Destruction. Debris. Devastation. These words describe the aftermath of two historic hurricanes: Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. Striking about two weeks apart, the hurricanes caused massive storm surges, power outages, and blocked roads to the Tampa Bay area.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, more than 924,000 residents found themselves in the dark post-Milton, with a significant number of outages in Hillsborough County. Schools were closed from Oct. 7 to Oct. 14, allowing many residents to evacuate to safer areas.

Senior Giselle Roth opted to stay in her home during Hurricane Milton.

“It was a very scary storm,” Roth said. “Because my family was in Zone C, we decided to hunker down and stay. The worst part was the strong winds and storm surge, which reached my front doorstep. At that point, we went upstairs.”

“Though it didn’t make it into my house,” Roth said, “we did lose power and have been without it for a couple of days.”

According to NBC News, Milton exceeded 175 mph, peaking at a Category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Milton made landfall as a Category 3, bringing hurricane-force winds to the Tampa Bay area. The strong winds left fallen trees and downed power lines throughout Florida’s western coast, causing the mass power outage.

As a result of these devastating impacts, many residents were forced to evacuate to safer locations, including Ocala and other northern regions, seeking refuge from the hurricanes’ aftermath.

One of those who evacuated was senior Vera Agne.

“We evacuated to Gainesville to stay at my brother’s apartment from Tuesday to Friday, which was nice because the storm didn’t hit badly there at all,” Agne said. “Getting there was awful because of how many people were evacuating, but I am glad we did. My family and I came home to see the damage and found a tree uprooted and on top of our roof.”

“Thankfully, the structure was not damaged on the inside, and there was little damage to our roof despite the size of the tree,” Agne said. “We’re currently working on getting this tree taken off the roof and just regaining our power.”

Even with all the destruction caused by Milton’s wake, some Tampanians see the goodness this has brought into the community.

“Hurricane Milton caused so much devastation throughout our state, county, and south Tampa neighborhood,” Senior Jordyn Ingram said. “My family and I evacuated to Delray Beach because of the storms projected path and impact to Tampa Bay.”

Ingram is a member of the Youth Police Explorers and works along side many of the police force that have been handling recuperations and reparations. This has given her an inside look on the dedication that goes into healing a community after such devastating storms.

”I know so many lineman, first responders, and city personnel are working countless hours to restore Tampa,” Ingram said. “It’s just amazing to see how our community has come together from these past two storms to help ones who have lost everything.”

This story was originally published on The Pep O’ Plant on October 12, 2024.