‘Being held hostage': Hurricane Helene survivors share impact 6 months later

Yahoo

27-03-2025

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — There is desperation in St. Pete among storm victims who feel forgotten a full six months after Hurricane Helene destroyed their homes and upended their lives.
Some survivors said they still can't rebuild because there is so much red tape in the way.
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Half a year later, many people aren't back into their homes.
Some are paying rent for an apartment and a mortgage on an uninhabitable home.
Others are living in RVs in their front lawns.
Carolyn Mourey in St. Petersburg is living in her garage, still waiting on a permit from the city.
'It's like we're being held hostage,' she said. 'I always thought I owned my house, and apparently I don't.'
'The government owns my house, and they tell me what I can do to it and when I can do it,' Mourey continued. 'We pay property tax, we pay insurance, we should be able to make ourselves whole and not have to wait for a bureaucracy to give us a piece of paper to do it.'
News Channel 8 Reporter Nicole Rogers asked, 'If you could ask the mayor anything, what would you ask him?'
'Why is it taking so long to get these permits to us?' she responded.
So we asked St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch just that.
'It's been six months since Hurricane Helene hit,' Rogers said. 'We still have a lot of people still not back into their homes waiting on permits and they want to know what's going on.'
'Well, we're doing everything that we can with permits,' Welch responded. 'We're doing very well compared to other municipalities.'
'We've added personnel, I think two from the state and six other private contractors,' he continued. 'We are doing as much as we can do (to) get those permits going through.'
'We're well over 7,000 now and we certainly empathize with folks who are still in the process,' Welch said.
And with just over two months until the next hurricane season begins, some St. Pete residents like Mourey worry, will St Pete be ready?
'We're better prepared than we've ever been,' Welch said. 'We've learned from every storm, and we've learned from last year, and we will keep getting better prepared for every storm, more resilient, stronger after every storm.'
Welch said that resilience can come with costly decisions.
'I won't be able to cut the millage for the first time as a mayor,' he said. 'I've cut it every year, won't be able to do it now, but we've got investments we have to make right now.'
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