TAVARES, Fla. \u2013 What started as a normal Saturday night of live music at a popular Tavares waterfront restaurant changed in a matter of minutes when a storm sent floodwaters rushing through the Lake Harris Hideaway in Tavares. <\/p>\n
\u201cJust a regular Saturday. Music, all that good stuff. Our second band came on, Maiden Voyage. Rainstorm came and didn\u2019t stop,\u201d said Jason Kelyman, the owner of the Lake Harris Hideaway. \u201cAnd next thing you know, we were flooded out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelyman said he wasn\u2019t even inside when the worst of it hit. He and a friend were next door tending to boats for customers when the storm intensified.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and my buddy were next door dealing with some boats for some customers, and we walked back over and just mayhem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kelyman described what happened and what the restaurant\u2019s security cameras captured through their surveillance system.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt came over kind of like a usual normal Florida thunderstorm. And then it just turned black. Just total blackness. Power went out, a lot of rain and a lot of water,\u201d he said. \u201cIt happened \u2014 3 – 5 minutes. It came in, and it was gone. Like nothing ever happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
The video shows the storm blowing through, the power flickering off, and water rushing across the floor. Kelyman said strong winds flipped over picnic tables too. <\/p>\n
\u201cEverything that\u2019s on the floor is total loss. Besides our tables and chairs. You know, the band did a good job getting all their stuff up,\u201d Kelyman said.<\/p>\n
As the water rose, restaurant managers \u2014 including Kelyman\u2019s wife \u2014 worked quickly to evacuate guests.<\/p>\n
Kelyman said other employees helped elderly patrons reach their cars just before conditions fully deteriorated.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot even a minute after they left, that\u2019s when everything broke out. They would not have gotten out of there in that amount of time,\u201d Kelyman said.<\/p>\n
Kelyman said nothing like this has ever happened at the restaurant \u2014 not even during hurricanes. <\/p>\n
\u201cMost we\u2019ve had is a little small puddle in the corner of the parking lot. This here was a ton of water,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
News 6 meteorologist Julie Broughton said some areas of northern Lake County picked up between 2 – 5 inches of rain Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ground is very dry, and you get all that rain coming down \u2014 some of the rainfall estimates, like I said, two to close to five inches of rain in some parts of that area \u2014 and there\u2019s just no place for it to go,\u201d Broughton said.<\/p>\n
Despite the weekend weather, all of Central Florida remains under drought conditions. Broughton said the region is transitioning into rainy season, which typically brings daily sea breeze-driven showers and storms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need several inches of rain to get out of the drought, but we don\u2019t need it all at once,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Broughton said a large plume of tropical moisture is expected to move into the region later in the week, raising the possibility of more heavy rain \u2014 and more flooding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re watching a broad area of low pressure that will ride to the north, and that will send a lot of rain our way. And so that means that we could be talking about some more flooding as we enter the weekend,\u201d Broughton said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rainfall, of course, beneficial, but in flood prone areas that could cause some problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the damage, Lake Harris Hideaway was back open by Monday, in time for the Memorial Day weekend crowd. Kelyman credited his staff and the surrounding community for making that turnaround possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very resilient. We have the whole entire community behind us. We do a lot in the community, and we worked through the night. In the morning, community members showed up with brooms in their hands, garbage bags \u2014 they were already picking stuff up and helping us out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day is Veterans Day. Every day is Memorial Day here. So, we had to be open for the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
The phones, he said, haven\u2019t stopped ringing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe posted it, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re open, we\u2019re ready to go, business as usual,\u2019\u201d Kelyman said.<\/p>\n
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