Tampa, St. Pete assess damage after Hurricane Helene
By Henry Queen and Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Sep 27, 2024

The Tampa Bay region experienced historic flooding from Hurricane Helene, which sent stormwater surging into neighborhoods and businesses late Thursday as the storm passed more than 100 miles off the coast.

In St. Petersburg, city officials shut down the Northeast sewer treatment plant to protect the plant from unprecedented storm surge. The shutdown was expected to last a minimum of 48 hours, and businesses and residents served by the plant — north of 30th Avenue North and east of Interstate 275 — cannot flush toilets, use bathtubs or do laundry until it is back online. Officials in Tampa asked residents to limit their water usage as two wastewater plants in the city were down due to flooding.

St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch said the city has already budgeted $70 million to upgrade its treatment facility that went offline. Once complete, it would be able to handle up to 11 feet of storm surge.

Construction began last year and is expected to finish in 2026. The plant was built in the 1950s, and the city knew it was susceptible to a storm of this size, Welch said.

“I’ve asked our team to find all available options to expedite that construction schedule,” Welch said.

Low-lying neighborhoods such as Snell Isle, Venetian Isles and Shore Acres experienced some of the worst flooding in St. Pete. Welch called it “unprecedented.”

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor surveyed the damage to Davis Islands and other waterfront neighborhoods from a Tampa Police Department helicopter.

“The National Guard has been activated to help with rescue efforts,” Castor wrote in a Facebook post Friday.

The bridges connecting Tampa and St. Petersburg were slowly reopening as of midday Friday. The northbound side of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which connects Pinellas County to Manatee County, reopened around noon. The southbound side of the Howard Frankland Bridge, which connects Hillsborough County to Pinellas County, has reopened, while the northbound side remains closed. The westbound lanes of the Gandy Bridge were open as of noon Friday.

Five people died in Pinellas County — two in Treasure Island, two in Indian Rocks Beach and one in Dunedin. The hurricane’s first casualty was in Tampa, where one person was killed when a sign fell on their car on Interstate 4.

Storm surge levels broke records across Pinellas on Thursday, rising as high as 8 feet in some areas. The damage was too extensive to fully grasp on Friday morning, but the county reported 140 downed traffic signals and 132 closed pump stations. The Safety Harbor pier was destroyed.

“Last night, Hurricane Helene brought life-changing impacts to Pinellas County,” Pinellas County Emergency Management Director Cathie Perkins said.

Access to the Pinellas barrier islands is closed as of noon Friday. Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said he is empathetic to the residents and business owners who want to assess the damage but said it is unsafe.

Gulf Boulevard has never experienced anything like this, Gualtieri said. TradeWinds Island Resort in St. Pete Beach is closed indefinitely, the company said in a statement.

“We continue to ask for your patience and understanding as our hardworking people are out there, in the streets, in the roads — doing the work they need to do to bring us back to safety. [The work] is very extensive,” Pinellas County spokesperson Barbra Hernandez said.