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

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.

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.