MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. (WFLA) — Businesses at John’s Pass Village & Boardwalk are using lessons learned during Tropical Storm Eta to prep for Elsa before it hits the Tampa Bay area this week.
Captain Dylan Hubbard, the owner of Hubbard’s Marina, said many business owners weren’t worried about Eta when it hit the area last year, because it was “only a tropical storm.”
“‘Only a tropical storm’ can cause a huge amount of damage and a huge amount of life threatening flooding. We saw that here on the barrier islands,” Hubbard said.
Hubbard said he has changed the way he looks at tropical storms. He thought he had overprepared for Eta until water from Johns Pass started rushing into the boardwalk, damaging his dock and flooding his store.
“Coming back the next day and just seeing the devastation along Gulf Boulevard, along local businesses, seeing some of those businesses that weren’t as lucky that weren’t as overprepared — no one was expecting what we saw that night,” Hubbard recalled.
He said the memories are shaping the way he prepares for Elsa.
Hubbard focused on, “What we’re going to do as far as where to store the boats, how to store the boats and preparing our beach cabana and putting our storm windows on and preparing or this flood event.”
Pinellas County is under a local state of emergency ahead of the storm, which is forecast to strengthen as it moves past Key West and toward Florida’s Gulf Coast.
