By Riley Benson
From June to November, Floridians brace for the possible tropical storms that will come their way. After the 2024 hurricane season, St. Petersburg residents know a thing or two about repairing after a storm.
Hurricane Helene made landfall in late September. Then, with the city barely beginning the recovery process, Hurricane Milton made landfall a week and a half later. From fallen cranes and blown-off baseball roofs to flooded homes and boil-water warnings, St. Petersburg has seen its share of storms this fall.
Richie Floyd, chair of the Health, Energy, Resilience and Sustainability Committee of the St. Petersburg City Council, said surviving back-to-back storms can bring a community closer together.
“I think anybody who walked outside after the storm saw that their neighbors were talking to their neighbors, asking people how they’re doing and sharing things,” Floyd said.
Along with the committee and city council, Floyd worked to support the city before and after the storm.
In the immediate aftermath, Floyd helped decide where the city needed to put its major focus, like organizing debris pickup and setting up comfort stations across town.
Throughout the city, there’s major clean up needed from fallen trees and pieces from wind-damaged structures. Meanwhile, the comfort stations consist of portable laundry stations and food trucks for all city residents to have easy access.
“I’ve seen a lot of the community coming together,” Floyd said. “There’s been a bunch of people who weren’t impacted reaching out and asking how they can join volunteer efforts to help clear people’s lots or clean out people’s houses.”
Some residents, like Franklin Alves and Justin Cournoyer, were some of the thousands of people in St. Petersburg who experienced the community efforts of neighbors firsthand.
Alves, who’s been a resident of Campbell Park for over a decade, said he witnessed residents come together to help one another.
Along with Alves, Cournoyer and other Campbell Park residents call themselves “the remnants of the gas plant” in reference to the Gas Plant District which used to spill into Campbell Park before the development of Interstate 75 and Tropicana Field.
Prior to the Rays’ introduction to the city in the 1980s, the area was predominantly home to African Americans who had been living there for almost a century.
“The coolest part about Campbell Park is that, like, we have a lot of generational housing and residents that have been here for a really long time,” Alves said. “We can actually see Tropicana Field from our house because we’re so close. And so for Justin and I, we saw the beginnings of the tarp getting [torn] right off. It felt like a pretty powerful impact.”
Earlier this year, the city of St. Petersburg announced plans to redevelop the Gas Plant District to bring new housing and a brand-new baseball stadium for the Rays. Due to recent storm damage, including the torn roof of Tropicana Stadium, the stadium’s future is now uncertain.
“Seeing the tarp of the dome of Tropicana Field ripped to shreds,” Cournoyer said. “This shows you how fragile things are and how city priorities can change in an instant.”
Alves and Cournoyer are both actively involved in the neighborhood and the redevelopment plans the city had proposed for the area.
“You’ll probably see us show up to city hall to talk and advocate for ourselves because we’re at the crossroads of a lot of different projects and a lot of different issues that the city is facing,” Cournoyer said.
In the early stages of the redevelopment plan coming together, the duo worked with the city to help get benefits for those who lived in the area. Despite the community’s struggles, Campbell Park residents continue to band together and rebuild, post-hurricanes.
“We’re very strong together,” said Cournoyer. “We’re a very scrappy, resilient group that helped each other out.”