Hurricane Helene's staggering storm surge inundated neighborhoods on Siesta Key, leaving businesses and residents with a long road to recovery.

Residents of Siesta Key take stock of flooded homes and businesses just hours after up to seven feet of storm surge washed through the island.

Midnight Pass, a naturally formed inlet separating Siesta and Casey Keys, was filled in in the 1980s by Siesta Key beachfront residents to protect their homes from destruction due to erosion. Critics say closing the pass has degraded the water quality of Sarasota Bay and have fought, unsuccessfully, to reopen it.

The damage from Helene took some Sarasota residents by surprise. One family who decided to ride out the storm and wound up scrambling to save what they could. “First I want to give the glory to God; it could have been worse,

Hurricane Helene, ‘The Masked Singer’ and more in today’s edition of The Yodel newsletter One expert recommends having a "thoughtful conversation" about gun safety instead of taking the approach "that guns are bad and we shouldn't have them.

The storm surge, which was described by County Commissioner Mark Smith as 3 feet in height in the area, left many businesses working to clean up, with repairs and renovations ahead. Todd Morton, owner of Morton's Siesta Market and its sister stores, summarized the situation.

Aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Siesta Key, Florida the morning after as businesses and residents try to recover.