{"id":277587,"date":"2026-05-20T03:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T03:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/277587\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T03:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T03:39:10","slug":"st-pete-residents-still-rebuilding-as-hurricane-season-nears-city-launches-resilience-planning-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/277587\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete residents still rebuilding as hurricane season nears, city launches resilience planning talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Resiliency Resiliency ahead of hurricane season<\/a> <\/p>\n

The city of St. Petersburg held the first in a series of public meetings focused on flood risk and long-term resilience planning, asking residents to weigh in on how the city should prepare for sea-level rise, storm surge, tidal flooding and heavy rainfall in the decades ahead. FOX 13’s Genevieve Curtis reports.<\/p>\n

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Hurricane<\/a> season is just 12 days away and some Shore Acres<\/a> residents say they are entering another storm season while still recovering from the 2024 season.<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s a tremendous amount of people who are still in harm\u2019s way, and we need to fix that,” Barry Rubin, vice president of the Shore Acres Civic Association, said during a city-hosted resilience meeting Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Flood resilience planning meetings <\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

The city of St. Petersburg<\/a> held the first in a series of public meetings focused on flood risk and long-term resilience planning, asking residents to weigh in on how the city should prepare for sea-level rise, storm surge, tidal flooding and heavy rainfall in the decades ahead.<\/p>\n

\"\" Shore Acres families still rebuilding <\/p>\n

Why you should care:<\/p>\n

The meeting comes as many families in Shore Acres, one of the city\u2019s most flood-prone neighborhoods, are still rebuilding from the devastating 2024 hurricane season.<\/p>\n

“Here we are in May of 2026 and probably 30% to 40% of the homes in Shore Acres<\/a> still have not been touched,” Shore Acres resident Kevin Batdorf said.<\/p>\n

Two years after hurricanes<\/a> brought catastrophic flooding to parts of Shore Acres, some homes are still under repair, being elevated or remain unoccupied.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Residents say that reality makes the start of another hurricane season especially nerve-racking.<\/p>\n

Rubin said many families remain vulnerable if another storm were to hit before recovery work is complete.<\/p>\n

Long-term flood vulnerability plans <\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

Tuesday night\u2019s meeting gave residents a first look at a citywide vulnerability assessment examining how climate-related flooding could impact critical city-owned infrastructure in the years ahead.<\/p>\n

City leaders say this is the beginning of a public planning process expected to continue over the next year and a half.<\/p>\n

St. Pete City Council member Mike Harting said the meeting is a chance for residents to be heard and for them to give feedback to help shape decisions going forward.<\/p>\n

Harting said the city is trying to think ahead as flooding threats become more severe.<\/p>\n

“The city is thinking about this and planning for the fact that different things are coming,” Harting said.<\/p>\n

\"\" New flood mitigation projects <\/p>\n

Among the projects already underway in Shore Acres<\/a>: a new pump station and other flood mitigation investments aimed at reducing flooding and improving infrastructure resilience.<\/p>\n

Rubin said those projects are important.<\/p>\n

“That’s a great thing, which means we should not have to cease flushing toilets and running water in a next weather event,” Rubin said.<\/p>\n

What’s next:<\/p>\n

Residents say they appreciate the city starting these conversations in Shore Acres, where flooding has become a defining issue.<\/p>\n

But with hurricane<\/a> season fast approaching, many say the urgency feels immediate \u2014 especially for neighbors still living in temporary housing or working to rebuild homes damaged nearly two years ago.<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s no short solution to this,” Rubin said. “They\u2019re looking at 30, 40, 50-year solutions, and that\u2019s unacceptable. We need a solution today.”<\/p>\n

For now, residents say they are hopeful the city\u2019s long-term planning will eventually bring solutions.<\/p>\n

The Source: This story was gathered from interviews with Shore Acres residents and civic leaders, including Barry Rubin, vice president of the Shore Acres Civic Association, an interview with Mike Harting, St. Petersburg City Council member, as well as information from the city of St. Petersburg public meeting on flood vulnerability assessment and community resilience planning in Shore Acres.<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg<\/a>Hurricane Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Resiliency ahead of hurricane season The city of St. Petersburg held the first in a series of public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[47,7770,115,1157,202,204,203,199,201,200,628,221],"class_list":["post-277587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-fl","tag-hurricane-safety","tag-news","tag-pinellas","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-us","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}