Home & Life Update: One Year After Hurricane Milton Hit Tampa Bay

All right. So, by the time you guys are watching this video, we will just be celebrating Hurricane Milton's anniversary. Um, technically it happens tomorrow. You're going to be watching this on Saturday. But, um, we figured it's about time to give you guys an update. Uh, because the last time we showed you anything, we had just started to put the house back together. We were still missing doors, everything under the sun. So, um, a lot has happened since then. And, um, if you don't know our journey, my name is Juan Okala. I'm Kate Okala. And uh almost seven years ago now, we moved to the incredible state of Florida here in Tampa Bay, just off the Gulf of America. And uh boy, has life changed since we moved here. The essentially the worst case scenario or second to worst case scenario is how we like to look at it happened here last year. We got wet, right? Yeah. And it was 0% fun. Starting to remember all the things cuz I have this thing called time hop. So all the little memories start to replay and I was like, "Oh." So ready for the cringe. Yeah. And today we're going to just talk talk a little bit about what we've done for uh the mitigation of making sure that our house doesn't flood again because we are in technically right in the middle of that process. And then we're also going to share with you what our plans are with that. And my goal here is to give you guys the entire update once we're complete. We're going to do an entire outdoor project. We'll get to that too. But um you know, thank you for being a viewer of this channel. Thank you for following along on our journey. And if we've never met before, we make videos that are all things Tampa Bay. what it's like to live here, what it's like to work here, what it's like to play here, what it's like to have challenges here. Um, we do get into the nitty-gritty. Sometimes life is amazing here and then we've definitely had our fair share of challenges. Um, we've also helped over 200 families now relocate to the area here. It's wild. It doesn't feel like that. It is so wild, which is really awesome. And we just want to say thank you to everyone who has trusted us along on this journey. We we do run a real estate team together. Um, we've got great agents here, Stacy and Ashley and Madison. We've just had so many wonderful people in our lives. So, if that interests you, feel free to reach out to us. All of our contact information is down below, including a link to my calendar. If you go there, take you right to our website, just ask you a couple questions behind that. You can jump into my calendar. We'll pull up Zoom, uh, pull up Google Maps, walk you through the area, make sure you guys get really dialed in on the the areas that make sense for you, so you never have to go through anything like we've been through. So, how we want to kick this off is just giving you guys a little bit of insight on what life has looked like living with the threat of hurricanes all the time. First thing, of course, we're going to talk about um our renovations, what we decided to do. We definitely went beyond what was necessary. We'll we'll give you guys the details on that. And then also, you know, share with you what our plans are in terms of of staying. If you watch our videos, we're just going to, you know, pull the band-aid right now. We're not trying to um hook anybody and think that like we're going to move. We're we love it here, right? And we definitely have had a challenge. And um if it would happen again this year, I don't know that our attitude would be the same. You know, that we'll we'll hopefully never know. But the way that this went down for us is um you know, this this is our seventh hurricane season that we we've we're in, and it's not complete yet, so I don't want to give away anything. Um or what I mean by that is I don't want to jinx anything, but out of the other six seasons we've been here, we've had to evacuate twice now. Hi, Stella. Good to see you, too. She's making an appearance. She feels left out. This is the dober baby that we were speaking of. Can you sit down? She definitely is a Velcro dog and it's def it was definitely stressful. Uh the first time that we had to evacuate, her and the kids were up north at our in-laws. Um awesome cuz we got to extend that stay. However, I had gotten CO had a serious fever. Um slept for an entire 24 hours and woke up the next morning realizing that Hurricane Ian at that point was coming towards Tampa is what they told us. So, at that point, I'm boarding up the house, 101 temperature, sweating like crazy. It was such a hard thing. And she had booked a hotel in Orlando cuz it looked like we were going to um be clear there. And uh as you guys may or may not know, Ian took a hard right, ended up going into Fort Meyer, Cape Coral, and and really did damage to a lot of our friends and uh of course to the coastline down there. And you know, we were saved, but you know, me and this Dober baby were on the top story of a of a