The Tampa Bay region is facing its second major hurricane in as many weeks after Helene brought widespread flooding to the region before making landfall along the Big Bend coast Sept. 26.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said city workers were part of an “all-hands” deployment working to clear city streets and waterways of debris that washed in from Helene’s floodwaters.
“I never saw anything like Helene,” the mayor told NBC News. “And now to have back-to-back storms. Milton, as you have heard, is just a monster. And so we’re doing what we can to prepare.”
But as the storm grows closer and residents evacuate, Castor wasn’t sugarcoating the prospect of failing to clear a vast majority of the debris before Milton strikes with hurricane-force winds and the possibility of more than a foot of rain.
“The household waste, the debris,” she said, “we’re working around the clock to get that picked up. But we probably will run out of time.”
Castor said she spoke to President Joe Biden, who offered an array of federal help. She asked Biden for help with the debris amid concerns that branches, lumber and sharp items will be weaponized by hurricane-force winds when Milton makes landfall.
She praised the Biden administration’s response so far, a response that includes the presence of predeployed Federal Emergency Management Agency officials, as well as help from the offices of Gov. Ron DeSantis and regional officials.
“Everybody is is working to do what we can to prepare for what is going to be a catastrophic storm,” Castor said.
She praised the technology on display when an AquaFence floodwall was deployed around Tampa General Hospital during Helene’s impacts last month. It “literally saved” the facility from disastrous flooding, the mayor said.