Last hurricane season caused billions of dollars in damage in Tampa Bay. The breakdown is as follows:

Months after a devastating hurricane season, Tampa Bay continues to suffer billions of dollars in damages from back-to-back storms.

Unlike past hurricane seasons, very few areas of Tampa Bay were untouched by storms in 2024. Hurricane Debbie dumped heavy rain, Helen sent deadly storm surge up the coast, and Milton delivered a third devastating blow to an already swollen region.

While this storm likely won’t be the state’s most expensive ever, the 2024 hurricane season damage total, when everything is officially tallied, will almost certainly be the most expensive ever in Tampa Bay.

Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, Tampa Bay’s most populous counties, combined for nearly $5 billion in damages to businesses and residents.

This exceeds the entire federal estimate of damage caused by Hurricane Idalia, which hit multiple states in 2023.

Amy Baker, coordinator of the Florida Department of Economic and Demographic Research, told state senators in early December that Herren and Milton would likely cost Florida more than $23.3 billion, according to state estimates. Ta.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that Helen is now the nation’s seventh costliest hurricane on record, with damages estimated at approximately $78.7 billion. Milton ranks 11th with about $34.3 billion.

Officials told the Tampa Bay Times that about one-fifth of Helen’s price came from Florida, while Milton’s costs were entirely due to losses in Florida.

Hurricane Ian, the costliest storm in Florida history, remains the third costliest storm in Florida history, at approximately $119.6 billion, mostly from Florida.

It will take months, if not years, to understand the full extent of the economic burden caused by the 2024 hurricane season.

“If it had been a direct hit, it could have been much worse,” C.K. Moore, director of the Hillsborough County Emergency Management Agency, told the Tampa Bay Times.

“It was terrible, it was devastating, but if it had been a direct hit, it would have been a different story.”

Costs between cities and counties

Pinellas County Emergency Management Director Kathy Perkins said last year’s hurricanes destroyed 807 homes and caused significant damage to more than 22,000 homes.

“We did an analysis and found that there were actually approximately 2,000 single-family homes affected by both storms,” ​​Perkins told the county commission in December.

“They were very harsh with these residents not once, but twice.”

Pinellas estimates Helen caused more than $2.4 billion in damage to homes in the county. In Milton’s case, the price is approximately $278 million.

Additionally, county governments have their own price tags.

Chris Rose, director of the Pinellas County Office of Management and Budget, said costs fall into three categories: response, debris management and repairs to county facilities.

“It’s a little early to say how much these storms will set us back in the future, but I can tell you we’re not budgeting for hurricanes,” Rose told the Tampa Bay Times. Ta. Instead, the county has reserves in place for situations like hurricanes.

In Hillsboro, Moore said it was a “huge effort” to survey the roughly 1,800 homes affected by the storm.

Unlike Pinellas, Milton was a more expensive storm for Hillsboro.

The county estimates Milton’s damages to homes at about $1.38 billion, while Helen’s damages are about $430 million.

Moore estimated this storm was one of the county’s most destructive on record. This storm is unique because recovery efforts are longer than in past seasons, he added.

While Helen flooded coastal areas, Milton also flooded inland areas.

“We have a perfect storm, or plural storms, that are impacting the entire county,” Moore said.

Pasco County announced that this was the county’s deadliest hurricane season on record. Among the costs the county will incur, officials estimate it will cost about $70 million from Milton and about $4 million from Helen for damage to city-owned buildings and roads.

The city of Tampa agrees, with last year’s hurricane season having the highest price tag in the city’s history, spokesman Adam Smith said in an email.

Hurricanes Helen and Milton damaged more than 1,600 homes and businesses in Tampa, causing approximately $756 million in damage.

Smith said storm-related costs are likely to reach up to $100 million for the city, including debris collection, labor costs and damage to city-owned property.

What are the costs to Florida businesses?

The 2024 hurricane season caused significant damage to the coast, which is a major source of income for the region.

Pinellas County could not provide an estimate of the cost of nourishing the coast. But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates that the cost of the 2024 hurricane season will be “easily double” the cost of replenishment for Hurricane Idalia, which was about $65 million, the paper said.

Despite heavy damage to beaches and businesses along the coast, tourism appeared to have largely recovered by November.

Comparing October 2024 with the same month of the previous year, tourism tax revenue decreased by approximately 28%. But through November, the county was down just 0.8% compared to November of the previous year.

Perkins said both storms caused about $136 million in damage to about 1,100 businesses.

“This is great news because I know there have been over 90 ribbon-cutting events where businesses along the beach have reopened,” Perkins told commissioners in December. .

In Hillsborough County, hotel tax revenue exceeded $1 billion for the third year in a row despite the disaster, Visit Tampa Bay reported.

Agriculture, another major industry in the central part of the state, also suffered a series of blows from the storm.

The University of Florida estimates that Helen’s agricultural losses could be up to $162 million. In the case of Hurricane Milton, that cost rose to $642 million.

Hurricane Ian is estimated to have caused up to $1.5 billion in losses to the state’s agriculture, according to the University of Florida.

How much was refunded?

The deadline for Floridians to apply for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency ended on January 7th.

In December, FEMA announced it had awarded Florida more than $1 billion in public assistance funds for Milton.

The agency announced several weeks ago that the National Flood Insurance Program, administered by FEMA, paid out about $1.4 billion to policyholders for flood damage caused by Helen.

The agency expects flood insurance claims from the storm to be up to $7 billion, with the majority coming from Florida.

FEMA announced it has approved more than $220 million for individuals and households in Hillsborough County alone since Jan. 10.

In Pinellas County it was about $357 million, and in Pasco it was about $123 million.

FEMA also announced in the days after the storm that it would 100% compensate cities and counties for 90 days of debris removal efforts.

Pinellas County’s Rose said FEMA typically pays 75% of the debris removal costs, and state and local governments each pay about 12.5%.

In early December, officials announced they had reimbursed Hillsborough County more than $80 million for debris removal costs and Madeira Beach, a small but hard-hit town in Pinellas County, about $6.5 million.

Throughout his career, Rose has tracked the cost of the storm’s destruction and subsequent rebuilding.

He said the numbers show not only the extent of the damage but also the efforts being put into rebuilding and starting anew.

“As you track the numbers, you can feel the ebb and flow,” Rose said. “This is a very short period of damage, this is the recovery period, and this is the new normal.”

“And it’s not a bad new normal.”