ST. PETE BEACH — Sean Green felt numb after waiting a week to return to this seaside tourist destination.
The weeks following hurricanes Helene and Milton were tough. Green, 32, spent sunrise to sunset alongside his coworkers shoveling debris, sand and sludge on the strip of restaurants by the water where he worked.
“It’s such a gray spot in my memory,” Green said. “We needed to keep people working.”
Green is a former manager at The Toasted Monkey, a heavily damaged waterfront bar and grill that is yet to reopen. Now, he works as a manager at Buoy’s Waterfront Bar and Grill, the restaurant next door.
“I was ready to get back to work,” he said.
Green, who is one of 2 million Florida workers dependent on the state’s $120 billion tourism industry, is waiting to see how hurricanes will affect the number of visitors to local and small businesses after the storms.
Workers, managers and owners are working diligently to make repairs and reopen quickly. They forge ahead, although many live with concerns that continuing hurricanes, partly fueled by climate change, will discourage visitors to beaches, hotels and restaurants that benefit from tourism in the weeks and months following each storm.
Any changes in tourism trends will be revealed in the coming months and years, especially during the peak season in Pinellas County and most of the state’s other coastal playgrounds. But many business owners and workers said they are ready to leave the storms behind as they prepare for snowbirds and vacation-seeking visitors.
Two months after 140-mile-per-hour winds and storm surge from Hurricane Helene made impact in Pinellas County, Buoy’s opened for business.
“Something about this place brings me back,” Green said. “It will take a lot more than a few hurricanes for me to leave.”
He was eager to return to some semblance of normal, a sentiment that echoed through the island of St. Pete Beach.
Hurricane Helene and Milton
Hurricane Helene made landfall in Perry, Florida, in the Big Bend region on Sept. 26. The Category 4 hurricane spanned 200 miles and hit Pinellas County with 70-mile-per-hour winds and storm surges ranging from 4 to 7 feet. The storm killed 12 people in Pinellas County. Hurricane Milton arrived two weeks later with wind gusts as high as 101 mph.
The damage was extensive. In the combined aftermath of two storms, 40,910 homes and 892 businesses across Pinellas County were damaged.
David Kelly, the academic director of the Master of Science in Sustainable Business at the University of Miami, said hurricanes will grow stronger, but not necessarily more frequent.
As coastal areas become more congested with homes and businesses, the risk of damage only increases, Kelly said.
“Until they get it cleaned up, the tourists can’t come back,” he said.
Local economies are currently in a waiting game, he said. In a state where hurricanes are expected, cities have a higher likelihood of bouncing back quicker, even in heavily affected coastal areas.
The key to getting tourists back is rebuilding as quickly as possible. Businesses in Pinellas County must prepare for the months of January, February and March which bring the most tourism-related revenue into the county.
Any further delay could prompt tourists to cancel their plans. “If it’s more than a month, they’ll just go somewhere else and just ask for their money back,” he said.
Tourism in Pinellas County
Economic data confirms that tourism is a major industry in Pinellas County. It supports 1 out of 10 jobs in the county. In 2023,16 million people visited Pinellas County and the tourist development tax generated $98 million. The tourism industry’s total economic impact was $10.8 billion in 2023.
Direct spending on lodging during the first quarter of 2024 was $675,565 while spending on restaurants was $538,062. These two categories drive the tourism industry and are the areas where business owners are trying to reclaim their success.
The long-term effects of Helene and Milton are still unknown, but tourism bureaus have begun luring tourists back to the state. Visit Florida, the state’s official tourism marketing corporation, created a three-phase initiative that divides $5.75 million to help encourage visitors to travel to Florida after the hurricanes.
The first phase allocates $800,000 to a social media campaign highlighting unaffected cities ready for tourists. The second phase is a $3 million marketing campaign spotlighting “fully recovered destinations.” The third phase uses the rest of the money to offer direct marketing assistance to the counties most affected by the storms, including Pinellas County.
Visit St.Pete-Clearwater, the tourism organization for Pinellas County, has taken its own steps to invite visitors to return in a campaign called “Still Shining.” The website page documents places, such as cultural exhibits, beaches and restaurants, that have reopened.
Jason Latimer, the organization’s public relations director, said he conducted surveys and made phone calls to learn about the extent of damage to businesses in the county and what could be done to help.
“We know that there was an impact,” Latimer said. But the entire county wasn’t destroyed beyond repair, he added.
He wanted to emphasize that there is more to Pinellas County beyond sandy shorelines.
Most beaches are already open. Visit St.Pete-Clearwater set up 30 billboards around the Tampa Bay area, spotlighting different businesses.
