Published Sept. 27|Updated Sept. 27
Edwin Sprague trudged through hip-deep water in canvas shoes and khaki shorts.
The 56-year-old left his truck on higher ground, deciding to walk to the home where his ex-wife and daughter, Kala and Meredith Sprague, were waiting, about a block away in the Edgemoor area of St. Petersburg.
Sprague stayed out late with friends Thursday, and by the time he’d made it back to the neighborhood where he and his ex both have houses, police had blocked off his usual path home because of thrashing tides caused by Hurricane Helene’s slice near Tampa Bay.
He arrived to some relief around 11:30 p.m. The house hadn’t flooded. Kala and Meredith were safe and standing in the driveway.
“We are very lucky. We used to live in Shore Acres. Our house flooded front to back from Eta and Idalia,” Kala Sprague said, as water crept up the driveway but fell short of the front door.
But that feeling wouldn’t last long. By 1 a.m., a wall of water had spilled into the home from both the front and back entrances with a force that lifted Kala Sprague’s kitchen floor, flooded her garage and sent her furniture floating room to room.
“Everything is ruined,” Kala Sprague said. “It’s unbelievable.”
Across St. Petersburg, stunning images emerged early Friday morning of flooding unlike previous storms. In Shore Acres, water levels had nearly reached stop signs; in downtown St. Petersburg, bay waters kissed The Vinoy; and in Gulfport, the small seaside town’s downtown was awash with debris from tidal flooding.
From those stuck on the roads or in their homes, residents in St. Petersburg repeated the same sentiment: They’d never seen water so high.
A tidal gauge at Albert Whitted Airport showed flooding peaked at 12:24 a.m. Friday, 6.3 feet above an average high tide. The mark set a new record at the location — more than 2 feet higher than during Hurricane Elena in 1985 or Hurricane Idalia in 2023.
Late Thursday, police had blocked off Shore Acres, the lowest-lying neighborhood in St. Petersburg.
David Noah, a resident of Shore Acres, stayed in his home, which was elevated 16 feet above ground. He said tides were higher than he’d ever seen by at least a few feet.
Noah described bleeping cars swamped by flood waters. He suspects hundreds of homes are flooded in the neighborhood.
Further inland from Shore Acres, ballooning tides around midnight had swamped Fourth Street, a heavily trafficked road lined with businesses and apartments.
It took Megan Schmalz, Brandon Midyett and Austin Shaw more than an hour to crawl from Gulfport to their home just north of 58th Avenue on Fourth Street.
The three drove to Gulfport earlier in the evening to check on Shaw’s grandparents.
“It’s worse than anything I’ve seen before,” Shaw said of the surge. “The water was up at least 5 feet.”
As peak surge sent water pumping across Fourth Street, Midyett walked barefoot beside their sedan while Schmalz steered to try to avoid stalling out.
“We’re doing what we have to do to get home,” Midyett said.
A few hours later in downtown Gulfport, Helene’s wrath was abating, but some water still sloshed near the end of Beach Boulevard S.
The surge had left behind debris reflecting the gulfside town: a massive dock, beer cans, fruits and vegetables, a beach chair.
Meaghan Ryan, 41, came down early Friday to check on the restaurant she manages, the Tiki Bar and Grill, for the third time in the past 24 hours.
Ryan, echoing others, said water levels were unprecedented. She had come to the restaurant earlier on Thursday, when water reached her hips.
Ryan looked out at the scattered remains on the road.
“This is just devastating,” she said.
Among the debris, she found a stool from her restaurant.
On it, it read: “In spite of ourselves we’ll be dancing at Tiki.”
She took it home with her.
By daylight Friday, the full scope of damage had come into view.
From Tarpon Springs to Bartlett Park in St. Petersburg, homeowners awoke to record flooding and damage that far surpassed that of previous storms.
“Everyone’s saying this is the worst they’ve ever seen,” said Keaton Tunstall, who co-owns Rusty Bellies Waterfront Grill, which sits on the edge of the Tarpon Bayou. “This storm blew Idalia out of the water.”
As water crested the front entrance of the home where Tunstall lives with his wife in Tarpon, the couple gathered their animals — four French Bulldogs and a a Pot-bellied pig — and carried them through the rising water to a friend’s house further inland.
As the sun rose, Tunstall described streets caked with mud and debris.
“There’s definitely water damage and drywall damage,” Tunstall said. “On the sponge docks, the water was almost chest high.”
He said flooding at the marina washed out boats and sent them floating down Roosevelt Boulevard.
“Everywhere you look,” Tunstall said.
Across the county in Feather Sound on Friday morning, Nikki Simons was working to get water out of her home.
“I’ve lived here all my life and it’s never flooded,” said Simons.
Simons said she and neighbors have ridden out storms in the past and though the streets have flooded, they’ve never had water come close to breaching the front door.
“We got at least 6 inches in the house,” she said. “It’s devastating.”
Times staff writer Langston Taylor contributed to this report.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Kala Sprague as Edwin Sprague’s wife. She is his ex-wife. They live down the street from each other.
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