Hurricane Helene traveled parallel to the Tampa Bay region, more than 100 miles off the coast in the Gulf of Mexico.
But that didn't stop the huge Category 4 storm from churning historic levels of ocean water onto shores and into sewage systems.
The deluge inundated drains and, in some cases, knocked out pump stations that are supposed to keep sewage underground.
As a result, more than 8 million gallons of turbid wastewater bubbled to the surface, spilling into streets and waterways.
The largest overflow, which accounts for most of the spill volume in the region, was recorded in Tampa.
About 6.5 million gallons of wastewater discharged from the Krauss pump station along the Riverwalk into the Hillsborough River between 2 a.m. and noon Friday.
According to Tampa's wastewater director Eric Weiss, the regional pump station carries about 25% of the total wastewater collected in the city.
"Due to storm surge, it went in and flooded the station, shorted it, and it was inoperable," said Weiss.
"I've been here 33 years, been through many storms. This is the first, I would say, significant storm surge event that we've ever experienced here."
About 7 feet of water entered stations across the city, which are operated by electric control panels.
Weiss said city workers were able to use generators to get some stations back online while they suctioned water out of the area.
By noon Friday, most pumps were running again.
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About 1,500 miles of pipes and 229 pump stations keep wastewater flowing to the city's treatment plant near Port Tampa Bay.
"You know they say, 'All roads lead to Rome.' In Tampa, all pipes lead to the Howard F. Curren Treatment Plant," Weiss said.
When that system is disrupted by, say, record storm surge, then overflows and spills occur.
The network of pipes and pumps aren't equipped to handle a deluge like Helene, but the city is in the midst of a $2.9 billion public works project that includes retrofitting the aging water system.
About 28 pump stations have been rebuilt so far during that project.
"Many of these were built in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, and that was the engineering practice at that time — to put them in basements, underground," said Weiss. "Modern day electric engineering standards and climate change dictated that we need to pull that electrical equipment out from in basements well above the 100-year floodplain."
Weiss said that should mitigate some of the outages and subsequent overflows.
Pinellas County reported more than 800,000 gallons of wastewater overflowed from manhole covers due to the hurricane. Half of that was in St. Petersburg. The county is still assessing the total extent of the spillage.
Two spills were reported in Manatee County during the storm surge, and one each in Polk and Hernando counties.
Weiss said it takes about three days for bacteria to die off. The city is taking water sample tests and expects waterways to clear up in a few days.
Weiss added that on Wednesday, workers had reevaluated three stations that went offline and determined no overflow occurred.
