Tampa braces for Irma
3 million residents in path of storm
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — As Irma marches up Florida’s Gulf Coast toward Tampa Bay, residents fear what the storm will do to an area that hasn’t taken a direct hit from a major hurricane since 1921.
From punishing winds to catastrophic storm surge, the area is bracing for devastation. Vulnerable structures range from the towering Sunshine Skyway Bridge to toxic waste sites from the state’s phosphorous mining industry.
A 2013 World Bank study that ranked cities according to their vulnerability to major storms placed Tampa at number seven — among all cities in the world.
Irma’s center was on track to reach the Tampa Bay area by early today.
The four-county area, with approximately 3 million residents, encompasses two of Florida’s largest cities: Tampa and St. Petersburg. Among the chief concerns is storm surge. A report released in June by CoreLogic, a global property information firm, said nearly 455,000 Tampa Bay homes could be damaged by hurricane storm surges, the most in any major metro area except Miami and New York City. And rebuilding all those homes could cost $80.6 billion, the report said.
Tampa Bay acts as a “large funnel” for surges, forcing water into narrow channels and bayous with nowhere else to go.
Toxic waste sites in the Tampa Bay region also pose risks to public health if they are flooded or damaged.
Florida has the nation’s largest phosphorus mining industry, and it’s based in the area. A byproduct of the industry is 27 hill-sized piles of waste containing low levels of radiation and other toxins, according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Some of the piles are 500 feet tall.
Last year, a huge sinkhole opened up beneath one of these stacks, sending millions of gallons of contaminated mine wastewater into the Floridan Aquifer, a drinking water source for millions. The hole remained open for months until earlier this year when the owner, Mosaic, finally managed to create a preliminary seal. But the repairs are not finished and could be vulnerable to the storm.
The region is also home to more than half of Florida’s 51 Superfund sites — areas designated as some of the most toxic places in the nation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Many are old chemical or oil storage facilities causing dangerous contamination in soil and groundwater. State and federal government agencies have been working to clean them up for decades.