It’s been 6 months since hurricanes Helene and Milton. How is Tampa Bay doing?

In the wake of the 2024 hurricane season, thousands of Tampa Bay homes were damaged or destroyed, innumerable residents displaced and more than two dozen people killed. Hurricanes Helene and Milton struck 13 days apart. Six months after Milton, the second of those monster hurricanes, thrashed Florida’s Gulf Coast, much of the region is still in the throes of recovery.

But gauging that progress is a tricky task.

It’s typical at this time for money from federal reimbursements to still be outstanding and for some residents to still be displaced. Homes that were completely wiped out will take time to rebuild.

“It really depends on the questions you ask: Are all the schools open?” said Craig Fugate, a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who also led the state’s emergency management department under Gov. Jeb Bush. “Is all the power restored? Is water, sewage, cable and internet — all that stuff back up and running? Have they picked up all the debris yet?”

Less than two months out from the next hurricane season, here are some metrics to make sense of how we’re recovering from last year’s storms.

More than $4 billion in FEMA flood insurance claims

There were nearly 40,600 claims made to FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program in the three-county region, amounting to over $4 billion in damages. Tampa Bay accounted for well over half the flood claims made after hurricanes Helene and Milton nationwide.

The highest concentration was in St. Petersburg’s Shore Acres neighborhood, where there were nearly 1,200 claims.

A Times analysis found that between Helene and Milton, more than 1.3 million assistance packages were granted to Tampa Bay residents for things like housing, food and other essentials lost to the storms — amounting to $835,509,274.

More than 37,700 households received housing assistance — including help with rent, financing repairs, replacement housing and temporary shelter.

32 dead

Floodwaters, typically the No. 1 killer during a hurricane, drowned 12 people in Pinellas County and two in Hillsborough during Helene. But the stress of the storms and lack of healthcare immediately after have contributed to more than a dozen deaths throughout the region.

The majority of Hillsborough County’s hurricane fatalities resulted while cleaning up storm damage and debris, said county spokesperson Chris Wilkerson. Some fell from ladders or tripped over boxes of belongings.

Like in Pinellas, where 10 of the dead were over 60 and one was in their 90s, most of those killed in Hillsborough were elderly and had health complications. At least two Tampa residents who suffered from lung diseases died after the storms cut power to their homes — and machines that helped them breathe.

There was 84-year-old Wendy Gray, who chose not to evacuate her Town ‘N Country home. When Helene brought 16 inches of floodwaters inside, she was “stranded in the water for approximately four hours” before she evacuated to her daughter’s home, according to an autopsy report. A few days later, she contracted a fatal infection from Vibrio vulnificus, a flesh-eating bacteria.

Yariel Baez, 37, of Tampa, died of carbon monoxide poisoning while running a generator indoors one week after Milton hit. His brother found him inside their shared apartment, where the gasoline fumes emitted a strong, noxious odor.

Luisa Santos, 71, died when a tree limb came crashing down on her while she cleaned the yard outside her Tampa home the morning after Milton had passed.

Nearly all of the dozen deaths in Pinellas County occurred on the barrier islands — just two St. Petersburg residents and one Dunedin woman were among those killed farther inland. Marjorie Havard, 79, was home in St. Pete Beach when her son called around 9 p.m., when the water rose above her feet.

“I’m going to be all right,” she told him. “I’ll call you in the morning.”

A friend later found Havard dead just inside her front door. She had drowned.

Medical examiners in the Tampa Bay area say the death count could keep climbing, noting at least one instance where an insurance adjuster died on a hurricane repair job as an example of indirect casualties of the storms.

Stories of those who died during a once-in-a-century storm season are “full of lessons on how a hurricane can kill you,” Wilkerson said.

42 million gallons of sewage pollution

An analysis of state pollution reports by the Tampa Bay Estuary Program showed 48% of the wastewater spilled in 2024 was recorded in October, a signal that the storms vastly overwhelmed the region’s wastewater infrastructure. The back-to-back hits from Helene and Milton are responsible for the majority of the mess.

Boca Ciega Bay, the body of water to the east of beachside communities, was inundated by more than 12 million gallons of sewage waste in October, according to the analysis. That’s enough pollution to fill more than 18 Olympic swimming pools.

