ANNA MARIA ISLAND – Six months ago this week, the Island was emerging from Hurricane Helene’s flooding a week earlier, and was a week away from being hit by Hurricane Milton.
Helene’s storm surge on Sept. 26 created 4 feet of flooding in many places in the three Island cities, with many Bradenton Beach homes destroyed and homes and businesses throughout the Island suffering significant flood damage or destruction. On Oct. 9, Milton added wind damage to the flooding. Since then, most Island businesses have reopened, but some remain closed as repairs continue. Some businesses will not reopen.
The Anna Maria Island Moose Lodge in Bradenton Beach suffered severe storm surge damage and has not reopened yet but the repairs are underway and the lodge’s bar area and social quarters are expected to reopen at some point soon.
Many mobile home residents in the Pines Trailer Park in Bradenton Beach remain displaced, and on March 28, the Pines Trailer Park Homeowners Association Inc. filed a lawsuit against the Pines Park Investors LLC park ownership group headed by Shawn Kaleta.
Island-wide, hundreds of vacation rental homes and other lodging accommodations were badly damaged but many have been repaired and reopened and are once again providing lodging for the tourists and visitors that drive the Island’s tourism-reliant economy.
The storm surge and flooding also damaged and destroyed many automobiles, golf carts, scooters and other forms of transportation.
Hurricane Helene’s storm surge left many Island roadways covered with displaced sand that had to be removed before those roadways became usable again. Helene also produced massive amounts of household and landscaping debris that required the large-scale debris removal undertakings that continued in all three Island cities for several weeks after Hurricane Milton created more debris piles.
Holmes Beach
When asked about the recovery process at the six-month mark, Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth said, “The response and recovery of Hurricane Helene was the most challenging catastrophe to have hit the Island cities. Since becoming mayor, one of my main objectives was to improve our emergency operations response and recovery plan and to have required emergency training for all staff so that in the event we were to be hit by a catastrophic hurricane, we would be able to be successful in our response and recovery efforts.”
“We were tested this past year and I couldn’t be more proud of our city staff and our citizens in how much has been accomplished in the past six months. The public works department, building department, code compliance department and the police department all faced tremendous challenges and were successful in carrying out their missions.
“The majority of our businesses are back open, many of our residents are back in their homes and our vacationers have returned. I thank the Manatee County Emergency Operations Center team for their assistance as well as our county, state and federal leaders,” Titsworth said.
On March 25, Holmes Beach Director of Development Services Chad Minor said the city has issued more than 2,000 post-hurricane building permits and 44 demolition permits and most of those permits are hurricane-related.
Anna Maria
Hurricanes Helene and Milton damaged homes, businesses and city assets throughout the city of Anna Maria. The combined forces of the two hurricanes destroyed the privately-owned Rod & Reel Pier and washed away a significant portion of the city-owned Anna Maria City Pier walkway.
Rod & Reel Pier owner Oliver Lemke hopes to the rebuild the iconic pier and pier restaurant he bought in November, 2023.
The engineering process for the construction of a new City Pier walkway is well underway but no timetable has been provided as to when the construction of the new walkway will begin.
The displaced Anna Maria Post Office continues to operate inside a large trailer at City Pier Park while the repairs continue at the nearby building space leased to the U.S. Postal Service.
Six months into the ongoing recovery process, Anna Maria Mayor Mark Short said, “After six months, I am proud to say that almost every business that decided to reopen is open, the significant repair work in the city is complete, except for City Pier, and now we are focused on a number of smaller items.
“Property owners continue to be challenged with getting their repair and renovation work completed, but every day we see progress and I look forward to the day that Helene and Milton are part of a ‘do you remember’ conversation,” Short said.
Bradenton Beach Mayor John Chappie did not respond to The Sun’s request for comments.
The historic Annie’s Bait and Tackle Shop in Cortez, a victim of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, is slated for demolition within 30 days. - Leslie Lake | Sun
Annie's Bait and Tackle is part of the Seafood Shack property now owned by the county. - Leslie Lake | Sun
