ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. — It’s an expensive headache that’s been causing stress for people living in St. Pete neighborhoods for years, especially Shore Acres.
Homeowner Pete Boland knows all about it.
“It’s all coming together,” he said as he showed us around the first floor of his house.
His house was one of the houses that flooded back in September when Hurricane Idalia hit. He said water was everywhere, damaging his garage, bedroom, the walls, and much more.
Again, he’s no stranger to the flooding. But he said it’s gotten worse since 2020, during and after Eta. Then the storms last year, including the one right before Christmas.
“That was a surprise. You have people over, then water is coming in your house again,” he said.
Boland, his Shore Acres neighbors, and folks in other neighborhoods have been asking for help for years. It sounds like help is finally on the way. That’s according to Mayor Ken Welch’s State of the City Address.
“We’ve known for some time that the development and adaptation measures, including structural elevation and facilities, and the other things that we must do, is a substantial cost,” he said. “As Councilwoman [Brandi] Gabbard said, we’ve planned enough. It’s time now to take deliberate action.”
His action plan includes: Using a $20 million grant from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection. Approximately $8,870,000 will be used to replace maintenance buildings at the Southwest Water Reclamation Facility and the Northeast Water Reclamation Facility in order to increase service reliability and safety during extreme weather events like hurricanes. Approximately $11,575,000 will be used to mitigate stormwater flooding at Lake Maggiore in the Salt Creek Basin.
“I fully support council member Gabbard’s request for seed funding for an action plan for flood mitigation and adaptation in partnership with the regional Tampa Bay Planning Council,” he said. “That will be in our recommended budget.”
He said the city is actively working to secure more funding and working with homeowners in neighborhoods like Shore Acres to see what else can be done.
"I think bringing some money home from Washington and Tallahassee is a good thing,” Boland said. “I’m hoping that can help solve some people's problems.”
He also said, “I think there needs to be talk about some swells that get built, kind of like a retention area."
Some neighbors we talked to said it sounds good, but the plan doesn’t really help them right now as flooding issues become more frequent.