It’s a similar story across the Tampa Bay watershed, from Oldsmar to Anna Maria Island. Tainted floodwater — bringing fertilizer and debris along with it — siphoned downstream into the bay. Facilities that filter and treat human wastewater were overrun, causing overflows, bypasses and spillage.

The total amount of pollution may never be known. Water quality experts gather these reports made by city officials to calculate spills, and those reports likely don’t capture the full extent of the environmental impact. Sinking boats spilling oil, leaking chemicals and other potentially harmful contaminants aren’t accounted for in the roundup focusing specifically on sewage.

Justin Tramble, executive director of the nonprofit Tampa Bay Waterkeeper, said the spills underscore why lawmakers should prioritize measures that bolster wastewater infrastructure in flood-prone areas across the bay area.

“This past hurricane season showed us how vulnerable we are, and how we can’t be OK with millions of gallons of wastewater spills going into our water every time we have one of these tropical events,” Tramble said.

“We’ll have more storms, so we need to learn from them.”

2,000 trees lost in Tampa Bay’s parks

The region’s public outdoor spaces lost at least 2,062 trees in the storms, according to data provided by Hillsborough and Pinellas counties’ parks departments. The loss is expected to get worse as time passes: Trees that were inundated by salty floodwater will likely die as they struggle to absorb water and nutrients through their roots.

Inects and other diseases, exacerbated by Helene and Milton, also threaten the county’s tree coverage, Pinellas spokesperson Tony Fabrizio said.

Across Pinellas County’s parks, staff estimated at least 1,150 downed trees at places like Phillipe Park, Sawgrass Lake and along the winding Pinellas trail corridor. Lake Seminole Park, home to more than 250 acres of wildlife sanctuary, was hit especially hard by the hurricanes. Park employees tallied nearly 150 downed or severely damaged trees there because of Milton’s strong winds, according to county data.

In Hillsborough County’s public parks, at least 912 trees were downed in the storm, spokesperson Todd Pratt said. That doesn’t include an additional 1,405 hanging branches or removed tree limbs, or the likely “thousands” of estimated trees lost on county preserve land separate from parks. And it doesn’t begin to calculate the loss of trees in neighborhoods.

The loss of tree canopy outside of county parkland is likely vast. Shawn Landry, a research professor at the University of South Florida, said in an email that post-storm aerial imagery for the Tampa area was completed in January and should become available by May. That will give experts the first true window into the total tree canopy lost by the storms.

Still, it’s already clear that Milton and Helene had a “devastating” impact on Tampa Bay’s tree canopy, according to the Arbor Day Foundation.

“As communities like Pinellas County start on the long journey to recovery, restoring that lost canopy is a crucial part of not only rebuilding green space but restoring hope,” said Dan Lambe, the foundation’s chief executive, in a statement.

More than 10,000 homes substantially damaged – and counting

A Times survey of Tampa Bay’s largest population centers and areas hardest hit by the storms found more than 10,000 homes across the region received letters informing the owners that their property could be substantially damaged.

As part of Florida’s National Flood Insurance Program, local governments must adhere to guidelines when rebuilding storm-damaged properties or risk losing premium discounts. When a home’s damage estimate is more than half the structure’s value, it must be demolished or rebuilt to current floodplain standards.

The letters have been met by confusion and ire by recipients, who say some of the damage estimates are wildly off. Others wait in limbo to learn how they should move forward. In some parts of Pinellas County, property owners received letters as late as mid-March.

Each municipality issues permits for the rebuilding and demolition of storm-damaged homes within its limits.

Thousands of permits issued

Hillsborough County alone has issued more than 39,600 permits since Hurricane Helene swept through the region. Eighty-three were demolition permits, and another 25 demolition permits are being processed.

Local governments across Tampa Bay have issued thousands of permits throughout the rebuilding process. Not all permits issued are hurricane-related. But regardless of the project, contractors and homeowners have battled long wait times to make repairs, as widespread damage overwhelmed some building departments for months.

Of the more than 6,800 permit applications received in St. Pete Beach since Helene, 2,675 had been issued by early April. More than 300 were awaiting approval or in need of additional documentation.