hotel in Orlando, and the winds were blowing 80 mph. And man, it was an experience to say the least. And I remember getting out of the hotel, there were trees down all over the place in Orlando there. And half the road was completely there were cars pulling out of Dunkin' Donuts and they were underwater. It was the wildest thing in the world, but the side of the street I was on was dry. I got on I4 and started coming back and there were trees. All of the palm fawns, which are the the leaves, y'all, for those of you that don't know, had fall in Florida, y'all. Yeah. They had been torn off the palm trees. So, they're just like giant trees that with with no foliage on them. It was the weirdest thing in the world. And as I got closer to Tampa, I realized that like we were pretty fortunate. There was no water in the bay at all. You could see the bottom of the It was just crazy. And she wasn't back. And we came home and I had a few fence pieces that were missing. Um, but then two years later, you know, we we we get Milton that comes through and prior to that, we had Colleen that ripped through the area 13 days earlier, I believe. And I remember going down touch Helen was still 100 miles off the coast. So, like, we did not think anything would happen outside of rainwater for us and then those on the coastline who dealt with, you know, the storm surge. But, yeah. And I remember going down and we were helping everybody in Indian Rocks Beach because all the damage there. And then 13 days later, you know, it happened here. We didn't know till the next morning. We come pulling up and immediately we can see things were wet in the garage. Get some water. You can see stepped in the back door and squish. Oh yeah. He stepped on a rug and it was just squish and we're like, "Oh, this is not going to be good." And as we walked in our um sun room, they call them Florida rooms from up north where we're from. I still call it a Florida sun room, y'all. Um the sun room was inches of water. There was inch, you know, water in the kitchen and like we knew right away we got problems. So we had hardwoods in the bedroom, a lot of damage in the house. And um you know, I know we're rolling the footage right now so you guys can see the aftermath of here. Our pool was completely green. It looked like it looked like a pond. It was beautiful. Yeah, the pool looked like a swamp. It was not nice. We were missing a lot of fence panels cuz we have a white vinyl fence. And they we found them all, which is amazing. But they were all over the neighbor's yard. There was still inches of water in our backyard. And what happened for us, y'all, just so you know, um we're about a mile, just a little over a mile and 1/5 away from um the the coast and we're 43 ft above sea level. We did not get flooded because storm sur. Our house is about a foot lower than the neighbor on the left of us and a neighbor on the right and about 2 feet lower or 3 ft lower than the neighbor behind us. And we didn't know this and it wasn't a problem ever until we got 12 15 ines of rain in in 6 8 hours or whatever the number was. There's that and there I mean just the month of August alone was so rainy and like we had a rainy season for the summer. So like the ground was just completely saturated. So like a rainfall actually. Yeah. It was this a one-off situation because of all of that? I don't know if we have another day where we get 12 in of rain in, you know, less than 24 hours, will our house absorb the water again? I don't know. I don't have the answers to those things. I don't know that we'll ever know. Is it a causation or a correlation? But yeah, um those are just things that we have to keep in mindful cuz, you know, what do we have to do to mitigate that? And we'll talk about, you know, our plans for that. But that you got to take into consideration the foundation of your house and what we didn't know buying a house. and he'll probably touch base on that. And when you sit on a call with him and like you need to understand the foundation of your neighbors, too, cuz it's not whether you're in an evac zone or a flood zone or not, it's where is your house in relevance to everyone else around you. Yeah. And and just for a little perspective on that, our home's older. It was built in ' 72. Um so, you know, construction standards are not exactly the same they are today. It's all block, which is awesome. We don't worry about the walls falling down ever. or if anything's going to happen here, it's we thought the roof would be missing, you know, if we had a strong hurricane come through cuz we're that close to the water, guys. Yeah. And he I mean, we have, you know, our rules on when we're going to evacuate, but my barrier concern was we have a huge oak tree in our front yard. I was like, well, if the oak tree falls on the house during the storm, there's nothing you can do in the midst of that, right? It's not it's not like you're just out of power. You now have a hole in your roof. And this is we have dear friends, they had a tree go through their bedroom