A message of resiliency and strength from Mayor Welch

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Helene and Milton, the twin post-summer hurricanes of 2024, uprooted lives, caused unprecedented property losses and heightened many of our long-feared vulnerabilities of increased storm surge, high winds and extended rainfall. The back-to-back, powerful impact of these storms demonstrate undeniable evidence of our new reality: Extreme weather and climate change will affect our quality of life and the ability to provide and maintain critical services. It’s clear that the clock on climate change and its impacts has sped up exponentially, therefore, our resiliency actions must accelerate as well.

This is not a time to panic. Instead, it is a time to focus. The key is not only to recover, but to enhance our resiliency. It is vital that we build back stronger and more resilient after every storm.

Recovery

Right now, the most powerful tool in the recovery process is information. As we recover from Helene and Milton, the City remains committed to providing residents and businesses with the information they need to understand the recovery process. Clear information on permitting, the City’s 49% Rule, available assistance, and FEMA requirements will be key for those who are rebuilding. To help answer questions, the City assembled partners from the local, state, and federal levels to host two recovery information events, one virtual and one in person. More information on these events can be found at www.StPete.org/Recovery.

As for storm debris, our teams have collected more debris – more than 800,000+ cubic yards – which is more than twice the debris collected after Hurricanes Idalia, Ian, and Irma combined. Our goal is to complete the job by January 11, 2025. This is an ambitious 90-day goal for collecting the most debris we have ever collected. More than 140 trucks are on the road every day removing debris from residential properties and we’ve opened debris management sites in the four corners of the city to expedite the process. We also created a temporary ‘Hometown Recovery Haulers’ program to provide an economic boost to local businesses and augment debris-clearing efforts. It’s clear that our combined efforts have produced extraordinary results, and we will keep working until the job is done.

Please be patient with us and separate your debris as required by FEMA. In the New Year, debris will be a memory, and we will be completely focused on the hard work of rebuilding a stronger, more resilient St. Petersburg.

Resiliency

The environmental drivers evidenced by the storms of 2024 demand that we act with increased urgency to mitigate risks, while protecting and preserving our quality of life in a more agile and sustainable way. Now is the time to have the conversations and to act on mitigation, building requirements and our willingness and ability to make new and necessary investments in our infrastructure resiliency. The City is creating a new St. Pete Agile Resiliency Plan to set the expectation for resiliency levels and to identify existing or new projects and funding that will achieve the goal of strategic, accelerated investments to meet our updated resiliency goals.

We must acknowledge our new reality. With Hurricane Milton, we were anticipating 15 feet of storm surge. Two of our three wastewater treatment plants are not designed to operate with that level of surge. For additional context, Helene brought eight feet of storm surge to the Northeast Sewer Treatment Plant. Until Helene, our sewer treatment plants had never experienced more than four feet of storm surge in the last 70 years. We currently have $70 million dedicated to upgrading these facilities to withstand 11 feet of storm surge, but Milton would have eclipsed those upgrades if it had stayed on track and speed. This is the current level of threat we must adapt our plans to meet.

The Historic Gas Plant District

We also see our new reality when we look at Tropicana Field. The image of Tropicana Field’s damaged roof is one of the most iconic images from the 2024 hurricanes. The range of possibilities – for future games at the stadium and the timing of the new stadium development – will be driven by many factors including damage assessments. We are in continuous communication with all parties and will update the community as we analyze the information and recommend a plan to resolve the Tropicana Field issue, setting a path forward for the Historic Gas Plant District development. My Administration’s focus is informed by the broad and urgent priority of Recovery and Resiliency for our residents and businesses as we embrace the emergent challenge of building a resilient St. Petersburg.

Partnerships and Progress

As we continue to rebuild, partnerships will be key. It’s important to know that we are working together at every level of government – city, local, state, and federal – to achieve the goal of mitigation, recovery, and resiliency for our community. We are working closely with FEMA on recovery efforts and on identifying key infrastructure for enhanced resilience investments.

We remain in constant collaboration with our state partners as well. State Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie attended a recent City Council meeting. President Biden was here shortly after Milton, touring St. Petersburg and Pinellas County with Congresswoman Kathy Castor and me, County Commission Chair Kathleen Peters and other elected officials. Ultimately, the City is working together with these partners to represent our community, secure resources and funding, and drive our recovery efforts forward with urgency.

Looking Ahead

I want the residents of St. Petersburg to know that the city stands with you through this recovery and the rebuilding that is to come. It will be challenging, but we are committed to building back stronger.

Informed Decision Making is one of my administration’s guiding principles. What the data is telling us and what the literal flooding in our streets is showing us, is that our infrastructure must be upgraded to match the pace of climate change and storm impacts. Delaying these actions will only hinder our ability to maintain the progress that we have made in our city over the last decade and leave us vulnerable to future storm-related impacts.

Our recovery and resiliency planning, investment, and implementation must be agile, innovative and up to the challenge. Working together with the community, we will conquer this challenge.

Kenneth T. Welch is Mayor of the City of St. Petersburg.