CLEARWATER, Fla. — One year after Hurricane Milton devastated the Tampa Bay area in October 2024, residents at the Standard Apartments in Clearwater are still recovering from catastrophic flooding which triggered the largest rescue operation in county history.
The apartment complex, located away from the water, experienced dangerous flooding that trapped hundreds of residents in their homes. First responders rescued more than 550 people, with many forced to swim to safety as water levels rose to shoulder height.
Watch full report from Jada Williams
"We lost everything. Our car, everything we own," said Eishah Fulbright, who lived in a first-floor apartment during the storm.
Fulbright was in Wesley Chapel when the hurricane hit, but her mother, daughter and uncle were trapped in the apartment as flood waters rose rapidly.
"My mom called me and she said, there's water coming into the apartment. It's up to my knees. I said, Okay, mom, call 911, then she called me back and she said, now it's up to my waist. I said, Mom, you need to get out of there. Then she called me back and she said, now it's up to my shoulders. I said, Mom, get out of there," Fulbright said.
"My daughter had grabbed her cat. My uncle had grabbed our dog, and they literally had to swim out of the apartment up to the second floor, where the neighbors grabbed them and said, Come on. Come on. Come on. And took them in their apartment because it was dry there, and they they waited for the police to come. They had to vote them out in boats," she said.
Recovery at the complex remains incomplete. Many first-floor apartments are still gutted, with windows either broken or boarded up. Water lines remain visible on building walls, serving as reminders of the storm's devastating impact.
The past year has been challenging for residents who stayed. Fulbright described living conditions as difficult.
"Well, the first couple of months we lived in almost like a trash dump. There was piles of garbage everywhere," she said. "There was piles of garbage everywhere. And then they finally got it. Took them, I think, five months to get all that cleared out. They finally got that cleared out, and now we are living with construction debris and them cutting down trees and trying to clear all that out. So it's constantly a clearing situation, and you never know what you're going to be walking out the door to, and the trash people never come and get our trash like they're supposed to. The mailman doesn't deliver the mail on time. It's just a mess."
Fulbright faces an additional challenge. Her mother, who has congestive heart failure and appendicitis, can no longer climb stairs to their second-floor apartment.
"I'm trying to see about getting a downstairs apartment," Fulbright said.
Despite requesting a first-floor unit for medical reasons, the complex has told her none are available.
"We'd like a downstairs unit. Unfortunately, they said they don't have any, but it's been over a year, so I think they should definitely have had some available by this point," she said.
Fulbright considered leaving but faces financial constraints.
"I have, but they said that if I break my lease, I'd have to pay two months rent, and they lose my security deposit," she said.
Clearwater Police Officer Cole Klein was among the first responders on scene during the rescue operation. Klein, who has been with the department for four years, described it as the most significant event he's experienced.
"So we didn't really know much. When we were in route, we knew there was going to be some water. We were the first people to show up, and it was still pretty dark, so you couldn't really see the back, but you could just see there were car alarms going off. The water was up to the windows. It wasn't until we got some boats in here and made our way to the back, we realized just how high the water was in some of these units, and some of them, I mean, it was up to chest high," Klein said.
The rescue operation required the collaboration of multiple agencies.
"I mean, we had people from all over FWC, Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, the fire department, search and rescue guys," Klein said.
"Probably the worst part is every unit you force entry into, you don't know what you're walking into, and the last thing anyone wants us to one of us wants to find is someone that isn't going to make it out," Klein said.
The emotional toll on residents was evident to responding officers.
"The look on people's faces, I mean, they've gone through so much, all their belongings are floating in their units or out in the street, and you could just kind of see how defeated they were, but they were still happy to see us come and get them out of there," Klein said.
Klein, who grew up in the Midwest and experienced tornado damage as a teenager, found the experience meaningful.
"I'm from the Midwest, and I mean, we had a tornado hit our home growing up, and I was in high school at the time, so when the first responders showed up, that's kind of when I started getting interested. And I'm just happy I was able to be on the side of the first responders coming to give that assistance that people so desperately need," he said.
Learning from the experience, the Clearwater Police Department has acquired new equipment to better handle future flooding emergencies. The department now has a high-water rescue vehicle capable of clearing 5 to 6 feet of water and transporting 20 to 25 passengers.
Lt. Mike Spitaleri, who served as incident commander during the rescue operation, explained the vehicle's capabilities.
"So what you're seeing behind you is what we call a high-water rescue vehicle. It's a surplus military platform that will allow us to go to places where previously we had been unable to get to based on water level," Spitaleri said.
The new equipment would have significantly impacted the rescue operation.
"This would have been huge. It was a multi-jurisdictional response. We had FWC, PCSO, Clearwater Fire Department, and we utilized some of their resources. Hopefully, with the purchase of this vehicle, we can deploy this vehicle in conjunction with outside agencies should their need ever arise again, but it will be immensely impactful," Spitaleri said.
Spitaleri described the conditions during the rescue as unprecedented.
"So the water on the first level was between five to six feet, depending on where you were in the complex, and they were chaotic and they were stressed. And so we immediately formulated a plan and deployed resources within the apartment complex, and we were able to safely reach them and communicate with them," he said.
The lieutenant, who grew up in a coastal community, had never experienced anything similar.
"Never. It was crazy, and it wasn't crazy just here, obviously, this was the Milton response, but Helene on the beach was a complete disaster and I grew up on the beach. I grew up in the coastal community, and my parents, they live out there, and their first floor was completely destroyed, like six feet of water inside their house. They're still rebuilding," Spitaleri said.
For residents like Fulbright, who has since relocated to a second-floor apartment in the same complex, the new equipment provides some reassurance, though concerns remain.
"I mean, it's nice to know that they're taking precautions, but it's frustrating also that, you know, there's so much construction going on all the time," Fulbright said.
Despite the trauma, Fulbright wants to return to a first-floor apartment for her mother's medical needs, making the department's enhanced rescue capabilities potentially crucial if flooding occurs again.
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