in the roof in the bedroom. So, this is serious stuff that can happen. And so those are other things, but that was really why we I wanted to evacuate was well, if the tree falls on the house, there's nothing we can do about it. Yep. So, in in terms of damage, real quick before we get into plans, uh Stuckco in the garage was coming off the the block. Uh we had hardwoods in all the bedrooms. We didn't put that when we bought the house, they came with hardwoods. I knew that was going to be a problem. We live in Florida. It's not a good idea to have hardwoods on a main floor in a place that is this close to the coast with all the humidity just does not make sense. You're gluing wood to the floor. I know people will argue this point, but the reality is when things like this happen, it becomes a problem. Um, and ultimately that's what ended up happening. So, uh, we could not get under the floor dry enough, even with all the humidifiers and everything we had bought, and it ended up starting to mold underneath there. And, um, it never got the black mold. We've had the house tested, all that other stuff, which is great, but it it we knew it was going to be a problem if we didn't take care of it. So, we made the decision. We ripped up the floors. We've showed that, but I I'm sure these guys are rolling clips right now. Um, the kitchen was damaged. All the vanities in the bathrooms were damaged because let you know y'all, a lot of people build homes with um, MDF, which is like glued together pieces of wood, and that stuff does not do well when it gets uh, when it gets wet or or moist at all. I'm a sucker for an IKEA furniture, and that's basically what like the main pieces of our house are hard shelves. Our kitchen cabinets were hardwood, but they were sitting on an MDF platform, which got completely damaged. I was like, it's just a matter of time at this point before that gives out. So, those things happen. Um, and we've shared before, we did not have flood insurance, and I'll explain why or weren't required to have it. We're 43 ft above sea level. And, uh, according to prior ownership um, documentation, this home has never flooded. So, why would we do that? And I know you guys are like, you live in Florida, why why wouldn't you do it? And the correct answer is we should have, right? We absolutely should have, especially when it's not required. Um, it is a minimal expense because what we found out afterwards is that policy would have been about $480 bucks or $430 when they quoted us originally, ended up being close to over 500 when we we do have it now, just FYI. Um, and the reason I'm saying this to you guys is because just because you're not required to not have flood insurance, you live on a peninsula in the ocean and I and again, we're let us wear the scar. You learn the lesson. Um, you know, putting flood insurance when you don't have to have it is very inexpensive and it's a great piece of mind because y'all, we would have gotten this the majority of this renovation paid for at some level. Um, but because we did not have flood insurance, the way that um, home flooding works in just about anywhere is rising groundwater is typically not covered. You have to have a separate poly policy for that. And because that's what happened and the tree didn't fall on the house, that would have been better. We had to wear it all. And we've shared like we didn't get all the way in the numbers. I'll break it all down once we do the exterior and everything, but we're well over six figures in our renovation. Um, now back to what he said, like we didn't just put everything back to exactly what it was because we were in a situation I was like, well, number one, I'm not living in a camper in my front yard ever again. Um, and we didn't want to go through this process. And there were certain permanent things that we were doing. We'll get into that. But we tiled the whole house. And there was other renovations that we had on that want to-do list when anybody buys a home of like all the things that you would change. It was, okay, well, if we don't do this now, we're going to have to literally rip out the tile, which is a lot more permanent than even hardwood or LVP or carpet or anything. So, it was like, okay, if we don't do it now, it's going to actually cost more later because we're going to have to demo something as opposed to just doing it all now. So, that's the caveat. So when you hear the breakdown of the expenses, understand that it was also a want on top of needs. Yeah. And we'll make sure we go through like this was a want versus like this was and I talked to the general contractor and I was like, "Hey, can you just give me a rough of what it would have been to just replacement value, right? Because replacement value is important to know because what a kitchen cabinet costs today is not the same that it costs in the '90s when the house was remodeled or the '7s when it was built." Yeah. And what what was the number he used? Uh it would I think probably would have dropped us about 20 or 30 if we