“It’s like you’re driving through a canyon of people’s lives on the curb,” said Kevin Batdorf, president of the neighborhood association where 82% of the 2,642 homes fell victim to Hurricane Helene’s historic storm surge less than two weeks ago.

The last time the eye of a major storm like Hurricane Milton directly struck Tampa Bay was 1921 when the city was a sleepy backwater.

Milton rapidly strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane Monday on a path toward Florida population centers including Tampa and Orlando, threatening a dangerous storm surge in Tampa Bay and setting the stage for potential mass evacuations less than two weeks after a catastrophic Hurricane Helene swamped the coastline.