Weathering the storm: on the ground in hurricane-ravaged Florida

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

I’ve lived in seven US states and five countries, but when I arrived in St. Petersburg, Florida in 2019 I knew it was my last stop. There is no such thing as paradise on earth, but for me, St. Pete is as close as it comes. But every year during hurricane season, we’re on pins and needles hoping the big one won’t come and wipe us off the map. Our homeowner’s and flood insurance rates are insane, but I still don’t know anyone who feels like their policies are comprehensive enough to sleep easy when the Weather Channel vans prowl our streets like hungry hyenas looking for viral footage during hurricane season.

Fewer than two weeks after Helene wreaked havoc on our city, slamming us with a record six feet of storm surge, we are now, as I write this from a Fort Lauderdale hotel room, bracing ourselves for Milton, a nerdy-sounding hurricane that’s shaping up to be a nasty bully. The city still hasn’t cleaned up from Helene yet, so entertaining Milton now is a bit like hosting a party at an already-trashed house. In my neighborhood, on St. Pete’s far north side about a mile from the water, about one-third of the homes flooded, some very badly. One of my next-door neighbors lost almost everything. Miraculously, we were spared. But will my house and our century-old oak trees survive Milton?

A walk around my neighborhood is a depressing affair — the flood victims’ furniture, flooring and belongings still lie in piles waiting to be picked up. It’ll all soon be flying around in 100mph winds. We live in an evacuation zone, but almost no one in my neighborhood evacuated for Helene. When you leave, sometimes they won’t let you back in, and we wanted to protect our homes. We were very lucky — we never lost power, though our sewage treatment plant shut down and we couldn’t use our toilets or water for two days.

My friends who live in or near St. Pete Beach fared much worse. I went to visit the area on Saturday morning, and it was heartbreaking. Every single home flooded extensively there, and the neighborhood by the iconic Don Cesar Hotel, or the Pink Palace as we call it, is a disaster. Nothing had been picked up and the streets are awash with contaminated furniture and household effects. The stench on our beautiful beach, rated the best in the country by Trip Advisor in 2022, made me want to vomit. Residents still have to boil their water and some still don’t have power.

Despite the havoc and heartbreak, I sense none of the fatalism projected by the national media in the wake of Helene. As we were still cleaning up, the Wall Street Journal published a story about us with the headline, “In a Florida Town Ravaged by Storms, Homeowners All Want to Sell.” The New York Times published a similar piece with the headline, “As Florida Storms Worsen, Some in Tampa Bay Wonder: Is Living There Worth It?” The media hates Florida, so I wasn’t surprised that they took the opportunity to dunk on us. But what I found more disturbing were many of the most liked comments. Serves them right for living there! said some. Others who likely don’t know how much we’re paying for insurance in Florida accused us of driving up insurance rates around the country. So much for thoughts and prayers coming out to us.

Even with this nasty freak Milton bearing down on us, I don’t know anyone who’s skipping town, contrary to what the headline writers at WSJ think. Skyrocketing insurance premiums may force some of us out, but I have no doubt that if home prices dip in Tampa Bay others will, excuse the pun, flood in.

It wasn’t lost on us that while many of us were suffering, Joe Biden was enjoying early-bird dinner specials and watching Matlock reruns at Rehoboth Beach. Kamala was hobnobbing with celebrities and feasting on beef Wellington, lobster rolls and cheese honey blueberry balls — whatever those are. Kamala Harris is angry that Ron DeSantis didn’t take her call last week, saying it was “utterly irresponsible” and “selfish.” I have complete confidence in our governor — and I can understand why he didn’t want to waste his valuable time talking to someone who is 100 percent focused on her campaign rather than governing.

Who is running our country right now? The fact that this question wasn’t raised at the debates is a scandal. I don’t know anyone here who feels confident that the federal government will help us after Milton. But this time, we prepped much more comprehensively than we did for Helene.

The city of St. Pete, run by a “woke,” telecommuting mayor who added the phrase “intentional equity” to the city mission statement, hasn’t helped us much. I went to our local site to pick up sandbags on Sunday morning, and by 6:45 a.m. the line was already a mile long — fifteen minutes before it opened. But we will rebuild and get by somehow. I have lived in many places, but nowhere with such good people.

The media might hate us, people in other states might resent us, but we love our hometown and it’s heartwarming to see everyone pitching in to help their neighbors. This time, we heeded the warnings to evacuate, as did everyone else I know in St. Pete. With God’s grace, we’ll get through this. We have to. It’s our home — and we’re not going to let anyone named Milton push us out.