The night before, after Hurricane Helene blew through the Tampa Bay area, many rescue calls had been made from the island. Two homes had caught on fire. Tampa’s mayor, Jane Castor, said she was stunned by how much of the island remained underwater early Friday when she flew over.

Tampa Bay area of Florida, particularly St. Petersburg, was hit hard by Hurricane Helene, which made landfall as a Category 4 storm Sept. 26, 2024.

Hurricane Helene, expected to make landfall as a major hurricane in Florida’s Big Bend region Thursday, could bring life-threatening storm surge to much of the state’s west coast. Federal forecasters have issued surge predictions in Tampa Bay higher than the region has seen in recent history.

Heavy storm surge from Helene made the streets of downtown Tampa resemble the open ocean – except at the base of Tampa General Hospital, which employed a special fence to keep the water out.

This Florida man took channel surfing to a whole new level. Stunning home camera video captured Matt Heller paddling around his flooded Tampa living room in a kayak that he intended to use as an “escape plan” as Hurricane Helene’s historic storm surge “came out of nowhere.