They thought they were safe – until their Florida compound was flooded

Clearwater, Florida. – After two days of Hurricane Milton At The Standard's 2,690 flooded apartments, representatives from the company that manages the 16-acre complex showed up on Friday and prevented tenants from returning to their homes.

“We'll email or text you to make sure it's safe and we can send you scheduled times, like, they tell us it's okay but you can't stay here,” Angela Lensch of Infiniti BH told a group of gathered tenants. in the parking lot. “You can't stay here. We just, basically, want to spoil you.”

Lensch's renters got the message before Milton reached Siesta Key, about 70 miles south of Clearwater, on Wednesday night and barreled through central Florida, killing at least 16 people and flooding thousands of homes and businesses. Potentially billions of dollars in damage.

“We cannot tell you whether or not you should evacuate,” Lents wrote in an email obtained by tenants on Monday and shared with NBC News. “Do what’s best for you and your family.”

Lentsch also warned residents that Milton could “directly impact our area and bring heavy rain, high winds and possible flooding” and gave some tips on how to prepare for the storm.

The cluster of two-story walk-up buildings west of Old Tampa Bay is not in a mandatory evacuation zone, according to the Pinellas County information page.

Tenant Jas McCoy, 32, said he found it hard to believe the development would take place in a low-lying area that suffered minor flooding earlier this year.

As the storm approached Wednesday, McCoy checked and rechecked the county's information page for updates, he said.

“I gave my address many times until the storm arrived,” she said. “It was never an evacuation zone. It was far from my absolute decision to stay here.”

Before Milton arrived, McCoy said he saw a maintenance worker walk up to the complex's leasing office. He asked the worker if he could cover up his window as well with the wood he bought and he agreed to do so, he said.

“He never did that,” McCoy said. “My neighbors did this for me.”

As for the property managers, McCoy said, “That’s exactly how they were. Everyone left.”

Then, around 1 a.m. Thursday, McCoy looked out the window to see the floodwaters rising and decided it was time to pack up his five children, taking his elderly mother with him.

“As soon as the floods started, I knew I was doomed at that point,” she said. “I thought, this place isn’t safe enough to tolerate something like this.”

At first, she couldn't leave her first-floor apartment.

“I could barely open the door because the water was hitting the door so hard. But as soon as we opened the door, the water improved here,” he said, pointing just above his waist.

Their only option was to climb to the balcony of an apartment on the second floor, where they waited five hours to be rescued by boat.

Police at the complex told reporters they also rescued at least 500 residents.

Kelvin Glenn, 43, said he was also saved by the floodwaters. He said one of his daughters woke him at 1 a.m. Thursday to tell him that water had started entering the first-floor apartment through a crack under the front door.

“Just because they said it wasn’t an evacuation zone, we were in a panic,” Glenn said.

Within 20 minutes, the water was waist-deep inside the apartment, she said.

“The water was so cold and bad and my kids were in it,” she said. “I was just worried about my kids.”

Glenn said it took two to three hours for a neighbor to wade through the floodwaters and help get his three daughters, two daughters and one of his daughters' boyfriends out of the apartment and to higher ground.

Another tenant, Sandra, who asked that her surname not be used out of concern for job security, said she and her husband were also trapped in their first-floor apartment due to rising waters.

Sitting across the street from the complex on Friday, Sandra said that not once in the years they lived there did the owner warn them that flooding could occur.

“The associations will not be responsible for anything,” he stated. “They will look out for their interests, not yours.”

NBC News reached out to Infinity BH, a property management company based in the Bay Harbor Islands, by email and phone for comment on the tenants' complaints and some indication of when and if they will be able to return to their homes. .

No response so far.

Samantha Hood, 32, who has lived in the complex for four years, said many of the tenants are poor families with children who live paycheck to paycheck. He said they had lost everything and had nowhere to go.

“A lot of people are trying to make ends meet these days,” said Hood, who is a medical stenographer. “People are really hurting.”

Matt Laviets reports from Clearwater and Corky Simesco reports from Montclair, NJ