Forrest Hills community still rebuilding four months after Hurricane Milton

TAMPA, Fla. (WFTS) — Kathy Kaestner's yard is no stranger to floods.

On Feb. 7, there was a flood of camera crews. Back in October, it was flood waters.

It's been 120 days since Hurricane Milton made landfall.

"It's hard to believe it's four months. I get a little emotional talking about it," she said. "It's taken a toll financially, emotionally, physically."

She's in the process of rebuilding, like so many others.

Soon, Tampa homeowners will be eligible for up to $20,000 to put towards repair costs, mortgages, or insurance deductibles.

"$20,000 doesn't go that far, you know, but it'll take the sting off of, you know, my situation," she said.

While Kaestner's house will eventually feel like home again, that's not the case for Gwendolyn Torres.

She lived one street over from Kaestner. Since the storm, she's had to move.

We first talked to Torres in January at her new home. It was barely furnished then.

"I just finally got furniture. So that's good, you know, how many months now, four months later, and I just got a couch last week. I just got a kitchen table last week. It's starting to fill up. It's not as empty, you know. I'm starting to sleep better. You know, I wasn't sleeping," she said. It's not the familiarity that we used to have, so it there's so many changes."

We returned to her former home. Underneath leaves and dirt, she sound tiny pieces of the life she once had.

"We had a little fairy village out here," she said picking the little figurine's up. "This is when it hurts the most."

I visited Torres' new home in Pasco County back in January.

"It's not just finding a new place to live or having somewhere to lay your head. It's what you're laying on. Your head-on is now new, too. There's there's nothing that's familiar other than my family."

Forrest Hills is not in a flood zone. The city says the flooding here happened because power went out at the nearby pump station, and a backup generator failed to kick in.

Now, more than $10 million will go to buying backup generators for all of the city's pump stations. The city will also make sure those generators are turned on before the storm hits.

The county is also working on strengthening storm responses.

"We are engaging in an independent investigation of all of our systems and how they weathered the two storms. And we are looking at flooding. We're looking at maintenance of canals, we're looking at stormwater systems, we're looking at redundancy, and we're hoping to have a complete report done before the start of the next hurricane season so we can put into practice any recommendations that come out of the study," said County Commissioner Harry Cohen.

In addition to that, there's a component to help citizens still trying to bounce back.

"The county has been in receipt of a promise from the federal government of $709 million in federal funds that will be earmarked to Hillsborough County for storm-related expenses, not debris and things like that, but things that we can do to either help individuals or organizations or our own infrastructure to withstand these types of events in the future and that money is going to be shared with our municipalities throughout the community," he added.

But it might take a while.

"The issue is, of course, it's a promise, and so it requires adhering to federal rules and being reimbursed for expenses once the plans are approved. So getting it to move fast is going to be a challenge," he said.