St. Augustine business owners take steps to ensure property is safe ahead of Milton

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – St. Augustine businesses were gearing up for Hurricane Milton’s impact as St. Johns County issued mandatory evacuations on Tuesday.

St. Augustine typically gets swamped with flood waters during storms and this time is no different.

City officials called for the evacuation of Zone A, B and F ahead of the storm.

Damaging winds, heavy rains and flooded roadways are expected across the city as Milton makes its way across Florida.

“We’ve only been open almost two years. On our fourth day of business, we had Hurricane Nicole, and we kept out some water then,” Peace, Love, and Little Donuts owner Jennifer Goodrich said.

St. Augustine has seen its share of hurricanes – Matthew, Nicole, Irma and Ian.

Goodrich hoped preparing early would prevent any serious damage to her business on Cathedral Place in downtown St. Augustine.

“We feel like we’ve gotten really good at prepping. We have almost 100 sandbags between our front and our back entrance,” she said.

They also added tape to seal their doors among other measures to ensure their business remains the same.

Goodrich along with other business owners in the area hoped to reopen their doors on Friday.