Tampa Bay saw more than 1,000 rescues during Hurricane Helene

As first responders across Tampa Bay worked to assess damage Friday morning from Hurricane Helene, emergency managers reported that more than 1,000 people had been rescued overnight across a three-county region.

Many rescues occurred in low-lying areas that had been subject to evacuation orders, including along the Pinellas County beaches. In some cases, the storm prevented emergency workers from getting to the places where people had called for help. As skies cleared and flood waters began receding Friday morning, some were found dead.

“We had issued the mandatory evacuation orders. Not everybody evacuated,” Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said in a Friday morning news conference. “And unfortunately they called for help and unfortunately we couldn’t help a lot of the people who called as those conditions got very bad last night.”

In Pinellas County, where beach communities and low-lying neighborhoods saw widespread damage, emergency personnel logged more than 5,000 storm-related 911 calls. They conducted more than 500 water rescues.

The sheriff said he could not recall a time when Pinellas County saw storm surge as high as what Helene produced. His agency tried to launch boats and high water vehicles to respond to calls during the worst of the storm.

“We just met with too many obstacles,” he said.

The aftermath along Gulf Boulevard, the miles-long strip that parallels the Pinellas Beaches, was a “war zone,” Gualtieri said. Sand like snow banks covered the streets outside damaged hotels, businesses and homes.

When the storm passed, deputies began going door to door to locate the callers they had been unable to reach overnight. They found five dead; two each in Treasure Island and Indian Rocks Beach, one in Dunedin. Gualtieri said it was possible the death toll would rise.

In St. Petersburg 70 people were rescued during the storm, Mayor Ken Welch reported Friday morning. Search and rescue efforts were ongoing Friday in Venetian Isles, Snell Isle and Shore Acres.

Clearwater first responders rescued more than half a dozen people overnight who called 911 for help as their homes were inundated with flooding from Hurricane Helene, according to spokesperson Rob Shaw.

Most of the rescues were on Clearwater Beach, which was under a mandatory evacuation beginning on Wednesday due to the projected storm surge. Valves measured peak surge at more than 6 feet on the beach.

“That seemed to be the common theme — nobody had ever seen flooding like this before,” Shaw said.

Shaw said police and fire crews used a dump truck, inflatables and high water vehicles to help get to residents. In one instance, he said, a good Samaritan took two police officers on his water scooter to rescue an elderly woman who was trapped in her home.

In Pasco County, sheriff’s officials reported that about 200 people had been rescued overnight from rising water near the U.S. 19 corridor.

In Tampa, Police Chief Lee Bercaw said the police department responded to 150 to 200 calls for service overnight. They rescued 52 people and eight pets, he said.

The rescue calls came largely from Davis Islands, South Tampa and Palmetto Beach.

Two houses on Davis Islands caught fire, Mayor Jane Castor said.

Castor said after surveying the city from a police helicopter that Davis Islands is “basically still underwater.”

“Just about every single street on Davis Islands has standing water,” she said. “Those streets are going to remain flooded for quite awhile.”

Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Chief Jason Dougherty reported that rescue personnel responded to 256 calls for service in an eight-hour period from Thursday into Friday. They had more than 500 “victim rescues,” the chief said.

Many calls occurred in areas that saw record flooding, including along the Alafia River, low-lying areas of Ruskin, and near Town N’ Country canals.

“Unfortunately, many people did not heed our order to evacuate zone A,” said Hillsborough County Emergency Management Director Tim Dudley. “And they have put themselves in a very dangerous situation.”

Times staff writers Tracey McManus, Jack Evans and Divya Kumar contributed to this report.

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