LONGBOAT KEY, Florida — When Hurricane Milton hit, the Seabaugh family was in the dark — literally and figuratively.

Hurricane Milton’s strong winds knocked out power and Wi-Fi, so they couldn’t check on their property through their home’s security cameras.

For nearly two days, because the entrances to their community remained closed after the storm, they wondered: Was their beloved home of eight years still standing or washed away to the sea?

“We didn’t know what we were going to come back to,” Scott Seabaugh told NPR.

After battering from both Helene and Milton sand piles and debris line the streets surrounding the Seabaugh’s home.

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They already dealt with serious damage. When Hurricane Helene hit, the Seabaughs’ home was flooded. Helene brought an estimated 3 feet of water into their two 525-square-foot cottages on Gulf of Mexico Drive, Seabaugh said. They managed to tear out damaged walls, flooring, kitchen cabinets, furniture and other things just as Milton, a threatened “one in a 100-year storm” bore down on Florida.

“And then it’s like, oh my gosh, we could lose the property again,” Seabaugh said of his thinking at the time.

Signs of the damage caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton are visible through Longboat Key.

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The state’s barrier islands, of which Longboat Key is a part, normally avoid the worst of hurricanes. Not this time, according to forecasts leading up to the storm. Florida’s island towns were particularly susceptible to the expected 10-15-foot storm surge.

The islands were placed under a mandatory evacuation order and residents like the Seabaughs, who sheltered with their daughter in Venice during the storm, feared the worst would happen.

The Seabaughs finally got their answer on Friday morning when the bridges to Longboat Key opened to the public: Their home was still standing.

“We got very lucky here,” Seabaugh said. “So clearly, we didn’t get the kind of surge that they were anticipating and just came back to two beautiful cottages.”

Helene brought an estimated 3 feet of water into Scott and Marci Seabaugh’s two 525-square foot cottages forcing them to tear out damaged walls, flooring and other things. Despite this they still plan to stay in Longboat Key.

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As climate change makes hurricanes stronger and more intense, meaning higher wind speeds, heavier rainfall and more severe storm surge, island communities like Longboat Key are particularly susceptible to catastrophic damage from hurricanes.

NPR asked residents living on Longboat Key, where beachfront homes and condos could cost millions of dollars, whether living here for the foreseeable future is worth it?

The answer was surprising.

“I think we’re committed to being here,” Seabaugh said.

“I’m done raising my kids. They’re both in college. And this was gonna be my little paradise,” Sharon Austin said. “It still will be.”

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A piece of paradise

Underneath the storm debris littering the streets and trees ripped from their roots, the beauty of Longboat Key is obvious.

Residents that spoke to NPR about what they love about the community cited the kind and tight-knit town and called Longboat Key “paradise” and well worth the gamble of future storms.

It’s why Sharon Austin moved from Chicago to her two-bedroom home literal feet from the water earlier this year.

She closed on her home on May 1.

“I’m done raising my kids. They’re both in college. And this was gonna be my little paradise,” Austin said. “It still will be.”

Her home sustained some wind damage from Milton, but it was the surprise destruction brought by Helene, her very first hurricane, that left her home essentially unlivable.

“It was like a little tsunami just came flooding in, and that’s where all this damage is from,” she said pointing to her torn up walls and floors.

The club house across from Sharon Austin’s home took on water as a result of the storms.

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Just like the Seabaughs, Austin had finished removing ruined flooring and furniture to avoid mold when Milton was forecast to hit. She fled to a nearby hotel during the storm.

“I’m definitely gonna stay and rebuild,” Austin said. “There’s nothing like Longboat Key.”

She said residents are friendly and the community tight-knit.

Her home’s foundation is solid and there was no obvious damage to the structure, she said. She lives at the end of a mobile home community and many of her neighbors’ properties suffered worse damage and flooding from Helene and Milton. One woman’s home was completely lost because of Helene.

“When I first came back into my place, I just got emotional because I was so overwhelmed. But then after a while cleaning up, I realized, ‘No, look at this. This is paradise here’,” she said. “This made it through two hurricanes. The foundation is still standing. I most definitely will stay and rebuild. And most of the owners feel the same way.”

Residents of the community inspect damage around a trailer park on Longboat Key.

