I don’t think Venice would have gotten much flooding from the surge, probably Cat 1 Hurricane winds at the most.
I think Venice got worse than Cat 1 hurricane winds, but I have no idea about any flooding / storm surge. Assuming our friends made it through OK, it will be interesting to hear from them what their experience was — once they can easily call or text/email.
Not sure on winds, they had some live cams during the storms at the Venice jetty, down town and fishing pier, appeared to be very minimal flooding at the time, maybe a bit of standing water in the roads.
Someone still has a Sarasota Fire feed on Broadcastify still running. I’ve been listening for a hour or so, and so far I haven’t heard any major calls for Venice FD. North Port had several water rescues from attics and houses but that seemed to be from one street near a canal.
Some chatter of some impassible roads in Venice. The city of Venice posted a picture on their FB page of the Venice Community theater which sustained major damage. IN the comments, reports of some flooding, sounds like mostly road, pond and yards.
Also multiple report cell service went down around 4 ish but seems some texts are getting thru now in parts.
I have relatives in the area and before cell service went down around 4 ish they reported some damage to things like lanai screens, but at the time the new hurricane rated houses seemed to be fine in regards to the wind.