“Sick to my stomach”: Cleanup underway after historic flooding from Ian

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla — Flooding across St. Augustine now has property owners there doing what they can to mop-up and clean-up in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.

One homeowner said she’s been through several hurricanes living in other parts of Florida, but said she never dealt with flooding like this.

“It’s pretty sickening,” St Augustine homeowner Lucia Fernandez said after seeing the damage inside of her house after it was flooded from Hurricane Ian. “I just felt really sick to my stomach, I really wanted to throw up.”

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“The couch started floating, the chairs started floating and things started coming out of the cabinet floating,” she said.

Fernandez measured roughly 18 inches of water in the living room and another six in the lower levels of her home. She was with her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend through this.

“We were sitting here until the water got to the bottom of the seat, so we moved here to the barstool,” she said. “Next step was here or getting to my bed.”

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Now the floors are covered in dirt, carpets still soaked and water lines are marked all throughout the house.

“I mean what can you do but just, just start over, right?,” she said

Lower drawers still surrounded by water in her home.

“Flooding is just a different ball game, now you have to think about sanity conditions, the smell, the rot the mold,” she said.

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Not even in the house for a year and now the next coming months will be spent fixing things up. While the conditions aren’t ideal, Fernandez said she is thankful at least they’re all okay.

“It is devastating in one sense, it’s sad,” she said. “When I think about it, everyone works so hard for all of your things right, then all of a sudden something happens and it’s no longer there and its okay I have my health, my faith, my children.”

Fernandez told Action News Jax she did file claims with insurance and is working on other paperwork. She said her thoughts and prayers are with those impacted in southwest Florida.

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