In Treasure Island, most permit applications submitted since Helene have been issued or closed. And in Madeira Beach, nearly all permit applications submitted since the first storm have been fully processed. A Times analysis of the city’s permit data found 121 full home demolitions.

In St. Petersburg, 8,779 Post-Disaster Emergency Permits were issued between Helene and the end of March, a city spokesperson said. Sixty-four were for demolition. Tampa has issued 465 demolition permits since Helene.

10.9 million cubic yards of debris removed

Meanwhile, crews cleared nearly 11 million cubic yards of debris across Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties, according to FEMA and the Florida Department of Emergency Management.

In the days after the one-two punch of Helene and Milton, cities and counties across Tampa Bay said the storms created an “unprecedented” amount of debris. Precious belongings sat on street corners for weeks and months as residents anxiously awaited their removal to kickstart rebuilding.

Local governments across the region raced to clear it all within a 90-day window after Milton to get a 100% reimbursement from FEMA — up from the typical 75% after disasters. It was a challenge: With so much storm damage, municipalities had to increase pay rates to attract more workers. Later, FEMA extended the deadline to 120 days.

Debris collection numbers provided by FEMA differ slightly from cities and counties across Tampa Bay as tabulations for reimbursement continue. According to a spokesperson for Pinellas County, Helene and Milton generated about 4.1 million cubic yards of debris across the county, including several cities within the county. In Hillsborough, officials estimate 6.1 million cubic yards of debris was collected countywide.

The efforts were costly. Pinellas County alone has accrued $39.5 million in purchase orders for debris cleanup, according to a spokesperson. The county expects to receive a full reimbursement for debris collection because officials finished collections within the 120-day deadline.

In Hillsborough County, where the cost for debris collection is estimated at $155 million, officials said it had completed a “majority” of work by the 120-day deadline and expected reimbursement for the efforts.

$30 million missing, more in limbo

St. Petersburg is awaiting at least $30 million more in federal aid toward debris removal, which may now be in limbo amid the ongoing overhaul of the federal government.

FEMA, which has long been criticized by President Trump, is in his administration’s crosshairs.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has vowed to “eliminate FEMA,” and Trump last month issued an executive order to shift responsibility for disaster preparations from the federal agency to state and local governments.

City leaders are unsure whether funding from the disaster agency will come through.

At a March legislative affairs committee meeting, Robert Diamond, a city lobbyist with Capitol Counsel, said Noem’s statements were concerning.

“I think we need to ask some very hard questions as a frontline city as to what those plans would be,” Diamond told council members and staff. “It’s one thing to say they’re going to eliminate FEMA. The important part is how — we don’t have any detail on the how.”

“No one will be more impacted by this than the city of St. Pete,” he added.

Council member Lisset Hanewicz, who recently returned from a meeting in Washington, D.C., said the conversation tone was very different from the last time she met with the nation’s leaders.

“This is obviously a huge item for our city in terms of disaster recovery,” she said. “When you’re talking about $250 million of monies that the hurricane has cost us — and we’re expecting a lot of that to be reimbursed and that may not happen — then we have to plan accordingly.”

St. Petersburg City Council member Richie Floyd said in an interview with the Times that banking on FEMA amid federal shakeups is a “sketchy proposition.” The city has also said it will rely on FEMA dollars to repair Tropicana Field after Milton blew the roof off the Tampa Bay Rays stadium. Repairs are estimated to cost $55.7 million.

The city has not received any guarantee from the federal agency that it will be reimbursed.

In addition to debris funds, St. Petersburg has received $327,000 from FEMA for management, parks and recreation costs accrued during Milton.

Like St. Petersburg, Tampa is awaiting its second half of FEMA debris money, about $29 million. Including debris, the city has submitted total public assistance claims for both Milton and Helene of $196 million.

A long road ahead

Fugate said that little about the state’s recovery from the back-to-back storms has surprised him.

“My observation is if your home wasn’t heavily damaged, you’re pretty much back to normal,” Fugate said.

But for those still dealing with substantial damage determinations and the rebuilding process, the process is just beginning. Many will be faced with the choice of whether to sell their homes or make repairs, and with finding builders and materials to do the work. It could take years.

“Some people won’t recover,” Fugate said. “They’ll be financially bankrupt.”