St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch on Hurricane Helene's Lingering Impact and Recovery Efforts

One Year Post-Hurricane Helene

• 📌 Tomorrow marks one year since Hurricane Helene devastated the Tampa Bay area, with many residents still in the process of recovery.
• 🏠 In St. Pete alone, Helene damaged nearly 11,000 homes, the highest number in Pinellas County.

Personal Recovery Challenges

• 🌊 Arthur Finegold's St. Pete home, flooded with 3 feet of water, has furniture still waterlogged after a year, with repairs only starting recently.
• 🏗️ Finegold faced challenges combining home restoration with a goal to lift his house 13 feet, a process complicated by a lengthy permit acquisition (around 3 months).
• 💡 His application to the Elevate Florida program for home lifting assistance was denied after a six-month wait, forcing him to live in a studio apartment.

Permitting and Infrastructure

• 📜 St. Pete issued nearly 14,400 post-disaster emergency permits for Helene and Idalia damage, with almost 280 being demolition permits.
• ⏳ City officials have largely caught up with the permitting backlog but estimate about 5,000 residents still need to draw down permits.
• 📈 The volume of permitting requests overwhelmed available resources, similar to the challenge of managing 2 million cubic yards of debris.
• 💰 City officials plan to allocate nearly $160 million in federal funds for long-term recovery from Helene and Idalia.

Infrastructure Upgrades and Future Preparedness

• ⚠️ The city acknowledges its infrastructure is not built for current storm impacts, with some neighborhoods experiencing flooding for the first time.
• ⚡ City council approved raising utility rates to fund infrastructure upgrades over 5 years, including improving the Northeast Water Reclamation Facility to withstand 15 ft of storm surge (up from 11 ft).
• 🔌 For the first time, storm surges from Helene and Idalia forced officials to cut power to the water reclamation facility, leading to temporary restrictions on water usage.
• 💬 St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch emphasized the need for the city's response to change as the environment and impacts evolve.

Business and Community Resilience

• 🍽️ In Gulfport, Neptune Grill, owned by Dia Vertzakis, recently reopened after significant damage, with furniture shoved to the back and no doors.
• 💸 Vertzakis is using savings and SBA loans to rebuild, as insurance covered structural repairs but FEMA provided no aid, and she did not receive permits until February.
• ✨ Despite the difficulties, Vertzakis views the reopening as a positive transition to a new chapter, rather than an end due to devastation.