BELLEAIR BEACH, Fla. — Kandra Covert’s Belleair Beach home is still under construction.
“I’ve had contractors in and out nonstop, but it’s coming along,” said Covert.
Hurricane Helene pushed water into her home.
“We had about 12 inches of water, we had in the garage, inside the house. It came actually from the front and the back. So the storm drains actually backed up and came through the front, and the ocean came through the back," said Covert.
It took her months to get a permit to start repairs on her home.
“We’re still waiting... on the doors. We had to take all the doors out. Some of my doors don’t even close. ..The kitchen is still not here. I’ve had appliances sitting here for, I don’t know, four months now, thinking that I could’ve gotten the kitchen much sooner than I did," said Covert.
She’s still not living there and hasn’t been for nearly five months.
However, Covert just got a water bill saying she used about 53,000 gallons of water this last billing cycle in an unoccupied home.
This isn’t the first time she’s gotten a high bill after Hurricane Helene.
“We refilled our pool in about November, and that’s when I noticed the bill was really high,” said Covert.
She expected an elevated bill after refilling her pool but still thought it was higher than it should've been.
“We filled our pool before, and it wasn’t $900 to fill the pool, so I was like, that’s weird. But we just paid it,” said Covert.
This time around, she couldn’t figure out what would cause the spike.
“Something’s wrong. Like there’s no way. No one’s even here. There’s no toilets running. I even disconnected the water heater,” said Covert.
She got a third-party company to come out to see if there was a leak, but they said there wasn’t one.
“You just kind of feel helpless because now I just know that I’m having another extreme water bill coming, and I’m just waiting it out,” said Covert.
“I’m getting alerts now that thousands and thousands of gallons are going out every day,” she added.
Since her front yard was underwater, and that’s where her water meter is, Covert thinks it could be damaged and not reporting the correct amount.
“There’s other people I’ve talked to who, they opened theirs up, and it was full of water. And they’re having the same issue,” said Covert.
Now, she’s going back and forth with Pinellas County to figure out what’s going on.
ABC Action News reached out to the county on Wednesday to get some answers. Here’s what they sent us:
After last year's storms, Pinellas County Utilities suspended all late payment fees and water "shut offs" through January 1 to help everyone navigate recovery and potentially higher bills from storm damage or leaks.Additionally, we created a registry of impacted customers so we can work with each customer to address their unique billing and utility issues resulting from the storms. Customers on the registry will have an additional 18 months to work with us to resolve those issues.For this particular customer, our system registered continuous drinking and reclaimed water use at their property with a spike for the last two billing periods. While this often points to potential leaks, the customer hired a leak detection company that found no leaks. Our team is meeting with them at their property today to help determine the cause of this high usage and discuss potential solutions.We will continue to work with this and any customer to resolve these types of issues.If a customer is experiencing hurricane-related impacts, we ask they call our Customer Service team at (727) 464-4000 to sign up for the registry. For additional hurricane impact information, you can visit pinellas.gov/hurricane-impact-to-utilities-customer-accounts.
Covert said someone from the county did come to her house Wednesday afternoon and was there for hours. She said that person claimed she had a leak that resolved itself in December and that her sprinklers have been running multiple times a day for months.
Covert said when she called the utility office, it’s still reporting an active leak, when she’s proven there isn’t one. She also told ABC Action News that her sprinklers have not been running as much as the county claims.
