WEEKI WACHEE, Fla. (WFLA) — Tim Beach’s neighborhood is surrounded by water.

There is the Weeki Wachee River on one side and channels connected to the Gulf on the other.

Beach owns one of several homes in the neighborhood that are built on stilts, so they are elevated off the ground. That made a big difference when storm surge from Hurricane Idalia flooded the area.

“I stayed cause I was afraid if I went, get out of here, I wouldn’t get back in today,” Beach said.

When Beach woke up Wednesday morning, he said he saw the water creeping toward his home.

“I come down at 6:30 this morning,” he said. “It was in my backyard just hitting the grass. By 8:00, I had probably six inches of water in the house.”

Beach said the water measured 16 inches in his garage.

“This is the worst I’ve seen since I moved here,” Beach said.

He said he waded through knee-deep water to check on his neighbors.

“My friend down the road, she had 27 inches [of water] in her house,” Beach said.

The Weeki Wachee Marina on the other side of Shoal Line Boulevard was also under water Wednesday morning.

“It didn’t even feel like we had a storm until the water started coming cause we had power all night and everything was good,” Morgan Matott said.

She said the rising water from the river came awfully close to her home.

“Thank god so far we have about another foot then the water would have come in,” Matott said.

Feeling fortunate the water only made it into his garage, Beach said he learned lessons after the storm surge from Hurricane Irma in 2017.

“I took all my tools out of the garage and put them in my trailer, took my trailer to my brother-in-law’s house cause he lives on the other side of 19,” he said.

There were concerns about Idalia’s storm surge mixing with the early afternoon high tide, but by 11:30 a.m., Beach said the water started receding.

“Water is going out and the tide is supposed to be high tide and I’m like, we’re good,” he said.

Beach didn’t live in Hernando County back in 1993, but a few residents who did told News Channel 8 the flooding from Idalia reminded them of what happened 30 years ago during the “no-name” storm.