PALMETTO BEACH, Fla — DeSoto Park residents thought they had seen it all from Mother Nature, but then Hurricane Helene arrived with a storm surge unlike anything they had ever experienced.
“If you look down the street, it’s just everyone’s stuff is down the road, everyone’s full house, we have to rebuild basically from scratch,” said Robert Williams.
After a lot of hard work, the house Williams and his wife have rented for the last four years is nearly empty. They’ve been able to clear out all of their things and put it curbside.
“Some people have been here their whole lives and never had anything like this happen before,” said Williams.
He said three feet of water rushed into their home around 10 p.m. Thursday as Helene’s storm surge reached the coast.
“It just started coming in from everywhere, wall, sockets, door frames, up through cracks in the tile, …