After Ian, St. Johns County estimates almost $60 million for repairs to homes, roads, infrastructure

On Inlet Drive in Davis Shores, Vince Roberts and his wife, Lynn, nervously watched the water approach their home from the Intracoastal Waterway during Tropical Storm Ian last week. But thanks to a new sprouting of mangroves and a 12-foot-high elevation, the house they've lived in since the 1990s escaped the flooding by a few feet.

But just one street behind the Roberts, farther from the Intracoastal but at a lower elevation, the home that Tanner Hendley and his family bought four years ago was not spared the storm surge and floodwaters of the storm.

Mattresses and furniture are piled outside of the home as Hendley, family members and friends from the church he attends pull out furniture and mattresses to be thrown away. The house flooded between four and eight inches during the storm while he and his wife were on their honeymoon last week, he said.

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"We knew that it had flood damage and been repaired," Hendley said. "We sandbagged and did everything we could."

Hendley's is one of 636 homes that were impacted by Hurricane Ian: 380 had cosmetic damage, 223 had flooding under 18 inches and 34 homes flooded over 18 inches, according to St. Johns County data. No houses were completely destroyed.

The estimated damage is $37.8 million.

Millions more in damages to county infrastructure and inland neighborhoods

Hurricane Ian didn't hit as hard as Hurricanes Irma and Matthew. The closest point of approach of Hurricane Ian’s center to St. Johns County was approximately 83 miles off the eastern coast, when it was a Category 1 hurricane with 75 mph winds, according to the county.

But it still caused damage across the county, including miles from the coast.

There was major flooding specifically in Porpoise Point, North Beach, Crescent Beach, Davis Shores and Flagler Estates in Hastings.

St. Augustine Beach Pier is closed until an assessment of the structure can be completed. County Road 13 and Old A1A also need repairs. Repairing parts of Old A1A is estimated to cost $18 million, according to St. Johns County.

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20 lift stations were damaged, with an estimated cost of repairs of $4 million.

A representative for the St. Johns County School District told the Times-Union that the district did not have damage to any schools or buildings during Hurricane Ian and resumed normal operations on Monday.

Historic downtown St. Augustine saw a 3- to 5-foot storm surge during the storm and around 10 to 20 inches of rain, videos of which were widely shown on social media. But most businesses in the area experienced only a few inches of flooding and reopened within a few days.

Brad Clivy, who maintains the grounds of a property in downtown St. Augustine, has ridden out every hurricane in the downtown area since 2001. Clivy said the damage from Hurricane Ian isn't as bad as what he's seen before.

Neighborhoods like Lincolnville, which sits near Lake Maria Sanchez, and the Abbott Tract on the Intracoastal, experienced severe flooding during Hurricanes Irma and Matthew, but residents said these neighborhoods were spared this time around.

Along the coast, the beaches lost an estimated five cubic feet of sand to erosion during the storm. But the beaches experienced "less erosion" than during Hurricanes Irma and Matthew, according to the county.

A house on Vilano Beach appears to have had some of the worst damage. The house's wooden stilts are completely exposed with no sand or structure to support the bottom of the house. An "unsafe" sticker was placed on the home for building officials and inspectors to determine the extent of the damage and what is needed to protect it.

'Thank god for the mangroves'

For now, back at Davis Shores, Roberts and his wife, Lynn, feel safe. But they say the streets behind their house, like De Leon Boulevard and Miruela Avenue, will continue to see flooding.

"We had oceanfront property," Roberts said of his property during the storm. He has videos of waves breaking just at the edges of his lawn.

"There's been a lot of erosions from the different storms...We had waves coming over the street," Lynn said. "But maybe five years after we moved here, the mangroves started to pop up...So now we've got a nice barrier. They've really helped."

Hendley and his family will have to replace all of the flooring and furniture in their house on Miruela Avenue, which they bought after Hurricanes Matthew and Irma. The 20 sandbags that St. Johns County allowed each homeowner couldn't stop the water.

"We knew it flooded [before], so we knew we had to do everything we can to make sure that it doesn't flood. But in the end, it happens," Hendley said. "But my wife and I were talking, and God knows what we need and what we don't need and God is going to bless us. ... It sucks seeing all your stuff go, stuff that we didn't have a chance to get up off the ground."

Katherine Lewin is the enterprise reporter at the Times-Union covering criminal and social justice issues in Northeast Florida. Email her at klewin@jacksonville.com or follow on Twitter @KatherineMLewin. Contact her for her Signal number to share anonymous tips and documents. Support local journalism

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: St. Johns County, St. Augustine left with $60 million in damages after Ian