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Planning for the future

Scott Seabaugh is motivated to keep his home for the future. Not his, but his daughter’s and her eventual children, he said.

When he and his wife first bought the property in 2016, they were visited by the family members of the original builder of the home. It was emotional to see how moved that family was and how many memories they had of the place, Seabaugh said tearing up at the memory.

“We’re fortunate to eventually have grandchildren,” he said gesturing to his daughter, Sydney Rendel. “I want my kids and their kids to be able to enjoy it. Hopefully, God willing, that it’s still here.”

Seabaugh said he and his wife are realistic about what that may take. It will probably be another three months before they can move back into their cottage after fixing up Helene’s and Milton’s damage. They’ve submitted insurance claims to make repairs, but do wonder what might happen if their home is completely wiped out in a future storm.

“I think as much as you want to stick to that idea [to stay here], financially, there’s some point in time where you have to say, uncle. Where I just can’t afford it,” he said.

Because of that, Rendel and her husband are already saving up and making plans to one day own the home. Hurricane-proofing a home, for example with strengthened windows or reinforced concrete, can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

“There’s memories built here. And there’s memories for future generations that we want to build here. So it does have meaning. It is a structure, but it also isn’t. My husband and I are preparing that if it becomes ours someday, we may have to rebuild,” she said.

“It was like a little tsunami just came flooding in, and that’s where all this damage is from,” Austine said pointing to her torn up walls and floors while describing her experience during Helene.

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Austin is planning for the future too. After her experience, she aims to better prepare herself, by having evacuation and emergency equipment, and her home to be built with hurricane-proof material for future storms.

It’s a stressful and emotionally exhausting experience, but she said, “This was, what, a 1-in-100-year storm. So I guess I got another 100 years. I’ll be dead by then,” she said laughing.

She jokes, but Austin said she knows the serious threat storms and the changing climate pose. But the risk in staying here remains worth it.

“I could go back to Chicago, where I grew up,” she said. “Then I’ve got snowstorms. So yeah, pick your vice.”

Sand and other debris are stirred up by cars and trucks as residents and workers return to Sarasota’s barrier islands after days after Hurricane Milton made landfall.

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ENGLEWOOD, Fla. — Sand is piled up to the first floor of most homes on Manasota Key, a sliver of land off Florida’s west coast, where devastation is widespread.

NBC News, escorted by Charlotte County officials, got an exclusive look Sunday at the south end of the key.

The community, about 30 miles south of where Hurricane Milton made landfall Wednesday, sits across a bay from Englewood, between Fort Myers and Sarasota.

The key is closed to vehicles, but residents are allowed in on foot, some walking for miles with wagons to salvage what they can. Many are finding their homes gutted and full of sand.  

This “old Florida” community consists of many homes right on the water that have been passed down from generation to generation. That’s the case for Kris Hleuka, whose grandfather built her home on Sand Dollar Lane. Now, sand fills the first story. 

“This is my life history,” she said. 

As storm after storm hits the state, Hleuka has watched her home be torn apart. For many in the community, homeowners insurance isn’t an option. 

“After Ian, we completely rebuilt the house. I’m not doing this again,” she said. “We can’t afford insurance down on the beach like this.”

Residents on the key are in “shock and mourning” that their little piece of paradise is gone, said Brenda Kreuger, a friend of Hleuka’s who lives in Englewood.

Jay and Pam Hager have owned a timeshare at the Sea Oats Beach Club for decades. The property, once an oasis on a quiet strip of the Gulf, is now buried under 4 feet of sand.  

“It seems like we’re in a movie,” Jay Hager said. “It just doesn’t seem real. I’ve been coming here for 40 years and never seen anything close to this.”

Officials are working to remove the piles of sand that have buried the roads so they can reopen Manasota Key.

“Houses were decimated. They’re gone into the Gulf, and we didn’t have that with Helene,” said Ben Bailey, community development director for Charlotte County. 

“I have never seen anything like this. Most people living here that are alive have never seen anything like this, either,” Bailey said.

John Elias, public works director for Charlotte County, said the storm “certainly, literally, has changed the geography” of the key.

More than 750,000 Floridians are still without power five days after Milton made landfall, according to PowerOutage.us.

At least 24 people have died as a result of the storm, according to an NBC News count of confirmed deaths.

