Despite windy, rainy and cold weather, downtown St. Augustine saw lines at businesses and trolleys full of people in ponchos.
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Avenida Menendez in downtown St. Augustine frequently sees flooding in severe weather. Despite a nor’easter whipping the wind and rain around Saturday night, parking was still a premium as people didn’t let the bad weather keep them from a night on the town.
Businesses welcomed in customers, even if they had to make a splash as they came through the door.
“Living the dream, scooping the cream,” said St. Augustine Scoop Owner Tessa Taylor.
Taylor opened her ice cream shop Scoop back in 2020 so she could live the American dream.
As much attention as St. Augustine gets during hurricanes, she feels it’s actually the winter storms that more often put her restaurant at risk of flooding.
“On the nor’easters specifically, we get a lot of the flooding up to our sidewalk, if not in the middle of it,” said Taylor. “Sometimes, we’ve even gotten it in the shop, couple of feet in here.”
Taylor says sandbags will usually keep it from getting inside, and they just try to make the most of it.
“We’ll be taking surfboards, skimboards, all of it – playing in the water,” said Taylor.
Taylor wasn’t the only one soaking the storm in – as Saturday night was a busy one in downtown St. Augustine.
Trolley tours were filled with people in panchos, caroling as they checked out Nights of Lights.
Some folks were even willing to stand in line in the rain to get into their favorite restaurants.
“We have our guests here from Palm Beach County,” said some customers waiting in line at Tini Martini. “We drove four hours to be here. We didn’t want to break our plans. We rode the tram to see the lights. Rain doesn’t stop us. We’re always up for a good time.”
Hopefully, the next time they drive up to see the lights, they can leave the ponchos in Palm Beach.
“We’re going to come back again when it’s not raining.”
Taylor at Scoop said the flooding is tough for business because their parking spots get submerged and the puddles get to be too much to walk through.
She’s staying optimistic that some of the drainage work they’re doing in downtown will have a ripple effect up to San Marco Avenue.
