Sarasota parks continue recovery six months after Hurricanes Helene, Milton

FOX 13's Kimberly Kuizon reports.

SARASOTA, Fla. - Hurricanes Helene and Milton brought damage to every single park and recreation facility in the City of Sarasota. While many locations have reopened, there are a few that will take time to recover.

As the city works to build back, their focus now shifts to strengthening those well-known places.

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The backstory:

Concrete slabs were moved by the force of waves, parts of the Tony Saprito Pier washed away, and the docks of Hart's Landing were decimated by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. This is just a small portion of the damage left behind by the 2024 hurricane season.

"The one thing that I saw with all of our parks is almost like a grenade went off," said Jerry Fogel, the City of Sarasota's Parks and Recreation director.

Every single place Fogel visited after the back-to-back hurricanes needed to be repaired with those on the water faring worse.

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"The fishing piers were devastated," Fogel told FOX 13. "Boat ramps were destroyed. Playgrounds were destroyed. Pavilions were damaged I could go on and on."

By the numbers:

Crews with the City of Sarasota went right to work with $17.4 million in estimated damages. Nikesh Patel, Sarasota's city engineer, said crews have been working weekends and extra time to just restore the city.

He said 16 projects are currently in the design phase, with places like Eloise Werlin Park, Tony Saprito Fishing Pier and Ken Thompson Park requiring over $1 million in repairs.

"To maximize the FEMA funding, we have to go through the public procurement process, and we anticipate having that completed by early 2026, with the construction starting shortly after that and completion of late 2026 to early 2027," said Patel.

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Dig deeper:

Building back does require working with FEMA and having them involved in every step of the process. Other challenges remain.

"The other aspect that is causing some of the delay in getting this done is supply chain issues," said Patel. "We aren’t the only municipality in the state of Florida. Other areas got impacted as well to the hurricanes last year."

What's next:

As many businesses reopen, the City of Sarasota is focusing on building back stronger.

"I think resiliency is going to be the key word going forward for the city and that we are looking at ways to make things more resilient," said Sarasota Mayor Liz Alpert.

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To withstand not only time, but mother nature.

"We aren’t just going to build back like the same that it is now. We are going to build back better, stronger. With better materials and things of that nature. So if we do get lord forbid hit with anything, hopefully not. We will be better prepared for that," said Fogel.

The Source: The information in this story was gathered using information from the City of Sarasota.

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