Tampa Bay wakes up to Helene's aftermath
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St. Pete Beach. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Hundreds of thousands of homes are without power. Many are flooded.
- Streets are impassible. Emergency services are inundated with pleas for help.
- And reports of people fleeing from overnight surge are still pouring in.
State of play: The morning after Hurricane Helene's deadly drive-by assault on Tampa Bay, the region awakes to widespread destruction. The full extent of the storm's wrath will take days to determine.
Go deeper: Follow our live blog for updates today
The latest: As forecasters feared, the Category 4 behemoth saved its worst for late in the evening, when storm surge peaked and sent a flood of Gulf water into homes across the coast as residents fled.
- Flooding prompted St. Petersburg to power down a sewage treatment plant and urge residents between 30th Avenue North and Haines Road not to shower, drain water, flush toilets or do laundry.
- It will take at least two days to restore the system, officials said. Water in the affected area is still safe to drink.
- Pinellas County's barrier islands from the Dunedin Causeway through Tierra Verde are closed until further notice, including to residents.
About 230,000 Duke Energy customers in the St. Petersburg and Clearwater areas are without power as of this morning. Tampa Electric reports about 78,000 outages.
The big picture: Clearwater, St. Petersburg and coastal areas of Tampa all saw major flooding overnight, according to the National Weather Service.
- Every tidal gauge in the region topped record high levels of surge.
Storm surge peaks, by the numbers:
- 7.2 feet in East Bay
- 6.8 feet in Old Port Tampa
- 6.5 feet in Clearwater Beach
- 6.3 feet in St. Petersburg.
Surge levels in Pinellas were several feet above those recorded during Hurricane Idalia, which flooded 1,500 homes in the county.
Zoom in: The Alafia River saw water reaching 9.4 feet at 1am Friday while nearby residents waded out of flooded homes carrying their pets and belongings to higher ground, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
- A moat of water surrounded Tampa General Hospital as Davis Islands roads flooded, per footage published by WFLA.
- Palmetto Beach residents swam to safety after their homes were inundated. "We lost it all ... this hurricane definitely wiped my family off the map here," resident John Broderick told the Times .
Gov. Ron DeSantis said a driver on Interstate 4 was killed near Ybor City "when a sign fell onto the highway," apparently the storm's first known fatality. The person has not been publicly identified.
Police posted videos online of overnight high-water rescues in Clearwater, with officers guiding residents through waist-high water.
- Desperate for help, many turned to social media to plead for loved ones in peril, according to WFLA. "My sister, her husband, and two dogs are on the roof," a woman posted in a Madeira Beach Facebook group.
What's next: Officials will begin conducting damage assessments this morning as the work to calculate Helene's true cost begins.