Tucked in the far east corner of St. Petersburg, hidden by winding paths and charming, arched bridges, lies Shore Acres.
The neighborhood, just a few miles from downtown, is an eclectic mix of 1950s and ‘60s ranch-style homes and tall, luxe waterfront houses, interspersed with parks and recreation centers, backdropped by the glistening waters of Tampa Bay.
“You can go into your backyard and be watching the sunset and have a drink, and the only thing that you hear in the neighborhood is maybe the far tapping of the pickleball courts,” said Jason Nash, 49, a Shore Acres resident.
But the neighborhood is the lowest-lying in St. Petersburg, and it floods during storms and high tides, most recently after Hurricane Idalia and a no-name December storm last year.
After Idalia, residents described the flooding as “generational.” More than 1,400 homes in Shore Acres were damaged by rising water. Flooded roads were impassable for hours. Beyond flooding, at least two homes burned down, likely from salt water clashing with electricity.
Ten months later, Shore Acres is in flux. For sale signs dot yards, construction trucks line roads and city workers toil underground making infrastructure changes.
Residents have been faced with a dilemma: Can they make — and keep — a home in a flood-prone area? Should they sell and move out? Try to seal or even elevate their homes?
As residents ponder those questions at the start of another hurricane season, Shore Acres is a likely harbinger of what other areas of Tampa Bay will have to face in years to come.
As climate change leads to stronger storms and rising seas, the quaint neighborhood has become a microcosm for the dangers of living near the water.
The weight of recent floods on Shore Acres
Mark Jones and his then-fiancé, Julia, bought their first home together in November 2022.
The couple knew the Shore Acres home flooded in 2020, but before then, they hadn’t seen any flood claims since the ‘80s.
“We thought it was kind of a fluke,” Jones said. “We were like, ‘All right, we know we’re moving into the worst flood zone. We know the guy we’re buying from had water in it a few years ago, but the timeline seems to be sporadic.’”
They were hoping for five to 10 years in the home before a flood. Maybe they could start a family there, and buy a bigger home later.
Not even a year later, about 9 inches of water surged inside their house during Idalia.
The home reeked of bay water, and anything it touched had to be gutted.
Of the more than 1,700 St. Petersburg homes that reported damage during Idalia, about 80% were in Shore Acres, according to Claude Tankersley, the public works administrator for the city.
Keep up with Tampa Bay’s top headlines
Subscribe to our free DayStarter newsletter
We’ll deliver the latest news and information you need to know every morning.
Loading...
You’re all signedup!
Want more of our free, weekly newslettersinyourinbox? Let’sgetstarted.
Explore all your optionsIn total, nearly 1,000 flood insurance claims were made to the Federal Emergency Management Agency from St. Petersburg. More than three-quarters of them were from homeowners in census tracts belonging to Shore Acres and nearby Snell Isle.
FEMA flood insurance data shows the storm caused more than $58 million of building damage in the neighborhoods.
In the months since, construction crews have labored on homes, tearing out damaged floorboards or drywall and installing new materials.
As construction winds down, residents have noticed a trend.
“Walking through the neighborhood this morning, feels like every other house is now up for sale,” wrote Alex Demetrius in the Shore Acres Civic Association Facebook page on May 4.
Indeed, there has been a sharp uptick in homes listed for sale in Shore Acres, according to data from Zillow. Since the start of 2024, the number of new listings added each month has reached new heights.
It’s impossible to say what is prompting the change, and the neighborhood’s average home value is still rising despite recent disasters.
But in both Shore Acres and neighboring Snell Isle, the overall for-sale inventory is growing at a much higher rate than the rest of the region and is now nearly triple what it was at this time last year.
Jones is working on the finishing touches of his home. But it won’t reflect the newlyweds’ style. They plan to sell their home, and buy one on higher ground.
“The feeling of wanting to improve stuff to make the house yours isn’t there anymore,” Jones said. “I’m looking forward to having that back.”
