(TAMPA) After the 2024 hurricane season, the West Coast of Florida will likely never look the same. Two major hurricanes, Helene and Milton, impacted the barrier islands in less than two weeks. Tornadoes, torrential rains. flash floods, storm surges, and more than 100 mph winds decimated communities along the Gulf Coast of Florida. Now, with a month left in hurricane season, Floridians pray that Hurricane Milton was the last storm this year.
Hurricane Helene hit Florida’s Big Bend region on September 27th. It made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane with winds up to 140 mph in the town of Perry. Helene impacted the entire west coast of Florida causing storm surges of up to 15 feet in some areas before taking a northern turn into Georgia and the Carolinas. Helene’s greatest impact was in rural North Carolina, many of the 228 deaths occurred.
Historical and tourist areas such as Ashville and Black Mountain in North Carolina will likely never be the same after Hurricane Helene. The rivers rose after the intense rains of Helene, leading to flash flooding and countless deaths. According to officials in North Carolina, there are still 1,000 persons missing after the storm.
On October 9th, not even two weeks after Helene ravaged the Southeast, Hurricane Milton hit the Tampa Bay area. Mandatory evacuation orders were in effect up and down the Gulf Coast. While the Tampa Bay area had not been directly hit by a major hurricane in approximately 100 years, Milton was headed straight toward this region. With a Category 5 hurricane barreling towards their homes, Florida residents fled from at least 8 counties under mandatory evacuation for certain flood zones. The storm made landfall in Siesta Key (Sarasota County) just south of Tampa as a Category 3 hurricane.
“My house took minimal damage,” says Englewood resident Nathan Coffey, “However I will be unemployed for future notice because the storm destroyed my place of work, so yeah it sucks.”
One barrier island that took a major hit from both hurricanes was Manasota Key, just south of Siesta Key, where the storm surge exceeded 10 feet of water. After Hurricane Helene, residents and business owners had to deal with the flood damage that came from the storm. Little did they know there would be no time to fix the foundation of the buildings before the second major hurricane in two weeks reached their shores. This led to houses being decimated, businesses buried in water as well as sand, and roads swept into the Gulf of Mexico. Unlike other barrier islands that are putting the displaced sand from the storm back on the beach, Manasota Key is having to remove all the sand due to contamination. This impacts the four public beaches on the Key, including state park Stump Pass.
One local restaurant, the Lock N Key Restaurant and Pub, where I used to work, released a statement to their employees saying, “We have been advised on the best recovery from the 2 major hurricanes we endured within two weeks. With that being said, it is with a heavy heart that we will be closed for a period of time. It is not clear how long that will be.”
While this news is disheartening, it comes with little surprise. Many restaurants and businesses will likely not be able to reopen at all. The damage has yet to fully be assessed considering the National Guard has forbidden access to Manasota Key, allowing Search and Rescue teams to best do their work.
The DeSantis administration is also working with the local business owners on Manasota Key, along with those impacted by the storms throughout the state.
In a recent press conference in Pasco County, the Governor encouraged Floridians to get help through the state’s HOPE Line, 1-833-GET-HOPE.
“We have already helped over 5,000 individuals since Milton made landfall’” said DeSantis, “and we’ve got a lot of organizations that are ready to go and help people when they are in need.”
Federal assistance is also available through FEMA for affected residents of Florida and neighboring Southeastern states. Additional resources are available through the Red Cross and other non-profits working throughout the impacted areas. County pages (Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota, Charlotte) will have more localized information for those in need of assistance.