Hurricane Helene Historic Storm Surge Devastates Cedar Key, Florida

guys that's a roof what you're looking at as one of the most terrifying forces of nature storm surge oh man there's somebody swimming over there holy crap there is if you live on the water sometimes you're going to live in the water why do I say storm surge is one of the most powerful forces on the planet it seemes like this just how quickly water can wipe away years of history and that's what's happened here on Cedar Key this is Devastation the beach front over there you can see right through it and I think that

was built in the early 1970s and it's never been this bad when I close my eyes and I think of disasters I've been in I picture scenes like this but I really hear this the sound of smoke alarms [Music] disconnected such an eerie soundtrack to disasters scary and we this is nothing like we've seen before hey just Coastal Community Living that shows it I've never never seen that in my life it's really hard to imagine looking at this Bay and the Gulf of Mexico just how high the water can rise but you just have to

come across the street to see the result of last year's hurricane Adalia those steps that used to be leading to a cottage that sat here for years but the Surge from Medallia a little over 6 ft wipe that away this is what's left of the far away in we CAU up with the owner a couple of days ago as they were preparing for Helen bringing everything they could out of those Cottages because their fear that Helen's going to be even worse I think it's serious yeah we're all a little nervous all a little worried all

trying to make sure we do a little more than what we did last time hoping we can save a little more than we did last time this is just the beginning you can feel the change the tide is shifted it's starting to come in and also the wind as well it's hurricane hel to creep closer to this tiny island of Cedar Key sign going to go H here we go so we're about 7 and 1/2 almost 8 ft difference the storm surge itself has chased us back about a block so we've been pushed back a

block in the last hour and a half from the storm surge and it is just contining to stack up stack up it's and we could have another 8 ft uh it's coming up pretty pretty quick Pace we just hit high tide this is a worst case scenario for Cedar te this is storm surge likely that this community has never seen before at least in living memory it continues to push in this is First Street and it is White Caps way several feet high pushing in off the Gulf of Mexico and into these homes this is

not a good sign all of this debris that's sitting here it shows structures whoa look at that structures have been destroyed by this Surge and it continues to go higher we have not seen the fiercest of the Winds from Hurricane Helen that's made landfall Northwest of where we are but we might be seeing some of the worst of its storm surge the best record we've got is the first McCain came here in around 1860 and we just generational every s since and so what is this like to see like somebody punching you in a stomach

it's never seen anything like it um I I've heard stories of the 1950 hurricane easy and as far as I know in my in my family we've never seen water like this before sadly I see firsthand how quickly life can change on a regular basis whether it's through a hurricane a tornado or even a flood but your life can just as easily be upended here online data broker sell your information to scammers spammers and anyone else who may want to Target you your full name email home address health records your relatives it's all out there

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in uh usually it comes in slow and leaves fast this time I've never seen waves like this right down here um there's never been water on this road and we've got what looks like Rapids down here is unbelievable we've been watching it on our phones um the mean low low water marks uh and we know that Adelia was 10.69 it was at the floor of my house at 10.69 and we're already over 13 so I I know it's absolutely in my house it's at least knee deep in my house right now yeah yesterday morning before

hurricane Helen passed by Cedar Key I mentioned worst case scenario storm surge would reach the roof and we saw overnight the peak of that surge a wall of water crushed this tiny Island and it took out the far away in every building has been completely destroyed by that water brought in by Hurricane Helen I mentioned these red steps in that report that was left behind from a cottage that used to sit here that was wiped away by the storm surge from Hurricane Adalia just a year ago now hen storm surge has taken everything else away

this is the worst I've seen I I do really feel bad for people I I really do it's so devastating this is not going to be the same Cedar Key that you grew up with no no it it really is and this will change a lot of these properties won't be rebuilt you know you lose the businesses and people you know you seen for years don't show up because there's no work for him you know so it really does change the whole dynamic of the town around 75 or so folks I'm told stayed on the

island and they've woken up in a completely new world the implications of storms like these are so wide ranging this island is forever changed and it happened in a few hours overnight the work that we're going to lose we you know everybody's lost I mean the Big D exactly just C oh my God they employ anywhere between 12 and 15 people and it's gone the market employees six or seven people it's gone and it's owned by the same man and he's I mean he lost two businesses and one Fell Swoop it's sad this is the

historical downtown 1842 it's hard to believe but in all that time since these buildings have stood this one since 1880 never has this area seen the water like what Helen brought just rushed inside oddly enough it brought the coffee cups here left them on the sidewalk this building itself 1872 the Pioneers when they built here they thought of things like elevation when it came to things like the The Surge from hurricanes that was a way of life since the beginning this building obviously boarded up but the elevation the history was not enough for this historic

storm of hurricane Helen you can see the boarding up didn't matter the force of the water pushing everything inside the water getting in and now there are fish and tadpoles swimming inside it's very rare to say you've seen something that no one else has but the storm surge from Hurricane Helen is something this Historic downtown has never seen in its long history after Hurricane Helen you do not have to look far to see the future of Cedar Key across the street these homes that are built up 20 ft modern construction techniques high on stilts that's

the future here on Cedar Key in the lowest parts of the island the only way clearly to survive what is now the worst hurricane storm surge in this Island's history how can you as a community come together after this third one in a year because there's so much we love about this place there's so much especially the nature part the Eco part the wildlife that's here and that's nearby in walking distance every day to walk down to the coast and see the dolphin or the manatee all the bird life it's incredible there are safer places

to live but not as many with so much incredible incredible nature here and people that are so supportive