As Floridians prepare for another hurricane season that starts June 1, many in the greater Tampa Bay region are still displaced.
WUSF asked those of you rebuilding homes after last year’s storms to share your stories.
Below are some of those responses from residents living along the coast in Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties who are redesigning their damaged houses to withstand storms that are getting stronger and wetter due to human-induced climate change.
Pinellas County
A couple of construction workers are installing a tile floor in federal biologist Michael Larkin’s one-story home in Shore Acres, a neighborhood known for chronic flooding.
"We're actually doing tile that looks like wood. So, it's actually, it's not real wood, but this way when it floods, we don't need to touch it. We'll still have to deal with the drywall,” Larkin said.
He had to rip out his hardwood floors after more than a foot of saltwater flowed into his family's house during Hurricane Helene in September.
From the ground up, two feet of drywall are missing across the entire home.
ALSO READ: What are Tampa Bay area governments doing to prevent inland flooding after Hurricane Milton?
For months, Larkin, his wife and two adolescent kids have been bouncing from rental property to rental property, waiting out the permits and repairs.
Larkin has flood insurance, which is covering the reconstruction, but the out-of-pocket costs of paying bills for his house and rental property are adding up.
“I've lost my temper a lot more. I've had more arguments with my wife, with my children, so I feel like we're all at a high-stress level,” he said.
Larkin has even noticed changes in his kids’ grades and behavior that he said is all correlated to this experience.
"I feel like I'm on a road trip. I just can't wait to get home. And someday I will, but I can't go home yet," he said.
Larkin is not alone. Across the region, those who are choosing to stay in their homes are rebuilding with another flood in mind.
Pasco County
About 50 miles north in Hudson, insurance broker Steve Papola's family is also displaced after Helene brought four feet of saltwater into their one-story house.
"That day, when we came into the house and I saw the damage that was done, and my wife was crying, and I was like, ‘I have to call my friend up,’ and I have to say, ‘Is there any way I could rent your house?’ " Papola said.
Papola, his wife, son and son’s girlfriend have been renting a house in Brooksville waiting out the construction.
“Everything we do is going to be considered what we should or shouldn't do because of flooding,” he said.
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The bedroom floors, which were previously made of Brazilian cherry wood, are being replaced with tile. And Papola’s raising the electrical outlets all around the house.
He’d also like to raise the house itself, but remodeling is cheaper while it’s still on the ground.
Much like Larkin's house in Pinellas, Papola's Pasco is also missing drywall, but he had to remove it up to five feet.
Flood insurance is helping the family with the repairs, but they also have to bear the weight of double the living expenses with a mortgage and monthly rent.
Papola said he believes mainly the upper-middle-class and the rich will be able to live along Florida’s coast.
“The water is not a game for the middle class or the lower-middle class, unless you're going to be able to insure properly and make sure that you have the ability to mitigate whatever type of loss comes with the storms,” he said.
Hernando County
Another 20 miles north near Weeki Wachee, retiree Charlotte Wright has no walls.
"It was pure devastation," Wright said about Hurricane Helene’s storm surge.
“We lost everything in the flood. We lost furniture, clothes, everything. … All my appliances were gone. ... I was able to save some dishes that were able to be washed.”
After five feet of saltwater inundated their home, Wright and her husband tore it down to rebuild at an elevation of 15 feet.
For a while, it's been an empty lot of dirt and grass on the Mud River.
ALSO READ: What area governments doing to prevent inland flooding after Milton?
"I’m here at least three times a week. I just miss it so much,” she said, on the verge of tears.
Like Papola’s family, Wright and her husband are staying at a friend's house in Brooksville.
Because the couple doesn’t have flood insurance, they’re paying for the rebuild.
“You try and find flood insurance on the ground on a river that is known to flood. You can't afford it. … I was quoted at one time $18,000 and I'm, like, ‘I just can't come up with that amount right now,’ ” she said.
Like many across the region, they were forced to bring their home up to code to rebuild, all on their own dime.
“It's going to be high enough that I'm not going to have to worry about flooding ... and I'm not going to enclose the bottom,” Wright said.
Building up to code
“So, a home properly up to code, what does it look like?" said JP Murphy, the director of building construction services for Pasco County.
“If more than 50% of the structure is damaged, you are required to either demolish and rebuild to current code and elevation, or elevate that structure out of the flood risk area."
That's the federal rule for homes in flood zones, although the damage percentage varies slightly by county if cumulative lookbacks are included.
“As a native Floridian, I have always been around the water. It's very peaceful. It's a feeling that if you've never lived on the water, you can't even imagine. But once you've lived on the water, there is no place like home, and that's the water for me.”Charlotte Wright
After last year’s storms, Murphy said Pasco could end up changing its land development codes to make sure structures are safer and more resilient.
He suspects the state will, too, like it did after Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
“Because we want to keep people where they are but and not have to face significant life safety risks,” Murphy said.
When property owners elevate their homes, he said it helps the county adapt its stormwater, sewer and electric systems.
"It's looking at community development in a way that is a sustainable model, understanding that we're facing these new risks. I think everyone will tell you that they've never seen anything like these two storms before,” Murphy said.
(Manatees are seen mating along the Mud River in Weeki Wachee)
Future in Florida?
Larkin, in Shore Acres, is planning to move to higher ground after his kids graduate from high school.
"Our children and their friends and the neighborhood community [are] really what's keeping us here," Larkin said.
“If it floods again, we'll certainly move right away. But after experiencing this, it changed my whole attitude.”
Papola is reconstructing his Hudson home with hopes to eventually sell it.
“We're going to do everything we need to do to mitigate the home so that the next purchaser will not have to worry about those particular issues,” Papola said.
“I don't like turning over the keys to something that I've owned to someone else without making sure that that person feels that they've gotten themselves a good buy.”
But Wright is committed to staying at her property on the Mud River as long as she can.
“As a native Floridian, I have always been around the water. It's very peaceful. It's a feeling that if you've never lived on the water, you can't even imagine,” she said. “But once you've lived on the water, there is no place like home, and that's the water for me.”
Wright pauses and asks, “Did you hear that? Something's jumping in the water."
About 100 feet off the bank of her property, a few manatees are gently bobbing up and down, paying Wright a visit.
