The St. Johns has come up three times since 2016. Where your air handler sits decides the fourth.

Three storms, one lesson

Hurricane Matthew in 2016 pushed the St. Johns over its banks on the Southbank. Irma in 2017 set records in downtown Jacksonville, sent water up San Marco’s riverfront streets and flooded Riverside across the river. Nicole in 2022 did it again with a nor’easter’s persistence. The river doesn’t need a direct hit; it needs a long east wind on a high tide. Each time, the air handlers at slab level in garages and utility rooms were lost, and the condensers at grade carried brackish water into their electrical compartments. The ones on stands and platforms were rinsed and ran.

Signs your equipment is in the path

• A stain line on the garage wall or the condenser cabinet from a past event, even a faint one.
• The air handler sits on the slab, or on a few inches of blocks, in a garage or ground-floor utility room.
• The condenser pad is at grade on a lot in an AE zone or within a few blocks of the river.
• The electrical disconnect is low on the wall, near the pad.
• Ductwork runs under the house in a crawlspace that has held water.
• The drain line discharges to a yard that floods, so a tidal event backs it up.

Any of these on a riverfront San Marco lot, or one of the low blocks between Hendricks Avenue (SR 13) and the water, is a reason to plan, not wait. Ortega’s riverfront lots on the far bank get the same advice from us.

What one more flood costs

A flooded air handler is usually a total loss: the blower motor, control board and coil cabinet have been in brackish water, and even if it restarts, corrosion finishes it within months. A condenser that stood in water loses its contactor, capacitor and low-voltage connections and often the compressor terminals. Add ruined crawlspace ductwork, a drain line full of silt, and a week or two without cooling in a humid house while the claim moves. Compare that to the cost of a platform, a stand and a longer line set, done once, in advance, on a day of your choosing. The arithmetic is not close.

Ask about a flood-height assessment

The fix, inside and out

Inside: raise the air handler.

The air handler’s drain, the condensate pump if one is used, and the low-voltage wiring all move up with it.

Outside: raise the condenser and the disconnect.

A galvanized or aluminum stand set from the lot’s flood elevation plus a margin, anchored and strapped for wind, with the electrical disconnect mounted on the wall above the expected water line. Line sets lengthen; the charge is corrected for it. Where a historic district review applies, the stand goes on a side or rear elevation and is screened.

Underneath: get the ducts out of the water.

Where the house allows, ductwork moves from the crawlspace to the attic or into ceiling chases. Where it can’t, the crawlspace ducts are sealed, the return is isolated from crawlspace air, and the homeowner knows that the next flood means duct replacement.

When the house is historic

Much of San Marco dates to the 1926 plat, and some streets fall under local historic review. Elevating equipment is not in conflict with that; it just shapes the choices. Stands go on side and rear elevations and get screened with lattice or planting. Interior platforms are built to be reversible. An attic relocation changes nothing visible from the street. We note the review requirements on the quote so there are no surprises at permit time.

Keeping it dry through the next one

1. Before the season, confirm the stand anchors and the platform are sound, and that nothing has been stored on the platform.
2. When a storm or a nor’easter with onshore wind is forecast, cut the system at the thermostat and then at the breaker before the water arrives. A unit that isn’t energized when it gets wet has a far better chance.
3. After the water recedes, don’t restart. Call. We rinse the condenser with fresh water the same day where possible, open the electrical compartments, and test before power goes back on.
4. Photograph everything, before and after, for the claim and for the elevation record.
5. Replace with elevation built in. If the equipment is lost anyway, the replacement goes up, never back to grade.

Cook’s does flood-height assessments and elevated installations in San Marco from its Palm Coast headquarters at 37 Fairmont Ln, with the FEMA zone checked before the quote and the phone answered around the clock after a storm, with no after-hours charge.