According to Latimer, a growing number of shops, restaurants and businesses were planning to open before the holiday season. Now, it’s about keeping the engine running, he said.
Experts said it’s too soon to determine the long-term impact of hurricanes. But with 80% of the county’s destinations open, Latimer is looking forward to coming back in 2025 with a stronger, more determined community.
“Heading into next year, we’re hoping for another strong year of tourism,” he said.
Maria Watson, an assistant professor at the University of Florida, has researched business and housing recovery after natural disasters. Small businesses tend to be the most vulnerable after a hurricane.
“I just hear stories of people that can’t get out of this cycle of recovery, and I think that worries me,” Watson said.
But timing can be on the side of many of these businesses. Because hurricane season takes place during Pinellas County’s low season, smaller shops and restaurants have time to rebuild before January.
“It can be a really good thing to try to open quickly,” she said. “But sometimes it’s better for businesses to wait and not reopen right away.” She explained how it can help shops conserve their costs as they wait for the high season to begin.
Watson researched how small businesses in North Carolina recovered after Hurricane Matthew in 2016. She found that businesses opened quickly, often within two weeks of the storm. But businesses’ self-reported recovery revealed different concerns.
North Carolina businesses with a 20% drop in customers from the storm had a 50/50 chance of fully recovering.
“Even a small amount of customer loss can really affect their recovery,” she said. “Recovery can take a really long time, over a year or two years because of this loss of customers.”
For the tourism-reliant businesses that aren’t franchises or chains, preparedness will play a big role in future hurricane seasons where the strength and frequency of major hurricanes are unpredictable.
“Having a continuity plan ahead of time is going to be super important,” she said. It can start anywhere from listing products online for sale, setting up a temporary location or knowing where to move inventory off-site in advance of the storm.
It’s what Watson feels is necessary to ensure that the small businesses that attract visitors stay open. “Those are the ones that make Florida so interesting,” she said.
St. Pete Beach
Heidi Butler, 52, is the owner of The Helm Provisions and Coastal Fare, a restaurant that opened in 2022. It’s one of the businesses in St. Pete Beach still trying to recover. During Hurricane Helene, the building was filled with 40 inches of water.
“Everything was floating,” Butler said.
She was forced to tell her employees to find new jobs because she is uncertain when The Helm will reopen.
The restaurant has been cleaned. Butler said she’s hoping to open doors again by the end of the year but worries that may not happen.
“Time seems to fly by, and you’re just spinning your wheels and not making any progress,” she said.
To raise money for her restaurant, Butler hosted a gala in November. She wanted people to forget about the storm and earn money for the repairs her restaurant still needs.
Butler said she knows that small businesses and restaurants need time to recover. “It’s going to be open at smaller capacities,” she said.
This won’t be the end of The Helm, and Butler wants to preserve the market she’s created through the restaurant’s nautical atmosphere and popular crab cakes.
“St. Pete Beach is resilient,” she said. “I’m drawn to staying here and serving these people. I’d do anything to stay.”
Mike Hook, 54, has been a general manager at the DoubleTree Beach Resort Tampa Bay in Redington Beach for more than two years. Two days after Helene, he wanted to assess the damage and used a boat to get to the hotel because there was no access to the island by bridge.
“It was pretty heartbreaking,” Hook said. The lower deck of the hotel was badly damaged. The pool was covered in sand. The hotel’s tiki bar, a landmark in North Redington Beach, was destroyed.
“The plan is to rebuild better,” he said. The hotel staff hoped to reopen the tiki bar by mid-December, but it’s still under repair. The hotel’s pool has since been remodeled and opened alongside a temporary tiki bar for guests.
The hotel opened in mid-October, but visitor occupancy rates did not immediately return to normal, as the hotel was in its low season. Its most active period is between February and April.
According to Hook, most of the hotel’s revenue comes from tourism. With low visitor numbers, the livelihood of leisure industry workers was up in the air after Helene and Milton.
“There might be a little hesitation for future months based on how the area recovers,” Hook said. “We’re hoping they come look for themselves and see that these places really cleaned up.”
Dylan Hubbard, 33, is also ready to see business return to normal.
As the fourth-generation owner of Hubbard's Marina, an offshore fishing and dolphin-watching company in Madeira Beach that opened in 1928, he was quick to get himself and his staff back on their feet to reopen as quickly as they could.
Madeira Beach was underwater during Helene. The docks were badly damaged and the offices inside were filled with water. Hubbard worked alongside colleagues to begin cleaning, checking for mold and replacing what was destroyed.
