ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - It has now been two years since the Tampa Bay region took a twin killing of hits from Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
St. Petersburg hurricane recovery
The backstory:
The Bayview neighborhood in St. Petersburg, which is just off the Boca Ciega Bay near Gulfport, showcases resilience, but also the difficulties of making a full recovery.
After Hurricane Helene hit, water crested at four to five feet above street level.
Courtesy: Alexander Green
Most of the residents are back in their homes, but a few are not.
Homeowners share storm survival
What they're saying:
FOX 13 spoke with Willie Mae Boone, who lost her home and has not been able to move back in.
Boone is participating in the Sunrise St. Pete program, which is designed to get homeowners back on their feet using a $160 million pool of federal funding.
"It has been very stressful," Boone said. "My main thing has been, when I had to accept it, is ask God to give me peace, and be satisfied that I came out alive, and help me to hold on and accept the challenges I have to deal with to get back to a safe environment."
Boone’s entire house had to be bulldozed, raised and rebuilt.
"I was in denial," Boone said. "And so, I thought I would just kind of sweep it out and, you know, suck the water up and go on living, but it wasn't that simple, because all the appliances, that water was so strong that it tilted my freezer. It moved the washer, it got in the refrigerator, and it came, so reality set in real quick."
Lavon Flowers has lived in the neighborhood for more than 50 years.
FEMA and Flowers’ flood insurance program helped her gut the home and move back in after a year.
"It was devastating," Flowers said. "I have never seen anything like it. I have been through a lot of hurricanes, tornadoes. Nothing like we had the past couple of years."
Another resident, Alex Green, has worked with the city to encourage them to take more proactive steps.
That includes managing drainage systems underground, clearing blockages from drain openings and sloping ground away from the street.
Application totals and funding
By the numbers:
St. Pete had 11,000 homes that were damaged, with Mayor Ken Welch saying that the city is working its way through a backlogged queue of homeowners requesting help.
The mayor's office says 1,666 applications are being processed out of a total of 2,600 applications that have been submitted.
Courtesy: Alexander Green
"The infrastructure that we inherited is decades old, and it showed where we need to make improvements," Welch said. "And we started making those improvements with the dollars we had, about $100 million a year through our capital budget. And we identified here's how we fixed the problem. And representing that to the community. Here's how we fix the issues that have existed for decades. Here is how we become more resilient. And the city has an opportunity to vote on that in the move forward."
Welch also says $120 million is on the way to help the city beef up infrastructure so that sewage plants don't have to be shuttered again.
November bond vote planned
What's next:
The city is now planning to be able to handle 15 feet of storm surge at its main pumping facilities.
Welch encourages a yes vote on the Nov. 3 general obligation bond because it also has numerous neighborhood by neighborhood improvements.
That calls for $600 million in improvements.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from the city of St. Petersburg, public statements by Mayor Ken Welch, and on-camera interviews with Bayview residents Willie Mae Boone, Lavon Flowers and Alex Green.