Takeaways from Tampa Bay's historic encounter with Helene
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Flood waters inundate Tarpon Springs after Hurricane Helene passed offshore. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
One week ago, Hurricane Helene laid bare Tampa Bay's vulnerabilities — and its strengths.
- Here are four takeaways from our community's worst storm in a century.
Water, not wind
The 5 to 8 feet of storm surge the National Weather Service predicted played out with horrifying precision.
- A dozen people died in Pinellas County alone, the majority from apparent drowning, almost all on the beaches or in coastal areas of the mainland, the sheriff's office said.
- The youngest was 37. The oldest was 95.
Among the dead:
- Donna Fagersten, 66, a second-grade teacher who was a week away from retirement, Fox 13 reported.
- Jerome Waite, 89, whose affection for the kids in his neighborhood after his wife died made him the unofficial grandpa of St. Pete's Riviera Bay, per the Tampa Bay Times.
- Patricia "Patti" Mikos, 80, a former hairdresser who, after moving to Florida, offered haircuts and friendship to retirement home residents, the Times reported.
A long road ahead
It will take months for storm-torn areas to recover. The sheer amount of debris dredged up from waterways and piled on curbs is staggering.
- "We're dealing with a flooding event that is generating several million cubic yards of debris," Pinellas public works director Kelli Hammer Levy said Thursday during a news conference.
- By comparison, Hurricane Irma in 2017 produced about 600,000 cubic yards of debris.
The big picture: Recovery includes far more than clean-up.
- Across Hillsborough and Pinellas, hundreds of thousands of people live in the hard-hit evacuation Zone A. The number of destroyed homes in Pinellas is approaching 300. Many residents need temporary or permanent housing.
- Considering all the destroyed businesses, many will be out of a job, particularly in the tourism-backed service industry. Pinellas alone has about 64,000 service industry workers, emergency manager Cathie Perkins told Axios.
The bottom line: Storm survivors will need our time, money and support for years to come. Click for ways to help.
It could have been worse
That's tough to swallow, considering all of the devastation.
Yes, but: Helene passed us 100 miles offshore.
- A closer brush from a storm of the same magnitude — or worse, a direct hit — would have meant stronger wind, greater storm surge and more severe impacts on life and property.
Case in point: Take Hurricane Ian. The 2022 cyclone made landfall just west of Fort Myers as a Category 4 storm.
- Storm surge peaked between 10 to 15 feet, double what Helene handed Tampa Bay.
- It destroyed more than 5,000 homes in Lee County and killed about 150 people in Florida, half of whom lived in Lee.
Stronger together
If there's any silver lining, it's all of the people and organizations that have stepped up to help. Just a teeny tiny sampling:
- With Gulf Beaches and Madeira Beach elementary schools wrecked by Helene, local schools taking in displaced students clapped, cheered and left encouraging notes to welcome them into the fold.
- These two friends from St. Petersburg were among the many boaters who used their own vessels to ferry supplies to and evacuate people from the barrier islands.
- Volunteers from Gulfport have made it their mission to care for seniors in a South Pasadena high-rise that for several days had no water or air conditioning. That included going up and down 17 stories via stairs while the elevator was out of service.
An Axios Tampa Bay reader shared a text from her mother who was floored by the outpouring of help in Indian Rocks Beach:
- "None of that repairs the devastation," she wrote, "but it helps a little to know there's good people out there."