PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Boat owners in Gulfport are pleading with the federal government to get help following Tropical Storm Debby. Many use the boats as their primary homes and say they sustained major damage.
"I mean, we lost our home, and we lost everything, so hope is quite literally all we have…and that hope is kind of slowly, slowly falling apart," said Kaylee Walker, a boat owner in Gulfport.
Walker and her boyfriend have spent months saving every penny for their beloved boat, but after Tropical Storm Debby, things took a turn for the worse.
"And then we heard a loud crash, and our boat hit the wall and after that, we knew our home was gone," said Walker.
She and her boyfriend said they had to jump from the boat during the storm to survive, and now their boat is destroyed.
"We were expecting something that all of us knew our boats could handle because that's what we were told," said Walker.
Residents in Gulfport said at least six boats were lost to the storm, including Reilly Mulligan's.
"Driving around by the seawall trying to help friends save their boats, then I came back the next morning and my boat was six feet under water," said Mulligan.
Mulligan said she is now trying to put her life back together.
"So, everything I use for my work is gone, and it's where I've lived for the last four years, everything I've ever owned is on that boat," said Mulligan.
Pinellas County is not currently eligible for FEMA assistance and because of that, Walker said she hasn't been able to move her boat that's stranded on land. She said she was given 45 days from the FWC to move the boat, and wanted to wait just in case FEMA came out to assess damage, but she said the City of Gulfport is declaring her boat a hazard.
"They basically told us the best thing to do would be to turn it over, but they couldn't answer if we could still receive FEMA rights without our title and because we couldn't afford to get that boat off the wall by ourselves, we had no choice but to turn it in," said Walker.
I contacted FEMA and was told that Pinellas County is not included in the major disaster declaration for Tropical Storm Debby. A FEMA spokesperson said boaters should report damage to their local emergency manager.
Walker is still trying to contact FEMA and said without financial assistance, she will have to leave behind her home.
"We don't know when they are coming, which leaves us homeless because our only options right now are to stick it out and hope that they come, or go back to Kentucky," said Walker.
Back-to-back storm events brought record storm surge, rainfall and winds to the Tampa Bay region. The question some are asking now isn’t where people should rebuild, but where we should let nature regain control.
