Shore Acres residents launch home dam company following severe flooding from Helene
Protecting homes from floods
This weekend marks two years since Hurricane Helene hit our area. It left behind devastating flooding for miles, and that storm pushed a couple of Shore Acres homeowners to start their own business to protect homes. FOX 13's Briona Arradondo reports.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A Shore Acres homeowner turned a personal disaster into a business venture, creating custom flood barriers to protect local properties after surviving Hurricane Helene.
St. Petersburg home flood barriers
What we know:
Shore Acres resident Danny Fustar and his business partner created "Dam It Defense" shortly after Hurricane Helene flooded Fustar's home in three and a half feet of floodwater. Fustar said the system operates similarly to an AquaFence, using aluminum materials and can be built up to 10 feet high to guard garages, windows, doors or whole properties.
"The system that you see at Tampa General is very similar to this system, made of the same grades of aluminum. We kind of have found the solution for the residential side where they found the solutions for the commercial and large-scale side. Although we're delving into that as well now," said Fustar.
Depending on the scope of the project, installation costs range between $500 and $3,000, with at least 40 homeowners in the Shore Acres neighborhood already using the system.
Fustar said the product has undergone hydrostatic pressure testing at a facility in Indiana and proven effective during rainfall at a client’s house in Miami.
Hurricane Helene recovery solutions
What we don't know:
It remains unclear how many total requests the company has received from international markets outside of their confirmed orders in Canada and the Bahamas.
"We have expanded really across all of Florida. Now, we have started shipping to Michigan. We are now shipping to California. We have customers in Canada reaching out to us. We have shipped to the Bahamas. So, we're definitely expanding," Fustar said.
Shore Acres flood mitigation
The backstory:
Fustar came up with the business idea while his family was displaced from his home during post-storm repairs. While some St. Petersburg homeowners are choosing to elevate their entire houses to avoid future storm surge, others are opting for perimeter barriers like Dam It Defense as a primary line of protection.
Flood protection expansion
What's next:
Dam It Defense has completed approximately 1,000 installations to date. The owners are actively taking orders from across the country, expanding their reach as far as California to help homeowners guard against rising waters.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from FOX13's Briona Arradondo, who interviewed Dam It Defense co-founder Danny Fustar.