No question, that’s sewage water,” said Craig Minnick, 54, assessing the damage in his daughter’s bedroom. They had evacuated for Hurricane Helene, so no one was around to flush the toilets or put anything down the drain while the city’s northeast sewage plant was shut off late Thursday night.

Days after Hurricane Helene pummeled Tampa Bay's coastal communities with record-breaking storm surge, the region is in recovery mode. The big picture: It's safe to say Helene was the worst storm our region has experienced in a century,

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.