TAMPA, Fla. — What once made up Kristine Tobi's home now sits at the curb.
"It's stuff, and the memories are here,” said Tobi.
Tobi lives off South West Shore Boulevard in Tampa and had flood damage from Hurricane Helene.
"We had about two feet in the house when we came back,” said Tobi. “This is a two-story house, so our bottom floor, we lost everything pretty much."
The recovery process has been slow and steady as many neighbors rebuild.
"There's a lot of contemplation about do you stay and chance it again, or do you move or what,” said Tobi. “I think we're going to stay put for a while and just try to pull it all back together and hope that next year it won't happen again."
As families recover from back-to-back hurricanes, the City of Tampa wants people to watch their mailboxes for a substantial damage letter they may receive this week.
After the storms, the City of Tampa did a visual assessment of structures within the flood hazard area, determining the extent of the damage.
The City of Tampa said the assessment found that if the structure requires what's called a substantial damage determination before any remodeling or improvements may be completed.
If you get the letter, fill out the attached substantial damage determination form.
"Once they fill out the form, they may not, in fact, be substantially damaged,” said Abbye Feeley, the City’s Administrator of Development and Economic Opportunity. “That's part of the exercise is we have to do the calculations based on the property, the property's location in the flood hazard area, and the amount of damage that they've received."
Officials said substantially damaged means the cost to fix your house or business is more than half its value. If it's substantially damaged, the city said it can't be repaired without meeting current floodplain and building code requirements.
"What FEMA does is they want to ensure that we're not continuing to rehab or repair homes, and then next hurricane season, it gets damaged again, so this is part of the FEMA program in building a more resilient community,” said Feeley.
As neighbors bounce back, they're staying positive, taking it one day at a time.
"We just put one foot forward and go ahead. Turn another page,” said Tobi.
City leaders said if you've already applied for a permit to fix your structure, then this form was already completed as a part of the permit process.
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