TOWN N' COUNTRY, Fla. — The Bay Crest Park neighborhood in Town N' Country saw extensive flooding during Hurricane Helene. Neighbors said they saw several feet of water in their homes as the storm passed.
But Thomas Duhig told ABC Action News his new hurricane-grade doors, sliders and windows may have protected his home from worse flooding.
"It still smells a little funky. My remediation team is starting, they just haven’t chopped the walls up yet," he said as he walked me through the front doors.
He was gracious enough to let my photographer and me into his home to show us how it fared during Hurricane Helene.
"Looking at the news reports, I was thinking, this is it, this is the end of it, it’s not going to get worse," he said. "So, I take a flashlight, and I go out, and I look, and the water was just over the seawall, which is not that threatening.”
A short time later, the power cut, and when he looked again, the water was up to the pool cage. Forty-five minutes after that, he saw waves in his pool, and a water line along his brand-new hurricane-grade sliders showed how high it got.
But, incredibly, "The waterline is there on the outside, but it didn’t get all the way in," I said.
"Dumb luck. I just had these hurricane windows installed and it came in through here through the track. Otherwise, it would’ve been that deep throughout," Thomas said. "Still, I had damage, but it could’ve been much worse."
He had about 8 inches inside instead of 2 feet like many of his neighbors.
"How fortunate do you feel to have replaced your windows and doors before the storm?" I asked Duhig.
"Extremely. Extremely, yeah. And I’ve got to say the incentive was the Florida program, the My Safe Florida. These cost $30,000," he said. "They’re not cheap, and I get it. There’s a lot of engineering into that, but the state paid me $10,000—so win-win, real win!"
Like most in the neighborhood, he’s had to toss out furniture and other personal water-logged belongings, but he said these doors and widows likely saved his home from significantly more damage. Duhig said they were installed around four months ago, and prior to their installation, he had "aluminum clad, you know, the old style."
He was able to file an insurance claim on his phone and he's also working with his insurance agent so he can focus on the house.
Many neighbors told me they’ve never had flooding in their home here before so many didn’t leave. Duhig didn’t evacuate this time, and admits he should have—he told me next time, he’s gone.
"I was pretty nervous when that water was that high, like when is it gonna stop? And then you get flashbacks of Katrina with people climbing into their attic and stuff," he said. "I had a dog here who was unfazed sleeping with his life jacket on. But it gets your brain working."
To learn more about the My Safe Florida Home program, click here.
A state report says hundreds of frail elderly nursing home residents were stacked side by side, head to toe in a small church with no working air conditioning or refrigerator during Hurricane Helene.