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Bay Area officials using lessons learned from last year to prepare for 2025 hurricane season

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Published  April 17, 2025 5:56pm EDT
Hillsborough County
FOX 13 News

Preparing for another hurricane season

FOX 13's Kylie Jones reports.

The Brief

    • Some Bay Area residents are still cleaning up after last year's devastating hurricane season.
    • First responders are using lessons learned from last year to be even more prepared.
    • There could be as many as 18 named storms during the 2025 hurricane season.

TAMPA, Fla. - The recovery from the three major storms that hit the Tampa Bay Area last year now overlaps preparations for this upcoming hurricane season.

Hillsborough County Emergency Management says one of the biggest issues with last year's storms was the flooding.

"We had over 80 inches of rainfall here in the Tampa Bay area," Tim Dudley, the Hillsborough County Emergency Management Director said. "Double what we normally would expect."

The backstory:

Dudley says 2024 was an extreme hurricane season.

The county is trying to use lessons learned from last year, along with new equipment, to be even better prepared for this hurricane season, which is less than two months away.

"Getting people to evacuate earlier," Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Rodney Castro said. "Having people stay in their homes to the last minute and then open the door and having four feet of water outside their doors hopefully wakes them up a little bit."

READ: One of Pasco’s largest parks reopens after Hurricane Helene

By the numbers:

Hillsborough County Fire Rescue and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office worked together to make more than 2,000 water rescues.

HCFR deploys more than a dozen Tactical Search and Rescue teams during a storm.

"We have a bunch of brush trucks, which are skeeters," Castro said. "They're the high water."

Castro says they have about 16 of these trucks.

As the water rises, HCR can deploy its eight water teams, which use jet skis, banana boats and john boats.

The county also now has four high-water rescue vehicles, known as SHERPs.

Castro says these vehicles arrived around 12 hours before Hurricane Milton, and were vital in rescuing more than 200 people from floodwaters in a neighborhood near USF.

READ: Laurel Meadows residents voice concerns over conditions left from Debby

"Those, game changer for us, being able to use those where the brush trucks can't get into. We don't have marine units, so, they're basically like a marine unit on wheels. They can go high terrain, low terrain, they can go through the water."

Between flooding and fires sparking after a storm moves out, first responders had issues reaching people and areas during the storms last year.

There were several electric vehicle fires around the Bay Area last year, causing major damage to nearby homes.

Hillsborough County now has vehicle fire blankets, which are specifically designed to be used on electric vehicle fires.

"We've got plenty of water and plenty of hoses and plenty manpower, but sometimes with the electric vehicle blankets, our battery cells that are burning are unable to be cooled off enough to stop the fire," HCFR Battalion Chief Dave Bute said.

Bute says the blankets can be thrown over an electric vehicle that's burning to help contain the fire and keep it from spreading.

Another vital part of storm preparation includes making sure residents are on board and doing their part to prepare.

County officials urge everyone to sign up for HCFL alerts on their phones, to get information and emergency alerts about storms.

The county is also asking people to report any sort of debris in their neighborhood now, as opposed to waiting until a storm is approaching.

Crews say debris like tires, wooden pallets and construction material is largely responsible for major drainage issues. They say vegetation is only responsible for a minimal amount of drainage issues.

Why you should care:

"We're expecting another busy year this year," Dudley said. "Looking at about another 18 named storms, about three to five of those are going to be major. Don't know if they're coming this way. Doesn't matter. We still have to be prepared."

Hillsborough County is holding several public meetings for the community to give feedback on flooding impacts and stormwater concerns. You can find information about the upcoming meetings here.

The Source: FOX 13's Kylie Jones collected the information in this story.

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