STEINHATCHEE, Fla. 鈥� Cheri and Rusty Jakes were forced to wait for about a foot of storm surge to recede from their property on Monday before they could start cleaning the mess that Debby made.
The Jakeses live in Steinhatchee (pronounced steen-HATCH-ee), a tiny fishing town on Florida鈥檚 Big Bend, where Debby made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane early on Monday. Their property is right on the Steinhatchee River, which flowed into the couple鈥檚 carport, flooding it.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 have any monetary damages, just emotional damage,鈥� said Cheri Jakes, 67, as she gestured toward several decades-old photo albums with wedding pictures and pictures of her family. 鈥淎ll of my children鈥檚 baby books got flooded,鈥� she added, holding back tears. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the most devastating thing. I don鈥檛 care about anything else right now.鈥�
Rusty Jakes, 66, pulled a wooden filing cabinet with 鈥渋mportant papers鈥� out of a storage closet in the carport beneath their home. It was clearly water damaged.
鈥淭hese file cabinets I had on top of the cooler there,鈥� said Rusty Jakes, who spent Sunday night stacking boxes into the storage unit, in an effort to protect them from flooding. 鈥淓vidently, it floated just enough for it to fall.鈥�
Their home is elevated on stilts, protecting the interior living space from flooding. Early on Monday morning, they thought everything in their carport below was safe.
鈥淭his morning, it was totally dry,鈥� Jakes said. Then the couple went down to the carport to make coffee on a grill at around 8 a.m. That鈥檚 when they saw the floodwaters from the river starting to rise. 鈥淚t started coming up, coming up, coming up,鈥� he said.
Steinhatchee was battered last year by Hurricane Idalia, a stronger Category 3 storm that covered the town in goopy, brown river mud. Hours after Debby came ashore Monday, several gravel roads in town remained partially flooded. Docks were partially submerged along the river, though most homes, elevated on stilts, appeared dry.
Usually, the town would be bustling this time of year for scallop season. Saturday was a 鈥渕adhouse,鈥� said Skipper McCall, 69, a lifelong Steinhatchee resident who stayed home during the storm.
After surveying his home after the storm, McCall said that the only damage he found was a thin strip of siding that had been peeled back from the outer wall of his home. 鈥淭hey hollered wolf too early,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e get more wind out of a thundershower.鈥�
The only store that looked open Monday was an Ace Hardware, which had a steady stream of people buying mops, buckets, tarps and extension cords, Tyler Rayborn, the store鈥檚 assistant manager, said. The winds were strong when he opened the shop at 7:30 a.m., he said, though the rain did not pick up until later in the morning. Idalia had been much worse, he added.
For Debby, many residents had evacuated. The Jakeses thought they had been perhaps the only ones among their neighbors who had stayed for the storm.
鈥淚t could鈥檝e been a lot worse,鈥� Cheri Jakes said. 鈥淲e could鈥檝e lost a roof, or a tornado could鈥檝e come through, but it didn鈥檛. You鈥檝e got to count your blessings.鈥�
This article originally appeared in . c.2024 The New York Times Company
