10/09/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/09/2024 18:58
ST. PETERSBURG, FL (October 9, 2024) - A message from City of St. Petersburg Mayor Kenneth T. Welch as Hurricane Milton makes landfall in St. Pete.
Watch the video, here.
Main messages going into the evening:
Hurricane Milton is making landfall as a Category 3 storm.
Regardless of exact landfall location, the Tampa Bay area will be met with major hurricane strength winds.
Mayor Welch, City leadership and critical staff are fully staffed at the EOC through the night and are prepared to initiate our recovery process as soon as it's safe to do so.
First responders are officially off the roads and will not be able to respond to emergency calls until its safe to operate and weather conditions allow. If residents have an emergency, call 911 and they will get to you as soon as its safe to do so.
Residents should also be aware that the Northeast and Southwest Sewer Treatment plants have been taken offline. This decision was made to protect City employees and the facilities from storm damage.
Map to see if you've been impacted here: https://csp.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=d6d372efa98b44df87a2f9be6272a81e
While the plants are offline, residents in the impacted areas should limit the flushing of toilets, taking showers, or doing laundry.
Please note, this does NOT affect drinking water.
We will work to bring the plants online as quickly as possible, but we all need to be patient as we start to feel the storm's impacts.
It's time for residents to hunker down and stay inside until public safety officials say it's okay to do so.
For more information, visit stpete.org/hurricane.