Tampa investing $94 million into flood mitigation

Tampa's plans to prevent flooding

Kylie Jones reports.

TAMPA, Fla. - Tampa Mayor Jane Castor announced on Monday that the city is investing $94 million in hopes of reducing the risk of flooding in vulnerable areas, pointing to the devastating impacts of Hurricane Milton six months ago.

The announcement comes after a new vulnerability assessment of Tampa found that extreme rainfall is now considered the biggest risk the city will face in the coming decades.

The state-funded assessment is published every five years. This year, rainfall has surpassed the risk that rising sea levels pose.

Hurricane flooding in a Tampa neighborhood.

What they're saying:

"When Tampa received over 13 inches of rain in 24 hours during Hurricane Milton, it confirmed one of the assessment's highlights," Kayla Caselli, the city's Sustainability and Resilience Officer, said. "Extreme rainfall is the most frequent and consistent flood risk our city will face in the coming decades, and it will affect neighborhoods that are inland, as well as those that are coastal."

The city says coastal neighborhoods continue to be the most vulnerable, but Tampa development inland also puts homes and businesses in other areas of the city at risk for flooding.

Pictured: Tampa Mayor Jane Castor speaks at a news conference on April 7, 2025.

The Mayor says Hurricane Milton caused historic flooding in neighborhoods across Tampa that don't typically flood.

"A rain event like that with that much, almost two feet of rain in a 24-hour period, there's no system that can handle that," Castor said. But, we have to take the steps that we can, to ensure that we're putting the infrastructure in place, that the residents are properly covered with insurance and that the improvements in the construction are done as the residents can afford it."

"Wastewater pumps make up more than half of the vulnerability assessments priority list," Caselli said.

"The wastewater department had multiple wastewater pump stations that experienced stormwater flooding during last year's hurricane events," Eric Garwell, the city's Wastewater Treatment Plant Manager said. "This flooding resulted in some wastewater overflows."

"Our new standard is to install all electrical equipment at least one foot above the 100-year floodplain," Garwell said.

The Mayor says the majority of the city's wastewater infrastructure is 80-to-100-years-old.

"And so, trying to replace that in descending order from the oldest and most impactful on down," Castor said.

"We have 228 pump stations just in the city of Tampa," Castor said. "And so, rehabilitating a majority of those takes time and funding."

Castor says that Tampa will need to continue improving that infrastructure as new vulnerabilities become known.

"We have a long way to go, but the remarkable progress we have made to make our systems more resilient gives us a little ease as we read the latest findings of Tampa’s climate-related vulnerabilities," said Castor. "However, the clock is ticking, and we do not have a moment to lose to continue to improve our infrastructure and make thoughtful policy decisions. Though costly, and in some cases, disruptive, we must focus on the long-term benefits of these infrastructure projects."

Dig deeper:

Many pumping stations are located in areas with low elevation that are vulnerable to storm surge, rainfall or both.

The $94 million investment allows the city to upgrade 28 pumping stations. More generators are also being installed at some stations, bringing the total number of standby generators to 74.

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Right now, work on about 20 wastewater pumping stations has either just been completed, or is currently ongoing.

"Rehabilitating these aging pump stations is critical to keep our neighborhoods and environment safe and clean," said Eric Weiss, director of the Wastewater Department. "We count on these systems every day – at all hours of the day – and as we face more extreme weather events, these improvements become even more critical."

Tampa’s PIPES Program (Progressive Infrastructure Planning to Ensure Sustainability) has spent $2.9 billion since 2019 upgrading Tampa's infrastructure.

Although the topography and coastline of Tampa make it hard to eliminate flood risk, researchers say the city will need to continue improving the infrastructure to handle climate hazards.

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The Source: Information for this story was provided by the city of Tampa.

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