The St. Pete Beach, Fla., shop owner’s story has become gruesomely familiar. Her home and shop were inundated with saltwater from Hurricane Helene. She lost a steady source of income overnight and has scraped by with financial help from loyal customers and fellow business owners.
Calver is trying to temper her 8-year-old son’s hope that, if he writes a long letter, Santa will replace the toys he lost to flooding.
“I’ve said, ‘There’s a lot of people that have lost a lot of things, and a lot of kids that don’t have anything all over the world, so Santa’s got his work cut out for him this year,’” Calver said.
Weeks after Helene and Milton, Florida businesses and their employees are still paying a staggering toll, according to claims business owners voluntarily filed with the state. Of the $350 million in damages reported statewide, more than half was concentrated in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, covering nearly 2,000 businesses, making them the hardest hit in Florida.
As of Nov. 1, damages had forced about 2,300 people across those two counties out of work temporarily. Another 700 had lost their jobs permanently.
Losses have played out most visibly in Tampa Bay’s communities closer to the Gulf, where furniture and tarnished wares were stacked six feet high along roadsides. But they don’t stop there. Historic flooding in places miles inland, like State Road 54 in Zephyrhills and Tampa’s Fowler Avenue, has left small businesses reeling.
Some owners have spent years or decades staking livelihoods in volatile retail and food service industries. But those who have yet to reopen are dipping into savings and praying for profits from pop-up street markets, all while waiting on others’ timelines — those of their landlords, city permitting departments and government loan programs.
Small business owners across Tampa Bay shared stories filled with waiting, uncertainty, thousands of dollars in lost revenue and frustrating out-of-pocket expenses.
University District
Davis and Tamika Vaught were feeling the love from customers three years into running Blue Flame Tampa, a restaurant tucked in Fowler Shopping Plaza. The southern soul food came straight from Tamika Vaught’s mother’s recipe book. It was the couple’s first venture in the food service industry.But a month after Milton, the lights are off and a sign reads “temporarily closed.” A concrete dividing wall toppled and punctured the roof of his restaurant and his neighbor, Del Valle Latin Market. Loose wires and venting dangle above a damaged gas line. A tarp is draped over the roof, and tenants have filled a massive dumpster with debris.
Lisa Farrell, a spokesperson for the property management company, CAKK Ventures LLC, said she’s reached out by phone and text to the two tenants impacted by roof damage. The company has applied for a permit with Hillsborough County to begin demolition work, she said.
They’re still waiting on approval, Farrell said. Already, the contractor is estimating demolition work will cost tens of thousands of dollars.
In the same strip mall, Clay Montgomery owns a shop called Atomic Tattoos. He said he hasn’t heard from the property manager. He’s stopped paying rent in the hopes someone will call him after he paid to repair drywall and floors damaged by four inches of flooding.
A recorded message tells customers Blue Flame will be back by January. But the Vaughts’ hopes are low.
“I don’t even want to look at it right now,” Davis Vaught said. “I don’t know what my future holds.”
Tarpon Springs
Even before the storms hit, Candace Redwine had days when she struggled to keep the faith in her gourmet spice and sauce shop, Spiceman’s Kitchen, on Dodecanese Boulevard.She wondered about her future when the place flooded last year during Hurricane Idalia. She wondered again this year when she had her worst summer in sales. And when she arrived to 32 inches of water and a floating refrigerator after Helene, her faith was tested once more.
“You start super depressed, and then you get angry,” she said. “You have days when you’re like, ‘Screw it.’ You want to walk away. But you’re like, ‘Gosh, I worked so hard to have my own business, and I finally did it.’”
Redwine moved to Florida from Nashville to open the place with her daughter, 27, who has a developmental disability. She still wants something to pass onto her.
She’s paid nearly $20,000 to replace inventory and rebuild shelves and counters. That’s on top of losing at least $12,500 in potential revenue so far. Her landlord is covering the drywall and electrical outlets.
As Redwine waits on carpenters and electricians, she’s praying for a Black Friday reopening. She needs a good showing from tourists and snowbirds during her busy season to replenish her savings.
Gulfport
Melissa Loven spent the Saturday after Helene clearing out her crystal shop, Qi Crystal Energy, with friends and passersby. Volunteers scooped fistfuls of shattered and waterlogged crystals — emerald turtles, quartz, amethysts — into buckets as Loven meticulously documented the damage. Anything unsalvageable and under $15 went to a makeshift crystal garden surrounding a tree outside.More than six weeks later, the gems glitter in the dirt. And Loven endures long days and frequent headaches as she sits on hold with her insurers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She’s still looking for stable housing.
Her neighbor, Neptune Grill, is closed too. Tiki Bar and Grill on Shore Boulevard has shut down for good, said Kelly Wright, a board member for Gulfport Merchants Chamber of Commerce.
Gentrification and storm damage have already priced residents out of their homes, Mayor Sam Henderson said. He worries the price of repairs on Shore Boulevard will do the same to mom-and-pop businesses.
Unbelievably, other businesses that seemed likely to shutter for months have flipped the lights on. With plywood walls exposed and scaffolding still up, Gulfport Beach Bazaar and O’Maddy’s Bar and Grille are back serving customers.
Zephyrhills
Businesses a block away on Allen Road in west Zephyrhills suffered more damage than John Novikoff Jr. So he tries not to feel sorry for himself as he waits for contractors to rip out drywall from his shop, Computer Lab, along State Road 54.Eight inches of floodwater penetrated his store and stayed there for about a week before the water was pumped out. Novikoff squeegeed the floors and threw out $4,000 dollar worth of equipment. A few weeks later, while still waiting on repairs, he opened back up.
But business has plummeted. He worries the snowbirds he relies on might stay away this year.
“It’s like starting the business over again,” Novikoff said. “It reminds me of when I was first here in 2003, just looking out the window.”
Pinellas Park
Brenda Krukemeir didn’t think she had to worry about flooding so far inland.Milton’s winds proved her wrong, blasting rainwater through the doors of Serenity Wellness Spa, which she’s helmed for nearly nine years.
Her business liability insurance doesn’t cover the carpeting she had to rip out herself. She’ll have to pay $4,000 out of pocket to cover repairs when she can. For now, clients chuckle wryly when they see the exposed cement floors in the waiting room. They can guess what happened.
She’s lucky — she could reopen quickly, trimming her revenue loss to $2,000 in October. But she splits dollars earned with her massage therapists, two of whom lost their homes in Shore Acres.
Krukemeir is holding out hope for a busy gift certificate season. Her workers could really use a holiday bonus.
St. Pete Beach
After a bruising summer for retail sales, Calver spent her savings on her business, Betty Shop.After Helene, she’s at least $60,000 underwater and waiting on a loan from the Small Business Administration. Her credit cards are maxed out. A GoFundMe from customers and St. Pete Beach residents allowed her to pay the deposit on a new rental home. They’re the reason she has kitchen supplies, and she’s considering leaning on them again to buy her son Christmas presents.
Calver’s landlord is remediating her shop on Gulf Boulevard. But they’re in limbo until a permit to rebuild gets approved. St. Pete Beach city officials said last week that the department is understaffed. Eighteen temporary staffers arrived Tuesday to speed up permit approvals.
Calver said she’s spent 12 years hustling to keep her business afloat for a reason. It’s named after her grandmother. It’s her creative outlet. It’s how she’s found community.
“I can’t imagine walking away from something that I’ve poured so much of my soul into,” she said. “I will go down with the ship if the ship ever goes down completely.”
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