TAMPA, Fla. (WFTS) — Gwen Torres and her family ushered in a new year in a new home with brand-new belongings.
That would normally be a good thing. Except, it wasn't by choice for the family.
"I lost everything, everything. My home, my vehicle, my memorabilia, my belongings, clothes, shoes, toys. We were a family of nine. We lost everything," she said.
The place Torres called home for 25 years flooded on Oct. 10.
"We like to say it was Hurricane Milton, but it was not Hurricane Milton that did this, and the city is not taking any liability," she added.
Her previous home was one of the many houses in the Forest Hills neighborhood. The City of Tampa said those homes flooded due to a pump station failure nearby.
While Torres and her special needs son, Christopher, had evacuated, other members of the family, including small children, had to be rescued from the rising flood waters through a window.
"If anything was going to happen, it was going to be wind damage and power loss. So we were prepared for that. Never for flooding. My house was raised even never flooding."
The neighborhood is in Zone X on the flood map, meaning it's an area with a "moderate to low risk for flooding."
The City of Tampa's director of mobility, Vik Bhide, said the backup generator for one pump station at Curiosity Creek did not work when the power went out during the storm.
"My dad bought me this house, literally five minutes from his home. I have raised three generations in that house. My children, my grandchildren. That has been everybody's constant. That's where we all came back to," Torres said.
Since then, the family has been trying to make ends meet.
FEMA only paid out $5,000. She received another $4,000 from her GoFundMe.
"I want you to think about the math of that. $4,000 from a GoFundMe of nine people. They lost everything. We lost a vehicle. We lost all our belongings, all our toiletries, all our bedding, furniture, appliances. We lived in a hotel for two months. So $4,000 replacing clothes, having to buy food, because in a hotel, it only served breakfast and we couldn't cook there. So that's ordering out food, buying the daily necessities. $4,000 is nothing," Torres explained.
She ultimately had to sell her home at a loss and move to Pasco County.
"Everybody wants to act like they care, and initially, when everything happened, 'Oh, we're sorry. What can we do?' But out of sight, out of mind, everybody's moved on, but this is still our reality. I mean, you can hear the echo in my home. We have somewhere to live now, but it's empty. We're still rebuilding," Torres said.
She's temporarily on unpaid leave from work as she now tries to get a new car.
"Every day, there's there's more to it, just than the flooding and the financial burden is overwhelming, but the emotional turmoil that we are going through, the mental beat down that we are going through, the physical part of it, that I don't think people understand, it's a lot," she said. "I'm just grateful that I have a support system, and I'm just grateful that I am a strong woman. But if, if I wasn't, I don't know, and I don't know how other people are doing it."
Torres' story has touched Tampa City Council Member Luis Viera.
"If that was me in that situation, and I lived in a non-flood zone, and I got flooded and I worked hard all my life as a teacher or as a cop or as a nurse, I'd want answers, and I'd want respect," he said.
Councilmember Viera is now working to provide some relief to struggling families.
"I requested that the Castor Administration begin to work with me on a package that would help people after Helene and Milton on a means-tested basis, to help people who suffered losses during these hurricanes," he explained.
Viera attempted to get a similar package passed once before.
"I motioned for this. I think it was about a week after the hurricane, and I couldn't get support for it. With the idea being that FEMA is going to help people out. I've always respectfully disagreed with people on that, which is, I always tell people, if you're buying a suit and FEMA is going to help you with that suit, they're going to get you a belt, a tie, maybe pants, you got to get the rest," he said.
Viera said he's especially interested in helping the working-class citizens in his district around North Tampa.
"My understanding is it's going to be a multi-million dollar program to help people. I want to be clear: this is going to be a program that is one step of many that these people have to take. This is not something that's going to make people whole, but this is something where the city does what it can," he said.
Still, that accountability is what Torres wants to see.
"This wasn't our fault, it wasn't our doing," she said.
City staff will present a plan to the city council on Thursday. A vote can happen as early as Jan. 23.
If you want to help the Torres family, here is their GoFundMe and their Amazon Wishlist.
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