Cleanup 'finally' begins at St. Pete's Albert Whitted Airport months after hurricanes
The Brief
Cleanup is underway at St. Pete's Albert Whitted Airport months after back-to-back hurricanes.
The city approved a $1.1 million contract earlier this month.
The cleanup effort comes weeks ahead of the Firestone Grand Prix.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Four months after Hurricanes Helene and Milton brought catastrophic flooding and wind damage to Florida's Gulf coast, cleanup is now underway at St. Petersburg's public airport.
In a Facebook post on Monday, Friends of Albert Whitted Airport shared an image of an excavator removing debris from one of the airport's hangars, captioned, "Today the cleanup of the 32 destroyed hangars on Albert Whitted airport began today …… finally!!"
When asked whether the hangars would be rebuilt, longtime flight instructor Jack Tunstill replied, "City (of St. Petersburg) has no money to rebuild them. They are hoping insurance and/or FEMA helps. FAA does not normally fund hangars. The $1.1 million contract with Biltmore Construction is for damage removal and repairs to the hangars that are not a tangled mess."
The backstory
The contract was approved by the city in early January. At the time, Walt Driggers, executive director of Friends of Albert Whitted Airport, expressed frustration over the delayed response.
What they're saying
"It has looked the same way for three months," Driggers told FOX 13 News. "We're really frustrated that it took so long to get just the cleanup done so that people can access it here."
"There are so many people that use them for their businesses. (The delayed cleanup) has taken a big toll on them, and some people just can't do their business. They're having to drive or whatever because their airplanes have been locked in these hangars for months."
Big picture view
Friends of Albert Whitted Airport is described as a group with a mission to 'advocate and support the organizations at AWA dedicated to the safety, security, rescue, and recovery of the St. Pete community.'
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The most pressing among these concerns is safety. According to the Tampa Bay Times, one pilot based at Albert Whitted reported that unremoved storm debris nearly killed a colleague in late December.
'He noted recent wind gusts blew a twisted steel beam off a damaged hangar that almost struck a person standing next to an aircraft preparing for takeoff,' the newspaper reported.
The cleanup efforts are beginning with mere weeks to go before the Firestone Grand Prix takes over downtown St. Pete, with the IndyCar Series' 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary circuit extending onto the runways at the airport.
According to a current profile on the airport, Albert Whitted has a total economic impact of more than $128 million and supports approximately 948 jobs along with more than 100,000 annual aircraft operations. A total of 180 aircraft are based at the site.
The Source
This story was written with information collected by FOX 13's Matthew McClellan.
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