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13 hours ago
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St. Pete officials reveal $160M disaster recovery plan to help victims of the 2024 hurricanes
The Brief St. Pete City Council approved a draft Disaster Recovery Action Plan. The city is receiving a HUD grant for almost $160M for Helene and Idalia recovery. The city is accepting public comments on the draft plan until June 23. ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The city of St. Pete moved closer to securing a grant for nearly $160 million for hurricane recovery. St. Pete City Council approved a draft of its Disaster Recovery Action Plan for Hurricanes Idalia and Helene on Thursday night. The plan allocates money from a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant to storm recovery. The backstory It's been almost nine months since Hurricane Helene, but some of the hardest-hit neighborhoods in St. Pete still have a long way to go in the rebuilding process. "It's tragic," Kevin Batdorf, the Shore Acres Civics Association President said. "It's horrifying. 11,000 homes had water in them." Batdorf says more than 2,000 of those homes around the city that flooded are in Shore Acres. He says this accounts for 82% of the homes in the neighborhoods. READ:St. Pete approves projects to make sewer system more resilient "People were made homeless after Helene," Batdorf said. A lot of the homes in Shore Acres on now for sale, and many others are still under construction as homeowners repair or build up. "A lot of people are still not here and we're all in transition," Matt Thorn, who lives in Shore Acres said. "So, it has that little eerie aspect to it." The HUD grant designates $159.8 million for long-term storm recovery efforts from Helene and Idalia. READ:St. Pete playwright writes kid's audiobook to help navigate hurricane stress during storm season In the city's draft of the Disaster Recovery Action Plan, it proposes allocating about 66% of the HUD grant for housing needs. "This disaster money should go to those who suffered the disaster," Batdorf said. "The entire city didn't suffer like we did, like Riviera Bay and some other communities." By the numbers The plan also allocates about 16% of the grant funding for infrastructure projects, 12% to public services, 5% to administration and 1% to planning. City officials say HUD requires the majority of the funding to go towards low- to moderate-income households, which includes households of four that earn less than $83,450 annually. What they're saying "When you restrict how the money is spent in a certain way, it has to be diverted to folks that may or may not have been affected by the storm," Batdorf said. The city says the funding could be used for things like housing repairs, reconstruction for homes damaged by the disaster, public infrastructure improvements, economic recovery efforts, multifamily affordable housing developments for low- and moderate-income families and rental assistance. Batdorf says his neighborhood is made up of a lot of workforce housing, but he worries that some of the grant eligibility requirements will keep the money from some of the people who need it the most. "It's never enough over here," he said. "This pot of money should be used for this pot of projects. It needs to help people get their homes out of harm's way." READ: St. Pete City Council unanimously approves $5 million for Tropicana Field repairs Homeowners hope that neighborhoods like Shore Acres aren't forgotten about, as time continues to pass and the rebuild continues. "We're going to build back stronger than ever," Batdorf said. "And we're just going to keep fighting to get the money that's going to help us do that." What you can do The city says public input was used to help draft this plan. The community had the opportunity to provide feedback on what should be included in the draft action plan at the March 2025 City Hall on Tour event. We encourage residents to read the draft Action Plan and submit written comments until June 23. The city says once the public comment period closes, a final action plan will be submitted to HUD. It expects to submit the plan to HUD in July. If approved by HUD, the city will move forward with beginning the grant program. The Source This story was written with information collected by FOX 13's Kylie Jones. STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA: Download the FOX Local app for your smart TV Download FOX Local mobile app: Apple | Android Download the FOX 13 News app for breaking news alerts, latest headlines Download the SkyTower Radar app Sign up for FOX 13's daily newsletter Follow FOX 13 on YouTube
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2 days ago
- General
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Peaches the famed Hurricane Idalia flamingo turns up in Mexico after disappearing from Bay Area
The Brief Peaches the flamingo became a viral sensation during Hurricane Idalia. Strong winds blew a flock of flamingos up to Tampa Bay in 2023. Peaches went missing but now has been found in Mexico. YUCATAN PENINSULA - A flamingo that became a viral sensation during Hurricane Idalia after being blown to Tampa Bay by wild winds has been located after disappearing for two years. The backstory It's been almost two years since Peaches the Flamingo first got Tampa Bay's attention. "Everyone will remember that in Hurricane Idalia, there was a flock of flamingos that were migrating and got caught up in the storm," Audubon Florida Executive Director Julie Wraithmell said. Some of them, including a male flamingo later named Peaches, landed in the Bay Area. PREVIOUS:Flamingo rescued in Pinellas County after Hurricane Idalia could provide scientists with important data "It was rescued by some anglers that were out in their boat and taken to rehab when it was ready to be released. Audubon Florida and our partners at Zoo Miami banded that bird just to see if we could get some more information on what its fate would ultimately be," Wraithmell said. He was last spotted in October 2023 near Fort DeSoto and then he disappeared. For the next year and a half his whereabouts were unknown. RELATED: Flamingo found off St. Pete Beach after Hurricane Idalia released back into the wild As Wraithmell with Audubon Florida explained, bird tagging helps conservationists better understand bird migration patterns and whether rehabbed birds live long lives, but doing so is dependent on the tagged bird coming in contact with a human again and that human reporting the tag number. What they're saying "You can imagine the likelihood of reciting one of those bands is not always really high. I kind of liken it to putting a message in a bottle and tossing it into the, you know, the ocean of migration and hoping that it fetches up on a beach somewhere and somebody finds it," Wraithmell said. But that didn't happen in Peaches case. Last month, researchers in Mexico were tallying nearly 15,000 flamingo nests across the Yucatán Peninsula when one bird stood out. A blue band around a male flamingo's leg read USO2, which is Peaches tag number. He's the second flamingo in the United States to be tracked. RELATED:Tracker to remain on 'Peaches the flamingo' as signs go up asking people to stay away from the bird "It's a redemption story," Wraithmell stated. "Flamingos used to breed in Florida. We shot them out around 1900 for food and for feathers. We've made tremendous strides in wetland restoration, hopefully, to create a more hospitable place for them to return and perhaps even breed in future years." The Source This story was written with information gathered by FOX 13's Jordan Bowen. STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA: Download the FOX Local app for your smart TV Download FOX Local mobile app: Apple | Android Download the FOX 13 News app for breaking news alerts, latest headlines Download the SkyTower Radar app Sign up for FOX 13's daily newsletter Follow FOX 13 on YouTube
