Hurricane Milton surprised Tampa Bay with where it caused flooding

Robert Freeland has lived in Tampa’s Forest Hills neighborhood for 50 years. He remembers just one flood that brought waters as high as Milton.

In May 1979, an unnamed spring storm whipped up 108 mph winds. Forest Hills, a quiet north Tampa neighborhood situated between a chain of interconnected lakes, saw several feet of record flooding that persisted for days, Freeland said.

Water gushed from storm drains, and crews dug a ditch to divert floodwaters from homes.