Thrive
St. Pete officials highlight storm preparedness efforts
St. Petersburg’s leadership believes back-to-back hurricanes have better prepared them for the impending storm season.
Mayor Ken Welch highlighted ongoing infrastructure improvements Tuesday from the Northeast Water Reclamation Facility. Officials shut down the low-lying plant during Hurricanes Helene and Milton and have since accelerated efforts to increase its resilience to flooding.
Welch also provided a storm preparedness update as the 2025 hurricane season begins in less than three weeks. The city has cross-trained staff, proactively staged critical resources and prepped recovery centers citywide.
“We spent the last several months not just recovering from storms, but applying lessons learned and acting with urgency,” Welch said. “Storms are only getting more powerful. It’s not a matter of if we get hit, it’s a matter of when.”
Welch said the previous hurricane season “made it unmistakably clear” that the effects of climate change and associated extreme weather events are no longer a “distant threat.” He launched the St. Pete Agile Resiliency Plan (SPAR) to meet the evolving challenges.
Storm hardening water reclamation facilities is a critical aspect. Claude Tankersley, public works administrator, said Helene and Milton “caught us off guard by hitting before the project was completed” in the summer of 2026.
Some aspects will now conclude this summer. Tankersley noted attendees were sitting on an 11-foot platform, two feet above the base property’s base flood elevation, that will house new generators.
Officials are working to ensure all three water reclamation facilities can eventually withstand a 15-foot storm surge. However, Welch stressed that residents should factor potential closures into their preparation plans.
In-progress SPAR projects also include installing deployable flood barriers and applying a waterproof coating at water treatment plants; an AquaFence flood prevention wall around a downtown sewage lift station; building a new pump station to mitigate flooding around Lake Maggiore; and a private sewer lateral rehabilitation and rebate program.
“Many of these improvements are either nearing completion or will be done by year’s end,” Welch said. “And we are exploring additional ways to fund more improvements, more rapidly.”
He said the city has also secured additional backup power, bolstered internet access and strategically positioned emergency equipment citywide. St. Petersburg Fire Rescue has three additional high-water vehicles.
Administrators are working with debris contractors to prepare collection sites for “immediate activation.” Welch said the innovative Hometown Haulers initiative could become a permanent part of the city’s post-storm recovery efforts.
St. Petersburg will station two new pumps at sewage lift stations during extreme wet weather events, to alleviate or prevent overflows. Officials recently participated in a full-scale storm training exercise at the Emergency Operations Center.
“I share all this with you to assure that our team has been working hard to be ready for the storms that will inevitably come,” Welch said. “While the city is doing our part, we need the community to do its part … Please start preparing your homes now.”
Council Chair Copley Gerdes credited his colleagues’ dedication to increasing the city’s environmental resiliency in the seven months since Milton left a trail of destruction. He noted the storms affected every district and left enough debris – 2.1 million cubic yards, collected in 90 days – to fill the Residences at 400 Central, St. Petersburg’s tallest building, and the surrounding city block, twice.
Council Chair Copley Gerdes, like many city leaders, believes the 2024 hurricane season provided valuable lessons.
The movie quote aficionado also channeled the fictional boxer Rocky Balboa: “It’s not about how hard you hit, it’s how hard you can get hit.”
“What I think about is us coming back stronger and more prepared,” Gerdes continued. “Both the administration and city council are constantly thinking, preparing and imagining what the future has in store for us.
“And let me tell you, working side-by-side with them on a daily basis, I would not want a different team thinking about what this city’s vision is going forward.”
Emergency Management Director Amber Boulding said officials and residents have the advantage of experience entering the 2025 hurricane season. Stakeholders now realize the impacts of a 7.5-foot storm surge, 20 inches of rain and 100mph winds.
Boulding said residents can use that knowledge to inform their storm preparation plans.
While people cannot control the weather, Boulding said, decisions made during blue skies can shape future outcomes. She urged residents to check on their neighbors, particularly the elderly and those with mobility challenges.
“Simple acts of kindness and support can make a profound difference during difficult times,” Boulding added.
City and Pinellas County officials will host a Hurricane Preparedness Day from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. Saturday, May 31, at the Willis S. Johns Recreation Center. The expo-style event, larger than those held in the past, will include expert presentations, sandbag demonstrations and resources for pet owners.
For municipal hurricane information, visit the website here.
Leilani
May 15, 2025at8:24 pm
Brooo! How about we make sure we’ve streamlined the system to get permits back in a timely fashion. How about we get our drainage system up to par, how bout… …you know what? …nvm.
Lucas stone
May 15, 2025at2:58 pm
“Acting with urgency”? It’s been seven months since Milton. If this is urgency, I’d hate to see what taking your time looks like.