President Joe Biden toured the damage in St. Petersburg on Sunday and promised $600 million for restoration after hurricanes Milton and Helene, with nearly $100 million of that going toward improvements to Florida’s power system.

ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Joe Biden got a firsthand look Sunday at the devastation inflicted on Florida’s Gulf Coast by Hurricane Milton as he presses Congress to approve additional emergency disaster funding. Vice President Kamala Harris was spending a second day in North Carolina, hard-hit by Hurricane Helene, to worship with Black churchgoers and hold a campaign rally.

Biden arrived in Tampa and flew by helicopter to St. Pete Beach, surveying the wreckage left behind by Milton, including the roof of Tropicana Field that was shorn off by the powerful storm’s winds. Later, as the president’s motorcade drove along the highway, piles of debris, tattered billboards, toppled fences, fallen trees and closed gas stations were seen. It passed through a neighborhood where almost every home had water damage and heaps of belongings were on the curb.

WATCH: Biden and Harris discuss federal response after Helene and Milton strike U.S.

The visit gave Biden another chance to press House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., for congressional approval of more aid money before the Nov. 5 election. Johnson said Sunday that lawmakers will deal with the issue after the election because of the amount of time it takes to come up with an estimate. He said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that his “guesstimate” is that $100 billion will be needed.

“We’ll provide the additional resources,” Johnson said.

In Florida, Biden was set to announce $612 million for six Department of Energy projects in areas affected by the hurricanes to improve the resilience of the region’s electric grid, the White House said. The funding includes $94 million for two projects in Florida: $47 million for Gainesville Regional Utilities and $47 million for Switched Source to partner with Florida Power and Light.

Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, visited Raleigh on Saturday to meet with Black elected and religious leaders and help volunteers package personal care items for delivery to victims of Helene in the western part of the state.

She was spending Sunday in Greenville, with plans to speak during a church service as part of her campaign’s “Souls to the Polls” effort to help turn out Black churchgoers before Election Day. She was also scheduled to hold a rally to talk about her economic plans and highlight Thursday’s start of early voting in the state, her campaign said.

Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will spend the coming week campaigning in the competitive states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina, according to a Harris campaign official who was not authorized to publicly discuss details not yet made public and spoke on condition of anonymity.

With less than four weeks to go before Election Day, the hurricanes have added another dimension to the closely contested presidential race.

READ MORE: In an already unpredictable year, back-to-back hurricanes reshape 2024 presidential campaign

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said the Biden administration’s storm response had been lacking, particularly in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. Biden and Harris have hammered Trump for promoting falsehoods about the federal response.

Trump made a series of false claims after Helene struck in late September, including incorrectly saying that the federal government is intentionally withholding aid to Republican disaster victims. He also falsely claimed the Federal Emergency Management Agency had run out of money because all of it had gone to programs for immigrants in the country illegally.

Biden said Trump was “not singularly” to blame for the spread of false claims in recent weeks but that he has the “biggest mouth.”

The president is pressing for swift action by Congress to make sure the Small Business Administration and FEMA have the money they need to get through hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30 in the Atlantic. He said Friday that Milton alone had caused an estimated $50 billion in damages.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said last week that FEMA will be able to meet “immediate needs” caused by the two storms. But he warned in the aftermath of Helene that the agency does not have enough funding to make it through the hurricane season.

READ MORE: FEMA chief calls false claims about government’s Helene response ‘truly dangerous’

But Johnson has pushed back, saying the agencies have enough money for the time being and that lawmakers will address the funding issue during the lame-duck session after the election.

Also percolating in the background are tensions between Harris and Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla. As Helene barreled toward Florida, the two traded accusations that the other was trying to politicize the federal storm response.

Harris’ office last week suggested that DeSantis was dodging her phone calls. DeSantis responded that he was unaware she had called and he grumbled that she hadn’t been involved in the federal government’s response before she became the Democratic nominee.

Biden said he hoped to see DeSantis on Sunday, if the governor’s schedule permitted. DeSantis was not among the officials who greeted Biden in Tampa or joined his briefing in St. Pete Beach.

Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida as a Category 3 storm on Wednesday evening. At least 10 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of residents remain without power.

Officials say the toll could have been worse if not for widespread evacuations. The still-fresh devastation wrought by Helene just two weeks earlier probably helped compel many people to flee.

Boak reported from Raleigh, North Carolina.