'It's never been this bad.' How Helene devastated Pinellas County beaches

Andrew Swan didn’t think things would be this bad.The St. Petersburg resident was watching a friend’s house in Madeira Beach and chose not to evacuate for Hurricane Helene. Forecasters warned the area could get up to eight feet of storm surge. But Swan thought the house might only get a few inches.Then the water started pouring in."It started getting higher and higher, and I started taking all this important paperwork and tried to get it as high as I could, and eventually [the water] got chest-deep," he said.It's going to be a long road to recovery for Pinellas County's barrier islands after storm surge from Hurricane Helene devastated coastal communities.Live Blog: Hurricane Helene Updates Pinellas County Sheriff's Office Once the storm hit late Thursday, Swan, 31, spent the night alone with his thoughts as he waded through water trying to protect what items in the home he could as Helene raged outside."I was thinking about a girl, I was thinking about my parents, I was thinking about...