didn't do the extra bath and we didn't turn the if we didn't have to trench the ground to make a island as opposed to the peninsula. Yes. We're still talking somewhere in the neighborhood 70 80,000 I think is what it was going to get to. Yeah. To get to that point. And the last thing we want to talk about is how you can approach this. Now there are a lot of different ways you can go about dealing with weather. Um you can move a little bit more inland. We've moved a ton of clients to areas like Wesley Chapel, Odessa, you know, they're in New Tampa, Parish, uh, Fish Hawk Ranch, and they're far enough off the coast where, you know, serious storm surge is not really an issue for them. Um, you know, rain and wind and those types of things will be real, but most of the time they're out of the harm's way outside of, you know, strong strong winds. Um, you know, there are definitely those challenges, but for us being coastal, you know, again, 7 minute drive for us to get to the water, beach is right there. Mhm. Well, before he jumps into that, I don't want to be doom and gloom, but just we're transparent here. We want to share the good, the bad, and the ugly. And what you also have to recognize is it's not just the head of the storm. Like he said earlier, we evacuated all the way to the east coast. Like we were 2 miles off the Atlantic coast and we were under tornado warnings the entire time from all the outer bands. So, it's just sometimes you're you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. So, whatever is best for you and your family when it goes to evacuating or where you choose to live, like weather is weather and it's everywhere. Whether you're in Florida, whether you're in the Pacific Northwest, like everybody has their challenges. It's just which challenge do you want to face on a regular basis and then figure out your plan of attack on getting there and where you want to live and what your evacuations are for whatever that natural disaster is. Yeah. And we want to get into those plans with you guys cuz we get this question all the time when we have Zoom calls with clients is like, "What do you guys do when these storms come?" So, here's kind of how we approach this. Um, we have friends that are Fidians and they laugh at us like we're not going anywhere. They've never left, right? Um, we have team members who've never left. That that's part of the process. Again, they're just a little bit further inland and it's not a big deal to them. Um, but coastally here, first and foremost, you definitely want to follow the evacuation plan based upon where you live. We are technically not in an evacuation zone where we live, but we're so close, y'all. And and even though our house is 43 ft above sea level and the reality of us ever being flooded out because of storm surge is virtually zero, it doesn't mean you don't lose power. It doesn't and that's sorry if you don't know the evacuation zones are for storm surge, not for winds, not for rain. It is just storm surge, right? And checks your resources and do your due diligence on that and don't quote me on everything, but ours is because we would not get storm surge. That's why we're not in an evacuation zone. doesn't mean the eye of a hurricane would not affect us. Yes. But being the last man on an island that doesn't have power or anything doesn't make sense. So you you know you can make some of these decisions. Now we are in a position where we can go get a hotel and that we you know I realize not everybody is. So we're sharing this with you guys from sincerely and as transparently as we can. Now that's one thing. Um, our rule as a family is if it's going to be a category 3 or stronger and it is expected hit to hit us, we've made a decision that we're going to head somewhere else for evacuation plans. Um, it was just a little tip to cuz our vis where do you go right where when Hurricane Ian came, everybody it was coming for Tampa and everybody started booking hotels down south and then it ended up taking a turn to Fort Myers. So the people in Fort Myers didn't have anywhere to go because we uh Tampa metro folks went down there. So, where do you go? Do you go, you know, inland? You go north, you go south. So, our little rule was book somewhere north and then book somewhere south that have free cancellation or cancellation up until 24 hours or whatever. You kind of have a general idea, which is a lot of hotels during that time. Yeah, there's a lot of space to run and you know, you can call especially for like if people who have pets, that's what makes this really hard for evacuation. Trust me, I understand. we only have the one dog, but I know that there's plenty of people out there who have multiple animals. They have animals outside of dogs and cats. So, evacuating is not that easy. So, we understand that. Um, and that's why for those who can evacuate, that's why it's important that you do. So, the resources for those who can't are readily available for them, right? Like there are plenty of people who aren't able to evacuate