March 7, 2025 • 6 mins
Several Pinellas County towns are holding city elections March 11th (Tuesday) for the first time since Hurricanes Helene and Milton. We focus in on the Gulfport mayor's election as that city was particularly hard-hit by the storms. This isn't just about an election but about a city's recovery from last year's history-making storms. In this podcast we interview candidate Sam Henderson, the incumbent Mayor,
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. This coming Tuesday,
March eleventh, voters in Gulfport will make their choices for
mayor as well as another commission seat in city elections.
Several Panela's talents are holding elections as well, and this
is happening after many of those communities were devastated by
the impacts of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton last year.
(00:20):
Golfport is one of the community's hardest hit. We're speaking
with all the candidates for mayor to find out the
issues they want to see addressed and also to talk
about where Golfport is in its recovery nearly six months later.
In this particular podcast, we're speaking with incumbent Mayor Sam Henderson,
who's running for reelection. Mayor Henderson, thank you very much
for joining us on Beyond the News.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Gordon, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Well. First question for you here, how do you think
Gulfport is doing with the recovery process. What benchmarks are
we up to now, how our homeowners and residents and
business is doing in Gulfport.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I will say that for the first time since since
we were hit by Helene, we are starting to see
the light at the end to the tunnel. It has
been an extremely rough road and I've been here for
everything from the economic downturn, through deep water horizons, economic impacts,
to COVID and now this, And this is the biggest
challenge we faced by far.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
What has been the most unexpected turn for you? That
you've seen something that you weren't exactly expecting to happen
as you deal with the whole process of hurricane recovery
in the city, dealing with all the different agencies, dealing
with damage and permitting and FEMA and the state, and
all of the pieces in the puzzle.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Well, you nailed it right there. It's navigating the process
because I've always prided us on how well we prepare
for hurricanes and how rapidly we're able to clean up
following hurricanes because we've got, you know, unlike a lot
of other small towns in Florida, we have a lot
of our own city departments, such as public works and
emergency services. So in the past we've always fared extremely
(01:54):
well and gotten back on our feet quickly. But this,
as you know, is the hardest that Benall's County has
been hit in a very long time. And the biggest
challenge has been navigating the process with those with those agencies, FEMA,
the State Department of Emergency Management, and the importance of
following those rules in order to protect our economic future.
(02:15):
So that has been the biggest challenge out of everything.
And there's a lot of people suffering in this town,
and so there's a great deal at stake in terms
of serving our constituency.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Residents have raised concerns about the way the permitting process
has worked out and the process of damage assessments and
what that means for the future of their homes. Where
does all that stand now and what would you like
to see done to advance the process assuming that you
get another term.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, a lot of the seven hundred roughly seven hundred
structures we had impacted, we are as of last week,
we are about ninety percent of the way through getting
everyone those substantial damage assessments and those permits. And one
of the biggest challenges has been that the contractor we
were provided by the state, we've actually had to do
a whole lot of cleanup from their initial inspections and surveys.
(03:09):
And I will say that that number is around one
hundred and fifty properties that we had to go back
and correct those initial assessments, and just the onus of
having to follow those FEMA rules and what's at stake
has created a very long mindfield of a process, because
if we don't follow those rules that FEMA has laid out,
we run the risk of losing our status with the
(03:31):
National Flood Insurance Program, which means everyone would see an
insurance increase. If we don't follow those rules, we run
the risk of our residents and the city itself not
getting FEMA reimbursements. And we also run the risk of
not having our areas in our flood zones eligible for
federally subsidized home loans like Fanny Man Freddie Max. So
beyond just the immediate disaster of trying to get people
(03:53):
back in their homes, we're also looking at trying to
preserve our economic future moving forward, because there's, just as
I said, a lot at stake.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
What do Gulf Board residents need right now most as
they are continuing to deal with coming back from the hurricanes, and.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
They need they need their insurance settlements, they need their
FEMA reimbursements. They could really use additional assistance from the
state and the federal government in terms of housing subsidies
to help close the gap while they're waiting to get
back in their homes, or rebuild their homes, or elevate
their homes. And they need to be able to get
(04:30):
this work underway. And as the at our end, having
to administerate these federal and state programs, our hands have
really been tied about how quickly we can move as
we're relying on those resources from the outside and on
these accurate assessments from the folks who are in. The
intent is for them to be here to help.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
I'm sure that the mayor and commissioners, whoever gets elected
next Tuesday, they don't want to spend the entirety of
their turn terms tied up with the process of recovery.