Bradley Cochran
May 15, 2025at1:50 pm
I mean, at least they’re trying. Just hope it’s not all talk like usual. We really can’t afford another mess this year.
Alyssa haley
May 15, 2025at10:45 am
How about actually fixing the drainage and making buildings safe before the next storm hits? Tired of the talk, we need results !
Julia Burke
May 15, 2025at10:36 am
Looks like St. Pete really has their hands full. I’m glad Welch is address “infrastructure,” but I still feel like things like SPAR need to put their money where their mouth is.
Mike the new mayor
May 15, 2025at6:31 am
Andrew my idea is unorthodox. Id like to see city administrators ADMINISTER THE CITY. Crazy i know.
Instead these clowns have spent YEARS gambling on distorting the housing market.
These clowns had YEARS to prepare for 2 catastrophic hurricanes. Instead they cancelled trops insurance to flush that money down the toilet.
How Can You Defend this guy?
Just pave the streets. Thats his job. His priorities and pandering is an insult to adults and an insult to tax payers everwhere.
His record is indefensible. His platform is indefensible. This city has suffered as a result of his existence. We collectively have suffered as a direct result of his existence.
Andrew
May 14, 2025at8:27 pm
@Mike you talk a great game, how would you do anything better? The administration has gotten creative in ways to address storm impacts. I see no ideas from you.
JAMES R. GILLESPIE
May 14, 2025at5:30 pm
MAYORS BEFORE WELCH HAVE SOME RESPONSIBILITY FOR HOW THE CITY SUFFERED THROUGH 3 HURRICNES. THE RECENT EXPERIENCE JUSTIFIES EVERY EFFORT TO PROTECT HOMES AND HUMAN LIVES. SOME PROTECTIVE MEAASURE ARE LATE OR LACKING BUT THE OBJECT IS TO BE AS PRTECTED AS POSSIBLE. THEN WORRY ABOUT THE POLITICS OF ALL OF THIS NATURE THREAT LONG PART OF FLORIDA LIFE.
S
May 14, 2025at3:54 pm
Mayor Welsh’s Favorite Blame Game: Climate Change, Rising Seas, and the Disappearing Storm Drain
In case St. Petersburg residents (and taxpayers footing the bill) weren’t paying attention, a local TV segment aired yesterday showing something we’re all too familiar with: a routine afternoon thunderstorm turning I-75 into a water park—and not the fun kind.
This wasn’t a once-in-a-century weather event. It wasn’t a hurricane. It wasn’t a freak monsoon. It was just rain, the kind we get every week in Florida. Yet somehow, the most important transportation artery in our region was nearly impassable—again.
Naturally, Mayor Ken Welch will rush to the nearest microphone to offer his go-to excuse: “It’s rising sea levels! It’s climate change! It’s out of our hands!” No, Ken. It’s not. And everyone knows it.
This isn’t about glaciers or polar bears or atmospheric CO₂. It’s about neglect—good, old-fashioned, budget-busting negligence of the stormwater infrastructure we all depend on. You know, those canals, culverts, and drainage systems the city is actually responsible for maintaining? The ones that are supposed to keep our streets from turning into canals every time it drizzles?
The same sleight of hand was on full display back in August 2024, when another summer rain turned all of St. Pete into a low-budget dystopian sci-fi set. Businesses were wrecked. Homes were flooded. Cars were submerged. And what did the mayor do? Blamed climate change. Again.
Let’s be clear: rising sea levels didn’t clog our storm drains. Climate change didn’t collapse the city’s pumping stations. That was all us—or rather, them—our city officials who seem to think “resiliency” means holding press conferences instead of cleaning out culverts.
Some people might call this spin. Others might call it delusional. But let’s call it what it actually is: a lie. A deliberate misrepresentation to deflect from the city’s failures and to condition voters to accept a slowly drowning city as the new normal.
Now we’re two weeks away from the start of hurricane season, and we’ve already watched I-75 flood before the first named storm even forms in the Gulf. It doesn’t take a meteorologist to see where this is headed.
Mayor Welch isn’t solving problems—he’s burying them under waterlogged excuses. And any City Council member who’s propped up this performance deserves to go with him.
He won’t resign, of course. That would take accountability. But voters? You still have a mop in one hand and a ballot in the other. You know what to do.
S. Rose Smith-Hayes
May 14, 2025at3:33 pm
Thank you Mayor Welch and City Officials for the attention given to the infrastruture/sewer system.
Mike
May 14, 2025at11:35 am
Congratulations to mayorish welch for having the nerve to be seen in public and the audacity to not resign. It takes a big man to be so thoroughly disappointing.