for physical reasons, health reasons, or they're in emergency services and they're not allowed to evacuate. So, that is why we because we can, we should. Um, and that's really where we hang our hats cuz there, trust me, there's I don't want to evacuate a family of five and a 95 lb dog to go stay in a hotel not knowing how long we're going to be there, what I have to do, whether the storm's going to hit and then I'm like the last person to, well, I don't want to leave my home. Mhm. Right. So, um, I just wanted to share that because I know it's not that easy and it's not an easy decision to make, but we've just stood on the standpoint of like if it's cat 3, like you said, coming towards us and because we can, we should cuz I don't want to take up those resources to be readily available for those who can't evacuate. So, yeah. And just the real quick down and dirty, we take everything, put it on couches, beds, all the stuff, get it up off the ground like we can. Um, our couch completely survived the the event. Um, which was great. Uh but any any other the cheap furniture, right? The c the couch has real wood legs, so that's why it wasn't a problem. It was standing on the plastic pegs. And we only really got that much water, y'all. It was just a little bit, just enough. It was enough to suck. Yeah. Just enough to create all the problems. So that's what happened there. Again, the evacuation plan, having a plan in place, knowing how you're going to approach it. That is the whole thing, y'all. Just have a plan. Know how you're going to execute it. And we just got to trust, first of all, the the Lord will handle everything else. We have good we have insurance. And listen, even though even if we had insurance, we may not still have a check. There's people still waiting on permits. There's people we understand. So if coastal living is not for you, please keep that in mind. I want to be, like I said, as serious and as objective as you can here. You know, the last storm that hit Tampa Bay was in the 20s. That's how long it was. 1928 was 105 years. I've made videos for the last 6 years talking about how it's been over a 100red years since since Tampa had to deal with this. And technically, we still didn't have the hurricane. No, we didn't. I hit Anamarie Island to the south of us which got beat up, but it was enough. It was close enough. Enough going on. So, we wanted to share this video with you guys to give you an update, give you, you know, some perspective on what was going on. We don't have any plans to leave, right? I have no plans. I told her I was ready. She was like, "We're not going anywhere." I was like, "Oh, yeah." In all fairness, we literally signed the closing documents and that process in and of itself is no fun. So, my heart goes out to you when you're in the process of closing and signing all of those million documents if you're getting a mortgage. And the next day he's like, "Are you ready to move?" I was like, "Are you kidding me?" is, "No, we literally just like Yeah. Yeah. And not because we don't love it here. We actually love it here." We've shared how we were looking at a second property up in Nashville in the mountains. And, you know, we just, you know, I I like change. I just want to see things all the time. So, we used to be lease hoppers, so for perspective on that. So, that was a big deal. But, we wanted to share all those things with you guys. You know, we really want to give you a breakdown of where our life was, what was going on with the house, share those stories with you. We're really going to get into the mitigation stuff. I realize how important that is. Not on this video, but as I have that project done. Um, what I did do is dig a giant trench along the side of the house, 3 ft deep, put pipe in it, um, some irrigation pipe in there, and we've not had any issues all season in terms of rain, which has been a blessing. We found all kinds of things that were wrong. So, again, I want to have a professional out and have that corrected. That way, we know we're good over there. We're going to do the entire outdoor space anyways. We're going to do landscaping and driveways and surrounds on the pools and like it's going to be a big old project. So, that is going to be a little while. Um, but we want to give you guys the update on what's going on with the house. We want to give you um a tour and then we wanted to just help you with the plan, right? Kind of talk about that. And if you have more questions, don't hesitate to reach out to me and the team. As I said, all my contact information is down below. We'll jump on Zoom. We'll talk about these things. And again, you don't have to be in an area that that is as challenging as living coastal. You can definitely live in Lond and here in Tampa Bay and still have an incredible access to the beach and all the wonders that this place has to do. So, thank you for your time. We appreciate it, guys. We so grateful to give you the update and we look forward to seeing you on the other side. Bye, guys. [Music] [Music] [Music]