Why Shore Acres is so low-lying
In the early 20th century, the neighborhood was built upon a marshland, after fill (often comprised of sand, gravel or clay) was hauled into the area.
Chris Dailey, who was born in Shore Acres in 1969, has watched as the neighborhood’s identity has shifted.
Back then, his family was one of the few that lived in Shore Acres year-round. That was before air conditioning was widespread, so most homes were occupied by snowbirds in the winter and vacant in the summer. Around the 1980s, homes began to fill out with families.
But through Shore Acres’ changes, one thing has remained constant: the neighborhood’s propensity to flood.
The crown of the average road (its highest point) in the neighborhood is about two feet above sea level, according to Tankersley. The lowest point is just a foot. Neighborhoods like Riviera Bay or Coquina Key, both low-lying areas near the coast, are slightly higher, at 3 and 4 feet above sea level.
Additionally, because of the unique composition of Shore Acres, the lowest elevation tends to be in the center of the neighborhood, and it takes less water for the homes near the middle to flood compared to those closer to the water.
“Shore Acres is shaped like a bowl,” Tankersley said. “A lot of properties that are right along the waterline are actually slightly higher in elevation than those properties that are in the center.”
After hurricanes and a mosquito infestation in the 1950s, the city began to make recommendations: raise homes and expand the storm water system.
Homes built before the 1950s had no building standards. After the mid-20th century, city guidance said homes should be built 5.5 feet above ground level — though builders often didn’t comply, Tankersley said.
For the next 70 years, the city conducted multiple studies making recommendations ranging from raising sea walls, adding pump stations and elevating streets.
According to the city, residents rejected many recommendations, citing the cost.
While storm flooding is often unpredictable, what has become more common in the neighborhood, Dailey said, is sunny day flooding, which occurs on days that are clear of storms.
David Noah, who some refer to as the president of Shore Acres (his home is at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NE), recalls when his daughter was a child and would look out the window on a sunny day and see water on the streets.
“You can see fish swimming on the front patio,” he said.
Both Noah and Dailey have invested decades of their lives into Shore Acres. And to stay, they’ve made the decision to build up.
Noah’s home, which he and his wife have spent 20 years perfecting, was lifted 16 feet in the air in 2019. Dailey has decided to start anew by building a home that also will be 16 feet up.
“I’ve only ever lived in Shore Acres — my friends, my mom all live here,” Dailey said.
Future of the neighborhood
Three years ago, Nash watched as water rose during Tropical Storm Eta, a late season storm passing near Tampa Bay.
“I’ll never forget it, my wife was sitting there watching the first episode of the housewives of Salt Lake City,” Nash said. “And I was saying, ‘I’m getting a little nervous.’”
As the night wore on, the couple saw a few inches of water roll into their home. They hoisted their two small dogs on the bed, unplugged electronics and lifted as much as they could off the ground.
“I’ve never felt so helpless in my entire life,” Nash said.
It took three months to gut and fix their home. Anything the briny water touched had to go.
Less than three years later, it happened again. Hurricane Idalia pushed a little under a foot of water inside the home.
“It was just a numb feeling,” Nash said. “We just put the house back together and just finished it up about year ago, and now we have to do it all over again.”
Despite flooding, he has no plans to leave his home of 10 years. He cited friendly neighbors, lush lawns and water just a few feet away as reasons to stay.
In the meantime, he’s looking to the city of St. Petersburg to make flooding improvements residents have advocated for in recent months.
In April, the city began upgrading valves, called backflow preventers, that block bay water from pushing through underground pipes. By the end of August, the city plans to have replaced all 56 of the neighborhood’s aging valves — part of a $3.7 million fast-tracked project, according to Tankersley.
As of May, nine had been installed, Tankersley said.
There are other projects planned including widening pipes and adding storm water pump stations to streets in Shore Acres.
“If (the city) does things to protect the neighborhood back, that’d be amazing,” Nash said. “We’d love to stay back here.”
