00:00Treasure Island, Florida, was one of the communities hit hard by Hurricane Helene.
00:04Here with an update one year later is Treasure Island Police Chief John Barkley.
00:08Thank you so much for being with us this morning.
00:11Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
00:13You know, and Helene was a difficult storm in that, Chief.
00:18The storm was well offshore.
00:20There virtually wasn't a lot of rain with this, but it was that storm surge,
00:24that relentless storm surge that really did the damage.
00:28Yeah, that was something very unique for us.
00:32Like, as you said, it wasn't a rain event.
00:33It wasn't a wind event at all.
00:35But the storm surge, it was the absolute worst case scenario for the Tampa Bay area.
00:39And, you know, we knew we were in trouble that morning.
00:41We had the two tides that day.
00:43The first tide was a lot higher than expected, and we knew we were in trouble by the afternoon.
00:48All right, Chief Barkley, let's first talk about the right now,
00:51because there's a possibility of some weather impacts from the current storms in the Atlantic.
00:55How are you guys looking at this and preparing in Treasure Island?
00:59We have been in hurricane mode since the storm.
01:03It's been over a year now.
01:04You know, we're in recovery mode now, but you always keep an eye, you know,
01:07one eye out in the tropics and one eye on the ball here as far as recovery goes.
01:13So, you know, whatever happens, we're prepared.
01:16I'm not going to lie.
01:17We absolutely wish that we get through this season without another hit.
01:20That would be great for us.
01:22Let everybody take a deep breath.
01:23You know, today is the anniversary, and everybody is thinking about it for sure.
01:28How would you describe Treasure Island's recovery one year after Hurricane Helene,
01:33and what challenges are residents still facing?
01:37Well, our landscape has changed a lot.
01:40There was a lot of structures that were damaged, a lot of single-family homes that were damaged.
01:44Some people are over that 50% rule for FEMA where you have to either elevate your home
01:48or knock it down and build an elevated home.
01:52So that has really changed our landscape.
01:54We have a lot of empty lots right now where people are going to be rebuilding taller homes.
01:57We have a lot of people that are elevating their current homes.
02:00It's pretty interesting to see that.
02:02And that's kind of what we're going through now.
02:04A lot of the challenges are there's a lot of people that still aren't in their homes yet.
02:07Some people who had some money to get started with rebuilding.
02:11There's other people that had to wait for insurance money,
02:13that does not happen overnight, as some people think it does.
02:16So there's a lot of people still, I mean, if we're mid-recovery at best.
02:21Your police and fire departments were impacted during the storm,
02:25and your teams are still in temporary facilities.
02:27What has that meant for your operations over the past year?
02:31You know, I've told everybody that will listen,
02:33I couldn't be more proud of my staff for being as resilient as they are.
02:38Whatever challenges we're throwing at them, the police and the fire,
02:40they've been absolutely amazing.
02:43They've worked in trailers that were meant to be very, very temporary for almost a year.
02:51We finally moved into new temporary facilities, which are much better.
02:54But still, we're working out of trailers,
02:56and we'll be that way until we put a shovel in the ground
02:59and build a new public safety facility.
03:01How has tourism and the local business community been impacted,
03:05and how is recovery progress going one year later?
03:09Yeah, it's a lot better than you'd expected.
03:13There was a lot of businesses that were able to open for our spring break,
03:16which is our really busy season.
03:18We had a decent summer season.
03:20There's absolutely some businesses that aren't open right now,
03:23so that does affect some things.
03:25Some of the raised hotels, the ones that are built higher, they were okay.
03:30They had some damage on their first floors, but there's a lot of them open.
03:33And the most important thing is when the businesses are rebuilding now,
03:37they're building very, very resiliency.
03:38They're building with having these types of storms in mind now,
03:42so they're going to be a lot stronger than they were before.
03:45Cheshire Island Police Chief John Barkley,
03:47thank you so much again for joining us on AccuWeather Early
03:49and updating us on the progress.
03:52Thanks for having me.
03:53We'll see you next time.
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