Jennifer McMahon/City of St. Pete Beach
St. Pete Beach started to see storm surge flooding from Idalia around noon Aug. 29.
“We are starting to see water rise over seawalls and street flooding in St. Pete Beach,” Sarah Laracuente, the Public Information Officer on St. Pete Beach wrote in a press release. St. Pete Beach will likely have between 4-7 feet of storm surge, according to USGS models.
All of St. Pete Beach is a Zone A evacuation zone, which is under mandatory evacuation. All Pinellas barrier islands fall under this category. Easy way to tell: If your address has “beach” or “island” in its name, you must evacuate ASAP.
Pinellas County Emergency Management suggests all evacuees evacuate to Zone C or higher.
Do you know your Pinellas evacuation zone? You can find it here. • Read all The Gabber Newspaper’s Idalia updates.
Both Pinellas County and The Gabber Newspaper encourage residents and visitors to get their forecast updates at the National Hurricane Center. The NHC releases updated forecasts and advisories at 2 a.m., 5 a.m., 8 a.m., 11 a.m., 2 p.m., 5 p.m., 8 p.m., and 11 p.m. We strongly discourage readers from taking weather advice from any other models.
Timely Holiday
Florida’s annual “Disaster Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday” will run through Friday, Sept. 8. That means Floridians can buy things such as generators, dish soap, and batteries without paying the state sales tax. Here’s the list of items included in the Disastar Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday.
