CORTEZ – Cortez fishing villagers are accustomed to sharks, but not in their backyards.
One longtime resident said a shark brushed against her as she was cleaning up the yard before the floodwaters from Hurricane Helene receded.
Just down the street at Slicker’s Eatery, Bob Slicker had expected some storm impact from Hurricane Helene to his Cortez Road restaurant, even though it’s not on the water, but nothing could have prepared him for the sight that greeted him early Friday morning as the building was flooded with more than 3 feet of water.
“I told my team Thursday, I could just feel it,” Slicker said. “It was like nothing I’d ever felt before and I’ve been living on the water since the 80s. I just knew. It wasn’t a good feeling at all.”
He advised his staff on Thursday to go home and stay safe and he returned to the restaurant in the middle of the night after the storm had subsided.
“Power had gone out about 7 Thursday night. I waited until the sun came up so I could see better,” Slicker said. “Everything in here was askew, chairs, tables, booths. We only have two chest freezers because we have all fresh food – they were flipped over – that’s how deep it was. The plates and everything were floating.”
He said a full dumpster that was behind the building had been pushed to the middle of Cortez Road from the force of the storm.
“It was on its side in the road, that’s how deep and powerful it was,” he said. “The ice machine, which is outside, was broken in two and half of it was wedged against the door.”
Slicker said they will reopen as soon as possible, and that timing will be dependent on a professional clean-up company and the return of electricity.
“In the restaurant business we all live week to week, and I’m trying to get things going so my team has income,” he said as his voice choked with emotion. “My team has been so giving ever since the day we opened.”
Slicker’s has been in operation for about four years.
“I just hope everyone is safe,” Slicker said. “I hope everybody did OK. Take care of your neighbors.”
Adam Sears, general manager of the waterfront Swordfish Grill in the Cortez fishing village, said the restaurant suffered minimal water intrusion and was scheduled to reopen on Sunday.
Adjacent to Swordfish, the recently remodeled Cortez Kitchen took on water and Sears said damage is being evaluated before a reopening date can be set.
“Right now, people in Cortez need help,” Sears said. “There are many people there who lost everything and may not have the means or the ability right now to fix what needs to be fixed. Their walls have gotten wet and need to be replaced before the mold sets in. People who have the ability won’t ask for help, but there are elderly people there who really could use assistance.”
Sears said he and local charter boat Capt. Lance Plowman were out Thursday night on a boat on flooded Cortez roads trying to assist those who needed help.
“Lance’s own house got flooded, but he was out there helping,” Sears said. “Right now we need people who are able to come down with gloves and tools.”
CORTEZ RESIDENTS CLEAN UP
Cortez residents spent the day on Friday dragging waterlogged furniture, carpets and appliances out to the road for trash pickup following Hurricane Helene’s storm surge on Thursday night.
Cortez resident Lydia was cleaning up water on Friday in her 45th Avenue West home.
“I was born and raised in Puerto Rico and I’ve lived through hurricanes there and I’ve never, ever seen flooding like this,” she said.
Power went out on Thursday evening and she and her husband could barely see the waters rise to more than a foot in the house overnight.
She said the family cars were inundated with salt water.
“This car, my husband’s car and my son-in-law’s car, they all got flooded,” she said. “I told my son-in-law two weeks ago, you know, we’re going to get hit with a bad storm. He asked how I knew and I said, ‘Something in here is telling me, we’re going to get hit and we’re going to get flooded.’ I didn’t want to be right.”
Susan Curry, a Cortez resident, was mopping the sand and water off the wood floors in her 1925 bungalow and is expecting to have to replace the home’s electrical system due to water damage.
“These houses have old wiring and the water was sitting in the wires and got into the outlets,” Curry said. “I turned off the main breaker and will have to have an electrician replace the wiring.”
She took a philosophical approach to the storm.
“It was bound to happen,” she said. “And this isn’t even… we could still get hit with a real one, and this will all be wiped out.”
Down the road from Curry’s home, a large tree had fallen onto a boat and garage on 45th Avenue West and was removed on Friday.
DOCKS DESTROYED
Three Cortez docks, the Fulford Dock, Miller Dock and the Star Fish Co. docks, were badly damaged in the storm.
“This dock was just built,” Fulford employee Rucker said.
At the building adjacent to the dock, a boat had smashed into a side wall leaving a sizeable hole.
“That boat was not in Cortez before the storm,” Rucker said. “I think it might have come over from Longboat.”
Parts of the deck of the Miller dock were sagging over the water and at Star Fish Co., slats on the dock were broken and tables had tumbled into the water.
A skiff was sitting in the middle of the road in a puddle of water in front of Star Fish Co. on Friday.
COMMUNITY CHURCH PITCHES IN TO HELP
Members of the Cortez Church of Christ put up a tent and tables filled with sandwiches and cold water to show support for their neighbors.
“We’re doing what we can to help,” Sylvia Bailey said. “People who have lost so much can come by and get something to eat, a drink of cold water and some love.”
Bailey said she has lived in Cortez for many years and this is the worst flooding she’s seen in the village. She said the church, which never had flooded, took on more than a foot of water.
“We’ve had storms before, but nothing like this,” she said.
Tree lands on boat a
and garage following impacts from Hurricane Helene. - LESLIE LAKE | SUN
A boat of unknown origin, smashed into the side of Fulford's in Cortez. - Leslie Lake | Sun
