CLEARWATER, Fla. — In the early morning hours after Hurricane Milton last October, ABC Action News was at the Standard Apartments on Drew Street in Clearwater, as water was rapidly rising.
We arrived at the same time as first responders did, the same time as they deployed boat after boat to rescue people who were trapped.
565 people were rescued that day, according to Clearwater Police.
Watch full report from Larissa Scott
Several buildings were damaged. Some people reported water up to their chest.
As we head into a new hurricane season, we went back to see what things look like now at The Standard Apartments.
Jessica Paris-Adorno will never forget the day it flooded.
“It was a sad day. It really was a sad day. For all of us. Being displaced and didn’t know where we would go. Not many of us have anywhere to go,” said Jessica Paris-Adorno, who lives at The Standard Apartments.
She’s lived at the complex for 5 years and told us it was a struggle in the months following Hurricane Milton, especially in the weeks immediately after.
“Just the smell and the gnats and the garbage and so much debris that I felt defeated. I cried every day,” said Paris-Adorno.
If you look around the complex, you can see buildings still boarded up, many downstairs apartments gutted— serving as reminders of what happened.
People here are understandably nervous for this upcoming hurricane season.
So we started asking questions. How did this happen? Why did this complex flood when surrounding neighborhoods didn’t have it nearly as bad?
The City of Clearwater told us part of the problem is that the majority of the complex sits in a bowl, at a lower elevation than the adjacent neighborhood.
Another issue was the ground was already saturated from Hurricane Helene, with many ditches and creeks overflowing.
The City of Clearwater also said the complex, including nearby Alligator Creek, is a FEMA floodplain.
The city shared that the pumps on the property were not on when first responders arrived and that water levels in the complex rose to the point that most of the pumps were submerged.
The Standard Apartments said a few things went wrong that caused the flooding.
They sent us this statement:
“The pumps were working properly the night of the storm, and they pumped out all the water to the canal between the two complexes: Genesis and The Standard. Around 2am, after the storm was already gone, 2 retaining walls busted underneath the ground level, and let all the water in the canal get back into the property. At that moment it was pointless to continue pumping out the water because it will keep getting into the property.”
“All that happened was an unfortunate event. Both retaining walls are being repaired at this moment, and the whole wall is being inspected by Engineers to make sure this kind of issue doesn't happen again. We are working along the City of Clearwater to rebuild the affected units with all the necessary permits.”
The City of Clearwater is looking to make improvements in the area too, to prepare for this upcoming hurricane season, sharing with us in part:
“The city of Clearwater is investigating several options to help with drainage during major storm events. We are looking at hydraulic modeling to see if we can add additional stormwater buffering by dredging certain locations in Alligator Creek & Kapok to add capacity. We are also looking at the possibility of adding a couple more box culverts in Kapok to allow increased flows. The city of Clearwater will continue our regular stormwater maintenance efforts of inspecting and maintaining the system.”
Paris-Adorno and other neighbors we talked to, who did not want to go on camera, told us they have seen improvements in the complex and really feel like things are getting better.
“They care, and anything that they can do, they help,” said Paris-Adorno.
They’re hopeful things will get back to normal soon and are praying this hurricane season will be much less eventful.
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