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Article snippet: ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — This place calls itself the “Ancient City,” and, by the standards of American cities, that’s about right. St. Augustine is 452 years old, having been founded by the Spanish conquistador Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565. But residents are reckoning with a stunning turn in its more recent history. Last October, Hurricane Matthew poured historic flooding into St. Augustine, inundating downtown, where Spanish colonial-style buildings and Gilded-age spires gleam over the bay, and leaving residents ripping out walls and replacing sodden furniture. Now, the city is cleaning up after Hurricane Irma, which whipped trees out of the ground and poured more water into homes and businesses that were just getting back to normal after Matthew. St. Augustine is no stranger to sunny-day flooding, but the back-to-back hits from Matthew and Irma were the first major hurricanes to descend here since Dora in the 1960s, and they have left residents soaked, frustrated and, in some cases, worried about the future. “It is the oldest continuously occupied city in America. It is how we started,” Mayor Nancy Shaver said. But, she said, “I’ve never had people ask me the questions they’re asking me now: Is this the new normal? What are we going to do with the city?” St. Augustine changed hands between the Spanish, the British and the Americans over its long history and, in the late 1800s, Henry M. Flagler, a founder of Standard Oil, began to open hotels. One of thos... Link to the full article to read more