Residents of Siesta Key take stock of flooded homes and businesses just hours after up to seven feet of storm surge washed through the island.

Hurricane Helene's staggering storm surge inundated neighborhoods on Siesta Key, leaving businesses and residents with a long road to recovery.

Midnight Pass, a naturally formed inlet separating Siesta and Casey Keys, was filled in in the 1980s by Siesta Key beachfront residents to protect their homes from destruction due to erosion. Critics say closing the pass has degraded the water quality of Sarasota Bay and have fought, unsuccessfully, to reopen it.

Eric and Lauren Cowan walked out of Morton’s Siesta Market and briefly into Siesta Village Liquors, which was set to close at noon because of the storm. The pair visit Siesta Key at least once a year from their Pennsylvania home, already having spent time on Siesta in July.

The damage from Helene took some Sarasota residents by surprise. One family who decided to ride out the storm and wound up scrambling to save what they could. “First I want to give the glory to God; it could have been worse,

The storm surge, which was described by County Commissioner Mark Smith as 3 feet in height in the area, left many businesses working to clean up, with repairs and renovations ahead. Todd Morton, owner of Morton's Siesta Market and its sister stores, summarized the situation.

Sarasota and Manatee County residents are still discovering the scope of damage caused by Hurricane Helene, especially on the barrier islands, where officials were still clearing roads, restoring utilities and checking for any public safety issues before gradually allowing residents to return.