Local

San Marco businesses get creative trying to prevent flooding

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Business owners in the San Marco area spent most of their Monday preparing for the storm.

A lot of businesses along San Marco Avenue experienced major flooding during the last major storm and still have not recovered.

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Many businesses close to the St. Johns River were either closed for the day or preparing to close their stores ahead of the storm. That's why the owners put down sandbags to minimize potential flooding. 
  
Corey Frere is the owner of Meow and Barks boutique and he said he's planning to do everything he can to prepare for this hurricane. 
 
"Basically that's all you can do. There's no such thing as over-preparing so just taking advantage of the time now," Frere said.

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Frere hos owned Meow and Barks boutique for almost 9 years. He said when hurricane Irma hit it flooded his store causing almost $10,000 worth of damage.

"It was overwhelming you know. We saw the Instagram pictures and we saw how San Marco was and when we got here it was more than what we expected," Frere said.

That's why this time around he's working overtime boarding up windows, putting down sand bags and doing whatever he can to try and prevent another flood.

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"I had everything precut, I already had it pre-cut from previous storms. But it's water, you can't beat the water, water is going to find a way to get in," Frere said.

He said his message to neighboring businesses is to do whatever they can to secure their property. 
"I hope and pray and make sure you got all everything you need to weather out the storm," Frere said.

RELATED: Here's where you can get sandbags ahead of Dorian | Know your evacuation zone | What supplies you need | Jacksonville area school closures