As soon as the wind and rain of Hurricane Milton passed Tampa Bay, work crews headed to schools to tackle ripped-up roofs, flooded floors and other damages caused by the storm. Their goal: To get campuses ready for students to resume classes as soon as possible.

Robert Freeland has lived in Tampa’s Forest Hills neighborhood for 50 years. He remembers just one flood that brought waters as high as Milton. In May 1979, an unnamed spring storm whipped up 108 mph winds.

Buck Rollings’ phone has rung nonstop after Hurricane Milton carved through Tampa Bay, bending and breaking trees across the region. In the days since, Rollings, a certified arborist, and his crew have worked upward of 16-hour days,

There is still a lot of clean up after back-to-back hurricanes affected the Tampa Bay area, and organizations like Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful spent Friday morning at two parks cleaning up.

First, Hurricane Helene's storm surge totaled Samantha Cipriani's Toyota Corolla and wrecked the homes of her employees. Then, Hurricane Milton flooded the St. Petersburg warehouse where she keeps wax,

With Milton almost one week in the rearview mirror, its lessons are coming into focus. Here are four. Ahead of Hurricane Milton, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor was as blunt as she’s ever been. “If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you’re going to die,” she told a CNN anchor in comments that quickly went viral.