As Florida Storms Worsen, Some in Tampa Bay Wonder: Is Living There Worth It?
By Isabelle Taft, Elisabeth Parker, Valerie Boey Ramsey, and Patricia Mazzei, The New York Times.
Excerpt: A rash of Gulf storms in recent years, culminating with Hurricane Helene on Thursday, has given way to a new reality for the booming region’s residents: Hurricanes that remain hundreds of miles away are likely to wreak havoc on the Tampa Bay region, as are smaller storms. Helene, a Category 4 hurricane, made landfall near Perry, Fla., some 200 miles north of Tampa. It followed a path similar to Hurricane Idalia in August of last year and Hurricane Debby last month. All three storms put wide swaths of the Tampa Bay region underwater, though none more than Helene, which brought storm surge into neighborhoods that had not seen such flooding in decades — or ever. ...More residents are wrestling lately with how — or whether — to keep living in a beautiful place that has become vulnerable to more frequent and intense storms as well as rising sea levels. ...The storm surge broke records in a number of spots around the Tampa Bay region, including in St. Petersburg, where it reached 6.31 feet, and Old Port Tampa, where it rose to 6.83 feet....
Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/28/us/hurricane-helene-tampa-bay-florida-worries.html.