SIESTA KEY, Fla. — Hurricane Milton made landfall on Siesta Key one year ago.
It’s been 365 days of repairs, recovering, and rebuilding.
Watch full report from Mary O'Connell
“Helene wiped out the bottom floors of all the units on this side, and then Milton came and finished the job off,” said Jacob Steckerl, who lives on Siesta Key and spoke with Tampa Bay 28 right after Milton last year.
Drone video from the time showed the building next door to his home with its roof ripped off.
We caught up with Steckerl again on Thursday.
“Things are going along slow, but it’s coming along,” he said.
Sarasota County said the Category three hurricane came just 13 days after Hurricane Helene.
It was a devastating double whammy for the community.
“You have the fear of God in you, like what is going to happen now because it was just so devastating with Helene that we just were like okay we have to get out of here. We have to get inland somewhere,” said Rene Layton-Carroll.
Layton-Carroll said for Milton, her family evacuated to Parrish.
“The island has a long way to go yet to recover,” she said. “As you see when you walk around or drive around, there’s just so many houses that are still remaining to be torn down and others that need to be built up.”
But through it all, the community banded together to weather the storms, building back brick by brick, what neighbors called “Siesta Key strong.”
“Nobody has sold their place, so everybody wants to move back, so that’s a pretty good sign of the resilience,” said Jack Groselle.
“Step by step, it’s going to come back to what it once was, if not stronger than it was before,” said Steckerl.
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Mary O’Connell has a primary focus on education-related stories for Tampa Bay 28. But she also keeps an eye on public health concerns and the always-changing car insurance market. Reach out to Mary to share any of your questions or concerns.
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It's been one year since Hurricane Milton impacted our community. Tampa Bay 28 revisited some of Tampa Bay's hardest hit areas to show the recovery and the work that still needs to be done.
