HOLMES BEACH – Residents and business owners began returning to Holmes Beach on Saturday to assess the damage inflicted by Hurricane Helene.
At 10 a.m. Saturday morning, Mayor Judy Titsworth and Police Chief Bill Tokajer greeted the first wave of arrivals, some of whom passed through Holmes Beach on their way to Anna Maria, with law enforcement personnel checking for re-entry tags or other forms of proof of residency or business ownership.
“The chief and mayor have met and the mayor has asked to let residents and business owners to be allowed to enter the city to start their cleanup efforts,” said the reopening notice posted at the Holmes Beach Police Department Facebook page earlier that day.
With Cortez Bridge vehicular access still restricted, a law enforcement-monitored barricade was deployed at the south end of the city to prevent motorists from entering Bradenton Beach through Holmes Beach.
As Sunday unfolded, Tokajer decided to eliminate the checkpoint and he explained his decision in another Facebook message.
“Today, we were allowing the residents, employees and contracted cleaning crews to enter the Island. In the first three hours of the checkpoint, we did not have to turn anyone away and the line of cars was backed up past 75th Street causing huge delays. I decided it would be more helpful to the residents to get them, their cleaning crews and employees onto the Island faster so they are not sitting in traffic for hours…The curfew is still in place from dusk to dawn and it will remain in place until the police chiefs decide it is no longer necessary. We will still be closing access to the Island at 7 p.m.”
DAMAGE AND RECOVERY
A late Saturday afternoon tour of Holmes Beach revealed the damage done and the recovery efforts underway.
The stretch of Gulf Drive between Walgreens pharmacy and Skinny’s restaurant was limited to a single lane carved out of the sand by a front-end loader.
At the five-unit, ground-level Bamboo Apartments vacation rental complex, St. Petersburg-based owners Alice and Stephen Sutton and their sons had already removed the carpeting and other items damaged by the floodwaters that they said could have been much worse.
Alice, the third-generation owner, said, “This is the only time we’ve ever flooded.”
With some drywall replacement potentially looming, Alice had already cancelled their guest reservations for the coming week and possibly until the end of October.
At Manatee Beach, a heavy equipment operator was removing sand piled up on Anna Maria Island Beach Café’s beachfront patio.
A large puddle covered much of the Gulf Drive S-curve near the beach parking lot and some traffic signals worked and some did not. Throughout the city, water, sand and mud were common sights and many property owners had already hauled their damaged furnishings and belongings to the curb.
Along Avenue F, Hurricane Helene demolished two beachfront homes, severely damaged others and partially buried an SUV.
On Sunday evening, Titsworth said, “Holmes Beach was totally devastated from the flood waters. The Holmes Beach police, public works, building and code enforcement departments have been working non-stop and we were able to quickly get property owners back on the Island to assess their damage and begin cleaning up. I had 3 feet of water in my home and lost most everything. I have much empathy for our property owners as to the magnitude of the devastation. I can’t thank FPL enough for getting our power back on so quickly and the county’s rapid response in getting our lift stations back in operation was commendable. We will get through this recovery together.”
