Hurricane Milton spared Pinellas County a second round of the catastrophic storm surge that flooded homes and businesses during Helene just two weeks ago. But high winds and heavy rain still caused significant damage.
Roughly 70% of customers in the county had no power as of Friday morning at 11, according to a national power outage tracker. Water service also remains limited in many areas.
Some low-land parts of the county flooded, and downed trees and power lines posed hazards on many roadways.
The morning after the storm, Matty Cole stood up on a ladder with a small chainsaw trimming branches off a large oak tree that toppled into the street in the Jungle Terrace neighborhood of St. Petersburg. The tree was blocking off one lane of traffic, so Stephen Smarowsky helped direct traffic so cars could safely pass in either direction around the debris.
The tree wasn’t on either of their properties, but they wanted to protect passersby from harm until official cleanup crews arrived. Both men chose to ride out the storm in their homes.
“I mean, the experience was frightening, frankly, and I don’t get scared by much,” said Cole, 36, a local musician.
Milton brought wind gusts of more than 100 mph at their peak, and as much as 18 inches of rain in parts of the county.
Cole made sure he was prepared – for the storm, and the days without power and water he anticipated.
“I just stocked up in advance, a couple cases of water, stuff I can throw on the propane grill, filled up the bathtub, you know all the classic stuff,” he said. “I was getting text messages from mom all night long, ‘Fill this up, do that, don’t be in the shower if there’s lightning,’ you know all those good things.”
Cole admits he was “stubborn” to ignore a mandatory evacuation order with his house in Zone B, but said “he got lucky.”
About 500,000 residents in Pinellas were under orders to leave as the county braced for potentially catastrophic storm surge – even worse than what flooded its waterfront communities during Hurricane Helene.
Fortunately, that surge never came.
Watching the forecast, Smarowsky, 40, knew the worst of Milton’s surge was expected in areas south of Milton’s eyewall. When he saw his home – in Zone C, also under evacuation order – was north of where Milton was on pace to make landfall, he thought of the mantra “hide from the wind, run from the water” and opted to stay.
He didn’t realize the storm was causing as much damage as it did until he woke up and saw downed trees all over his street, including one that smashed into his neighbor’s roof.
Smarowsky teamed up with Cole to help get started on cleanup efforts. They had only just met — or so they thought, until Smarowsky realized he'd actually seen one of Cole's performances before. They laughed about the unusual circumstances that brought them together again.
Smarowsky runs a local home repair company. He said he feels sorry for everyone affected by Milton, but is also relieved the area was spared from storm surge that could delivered an even more painful blow to residents already devastated by Helene.
“We’re dealing personally and pretty intimately with about a dozen families that did lose their homes and are having to cut out their walls from Helene, and for them to even have this scare…hopefully the water did get sucked out and they don’t have to deal with this again,” he said.
Now the region faces the daunting task of helping residents recover from both storms.
County emergency management officials advised during a Thursday afternoon press conference that they will resume debris collection efforts for Helene — and now Milton — as soon as possible. But first they have to address more immediate safety concerns, like rescuing people from flooded areas and managing roadway hazards.
Cole encouraged his neighbors to be patient and do what they can to support each other.
“Bind together, be a community and just love another, man, that’s all,” he said.
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