department is still addressing some debris from the previous storm, but they’re continuing operations and we’ll be ready for this storm and the aftermath," Larson said.
Craig already made the decision to raise her house. Now she has to decide to stay or go for Hurricane Milton.
“I think with the generator we’ll be OK. I think during Hurricane Irma we lost power for like a week," Craig said. "It’s kind of a choice whether or not we want to do that again. We’ll see over the next day or two.”
After Hurricane Ian, the City of St. Augustine offered a grant program for Davis Shores to help pay for raising homes in the neighborhood, so Craig won’t be the only homeowner waiting to see if they’ll be looking down at the floodwaters as opposed watching them force their way into the house.