Hundreds of homes in Forest Hills flooded after Hurricane Milton when public infrastructure, like stormwater pumps and generators, failed.
That's despite the fact that the inland neighborhood is in Flood Zone X, which is deemed the lowest risk for flooding.
"Nobody could believe that our neighborhood flooded that bad. Once the sun came up the next day...we sat with our home filled with water for three days," resident April Self said.
ALSO READ: What are Tampa Bay area governments doing to prevent inland flooding after Hurricane Milton?
Since then, Hillsborough County approved an investigation of its stormwater system to understand what went awry last year. City of Tampa officials also took accountability for some of the inland flooding by setting aside hurricane relief funds and vowing to provide temporary backup generators to pump stations that move residential wastewater, with the promise of permanent ones to come in two to three years.
One year after the deluge that Milton brought, Self reflected on the lessons learned by residents and public officials alike.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
SELF: We left our home on Oct.10, the morning of. We had three feet of water in our home, alone...When you looked out at our front door and looked straight across the street, it looked like just a flat lake going into our neighbor's house. That's how North Boulevard was in numerous sections.
So this was a flooding event that happened after the storm passed?
Correct. Yes, that's correct.
What kind of reaction did the neighborhood have in terms of asking for help or just telling the city, "Hey, this is happening. We flooded, and we weren't supposed to?"
It was more of a shock and awe, because nobody could believe that our neighborhood flooded that bad. Once the sun came up the next day...we figured that: OK, none of the pumps are working, none of the generators worked, and we sat with our home filled with water for three days.
And for those who don't know where Forest Hills is, this is not a coastal community. This is not a place that's in a high-risk flood zone. Could you give me a refresher on what kind of risk you thought you had in terms of flooding going into the storm season?
We thought we had zero risk, because we are in Flood Zone X. We are just north of Busch Boulevard and south of Fletcher Avenue.
I know in the long term, there was a lot of advocating for the neighborhood at city council meetings. Councilman Luis Viera was a big proponent. Bring me through, briefly, the timeline of recovery the last 12 months. What's happened, what's been discovered?
As far as the homes, we have a lot of people who are still repairing their homes. We have some that have come back. We have some that are selling, some that have already sold, and said they don't want to live in the neighborhood because they don't trust the city.
They have now gotten backup generators for the next two years until they can permanently install ours. They understand that the transfer switch did not work. So I think they've learned a lot from their mistakes.
This was only a category three [hurricane]. What if it would have been a [category] five? This would have been a lot worse for a lot more people. And I just don't feel like, as a city, we were prepared.
Because the city and the county came out and investigated the stormwater drains — and there has been some action and some money set aside — what is the feeling going into this October?
That's a hard question. I would say cautious optimism because we're being told the stuff is done. We see some stuff being done, but there's still that underlying: Are you sure it's fixed? Are you sure it'll work?
And I understand it was 100-year storm, but when people are affected in that big of a grouping, people don't want to hear that it's 100 year storm, because we understand that things age and systems need to be redone. [This] just shows we're building too fast and we can't keep up with things.
Talking personally about your house and your recovery, what was the extent of damage that you had, and how did you afford it?
We got very little assistance from FEMA. We had no flood insurance. Our homeowners' insurance denied us because it was a flood, so we ended up having to go through SBA to get a second mortgage.
[It] took us right at six months to get back home. Construction was: all new flooring, all new walls, and we had to have one room completely rebuilt because the water had sat so long, and it messed up the wood.
We lost all of our kitchen cabinets, all of our bathrooms, and then all of our personal belongings, things that you'll never be able to get back.
What do you wish people understood about the recovery in Forest Hills, in particular?
It's [been] straining.... to try to stack the dominoes back up to where you feel like you're whole again. It makes it really hard, but it seems like more people are becoming resilient.
People are looking and saying, "Hey, that's not right. Let's get it fixed."
And it seems like we're now reporting things a little bit quicker. It seems like we're getting some better recovery time and some better understanding that our neighborhood went through a catastrophe, badly, along with other neighborhoods, but at least we're all standing up now, and we're trying to fix [it].
