The torrential downpour from Tuesday evening made it harder for neighbors to get around and businesses to operate. Several shops and restaurants had to shut down in St. Armand's Circle after being inundated with nearly three feet of water. The flood waters had receded by Wednesday morning and several barricaded roads were reopened. The sun was out to help dry things up for many business owners who have had to deal with a similar severe flash flood in the space of less than a year. "The back got flooded. The front got flooded. I wasn't able to get out of my car because if I did, I would get stuck," said Celeen Castro, a cashier at Green Zebra Café. Several of those business owners in both downtown Sarasota and St Armands Circle spent the day cleaning up after the flood. Between 5 to 10 inches of rain was dumped on Sarasota within a three-hour span. "As cars are driving by there's nowhere for the excess water to go into so it just starts coming up here and going up into the stores and we had sandbags but they didn't do a lot," said Castro. "We had people trying to come in and get their friends and their family whoever was over here because if they got stuck, they weren't able to because the road is blocked. They didn't want anybody to come in because you know they weren't going to be able to get out," she said. "We had about 3 feet of water on the sidewalk, so right now I'm just moving everything out of the shell and dirt," said Alex Rogowski, a gallery owner.