“It was like eating an elephant,” Hubbard said. “You just got to do it one bite at a time.”
It took quite a few large bites. The marina had $350,000 in damage from the hurricane. Hubbard said his flood insurance only covered the damage done to the doors, totaling $1,200.
Hubbard’s Marina had been open for a month. Hubbard said he needed to reopen as soon as possible for his employees. Fourteen staff members lost their homes after Helene, and two were forced to relocate.
“We have to reopen, we have to work hard, and we have to muddle through so that way, we can keep our staff working,” he said.
Hubbard’s business was down 70% in November. “We don’t have a lot of volume,” he said.
Paying the bills becomes difficult without a steady flow of visitors. It’s not all about profit to him. He and his staff rely on those visitors.
“If I just close the business and say we’re not going to reopen until it’s busy again, then those staff members wouldn’t survive,” he said.
He hopes the cooler weather motivates visitors to come back. Because there is no traffic or long waiting times, it’s the perfect time to visit, he said.
“There’s not a lot of people around,” he said. “You have the opportunity to do what you want and go where you want.”
Tarpon Springs
One hour north of St. Pete Beach is Tarpon Springs, which is famous for its sponge docks, Greek food and homemade soaps. Tourism is a big contributor to the local economy.
Greek immigrants established the city’s sponge industry, and their cultural influences remain on the sponge docks. One in 10 Tarpon Springs residents are of Greek descent.
Tourists are drawn to Tarpon Springs’ Greek cuisine, and of course, the city’s sponges. Boats take visitors on dolphin tours, while other tourists prefer walking along the shops lining the dock to enjoy the breeze and the smell of salt that lingers in the air.
The docks are home to places like the Spongeorama Sponge Factory.
The factory sells sponges, homemade soaps and jewelry. Xanthi Zembillas, 69, is a store manager at the factory and was shocked to see the damage the storm caused.
She said most shops and restaurants along the docks were flooded. Spongeorama Sponge Factory had 7 feet of water and lost 70% of its stock after Helene. Milton’s wind damage was responsible for the loss of half of the factory’s signage.
It took a week to clean the shop. Grease fryers from nearby restaurants spilled their contents inside. The flooding was so intense that bars of soap were stuck to the walls. Eventually, she welcomed visitors again.
But the visitors hadn't fully returned. Zembillas said the shop's business was down 90% in the weeks following the hurricanes.
“It’s been really bad,” Zembillas said. “There’s no profit.”
Any money made through sales immediately went to pay the electricity bill, property taxes and additional repairs as well as employees, who could only work weekends. The owner of the shop, who lives in Greece, had to use her savings to make ends meet each month since the hurricanes.
“It’s not just us, it’s practically everybody down here at the docks,” Zembillas said.
So far, visitors from nearby areas like Tampa and Sarasota have made day trips to the area to show their support. A customer came in and spent $400 on his own just to help, she said.
Zembillas said she hopes the shop’s high season during January through May brings more good money.
“Maybe we’re not open full throttle, but we’re here for you to have something to do,” she said.
Down at the docks, newer gift shops and restaurants have opened in recent years, including a shop called Gifted Tarpon Springs. It’s the second shop Casey Smith, 44, owns in the city.
Her first shop, One Amazing Find, is in historic downtown Tarpon Springs. She decided to expand to the docks and open Gifted Tarpon Springs on Aug. 31. The new store was not open long before Helene shut it down.
Smith was not prepared for the flooding and traded her sneakers for rainboots when she saw the amount she’d have to clean.
“There was so much hard work of just physical labor to get that shop up as quick as we did,” Smith said.
It took her seven weeks to reopen the gift shop. She was grateful to have insurance, but her loss of inventory, which includes locally produced art, fashion and home décor, was not covered.
Even in a slower season, she hopes to cater to locals before the snowbirds begin arriving.
Smith is looking forward to spring when more visitors stop by the sponge docks. “I’m looking forward to the sales and feeling like we’re back at it,” she said.
She said she noticed how business owners were working late into the night repainting walls and sweeping debris to open their doors as soon as possible.
“I think there’ll be folks that don’t come because they don’t understand how quickly everyone has worked to rebuild,” Smith said.
Some businesses won’t have the chance to open back up, she said, but most of them have reopened. In the months following the hurricanes, the shops and restaurants that line the docks need the support that visitors bring.
As businesses reopen, some with repairs underway, people can still recognize the area with its sponge docks, soap shops and Greek cuisine. “It’s the same Tarpon Springs that they’ve known and grown to love,” she said.
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