What are some of the other issues that you would
like to see addressed, assuming that you get elected to
(05:10):
another term.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Well, first and foremost, I mean, nothing takes precedence over
the hurricane stuff at the moment. But one of the
things that I think is so important for our city
is that we have so many of our own city
departments and the level of autonomy that provides. Also, I
think we've learned a lot of lessons in this process,
so going forward we will face future storms that what
(05:33):
we just saw this past fall. I have no doubt
that it will not be a seventy year period until
we encounter this again. So all of our coastal communities
need to learn these lessons going forward so that this
can be more efficient next time. And we're hoping that
the state and the federal government are also learning these lessons.
But for us, we want to get rebuilt. We want
to get back to providing services to our residents. We
(05:54):
want to get back to improving our parks, strengthening our
infrastructure like our sewer and waste water systems, and getting
back to the regular work of just steadily improving our city.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Sam Henderson, the Mayor of Gulfport, the incumbent running for
another term, and thank you very much for joining us
here on beyond the news.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Gordon, thank you have a good one
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. This coming Tuesday,
March eleventh, voters in Gulfport will make their choices for
mayor as well as another commission seat in city elections.
Several Panela's talents are holding elections as well, and this
is happening after many of those communities were devastated by
the impacts of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton last year.
(00:20):
Golfport is one of the community's hardest hit. We're speaking
with all the candidates for mayor to find out the
issues they want to see addressed and also to talk
about where Golfport is in its recovery nearly six months later.
In this particular podcast, we're speaking with incumbent Mayor Sam Henderson,
who's running for reelection. Mayor Henderson, thank you very much
for joining us on Beyond the News.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Gordon, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Well. First question for you here, how do you think
Gulfport is doing with the recovery process. What benchmarks are
we up to now, how our homeowners and residents and
business is doing in Gulfport.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I will say that for the first time since since
we were hit by Helene, we are starting to see
the light at the end to the tunnel. It has
been an extremely rough road and I've been here for
everything from the economic downturn, through deep water horizons, economic impacts,
to COVID and now this, And this is the biggest
challenge we faced by far.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
What has been the most unexpected turn for you? That
you've seen something that you weren't exactly expecting to happen
as you deal with the whole process of hurricane recovery
in the city, dealing with all the different agencies, dealing
with damage and permitting and FEMA and the state, and
all of the pieces in the puzzle.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Well, you nailed it right there. It's navigating the process
because I've always prided us on how well we prepare
for hurricanes and how rapidly we're able to clean up
following hurricanes because we've got, you know, unlike a lot
of other small towns in Florida, we have a lot
of our own city departments, such as public works and
emergency services. So in the past we've always fared extremely
(01:54):
well and gotten back on our feet quickly. But this,
as you know, is the hardest that Benall's County has
been hit in a very long time. And the biggest
challenge has been navigating the process with those with those agencies, FEMA,
the State Department of Emergency Management, and the importance of
following those rules in order to protect our economic future.
(02:15):
So that has been the biggest challenge out of everything.
And there's a lot of people suffering in this town,
and so there's a great deal at stake in terms
of serving our constituency.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Residents have raised concerns about the way the permitting process
has worked out and the process of damage assessments and
what that means for the future of their homes. Where
does all that stand now and what would you like
to see done to advance the process assuming that you
get another term.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, a lot of the seven hundred roughly seven hundred
structures we had impacted, we are as of last week,
we are about ninety percent of the way through getting
everyone those substantial damage assessments and those permits. And one
of the biggest challenges has been that the contractor we
were provided by the state, we've actually had to do
a whole lot of cleanup from their initial inspections and surveys.
(03:09):
And I will say that that number is around one
hundred and fifty properties that we had to go back
and correct those initial assessments, and just the onus of
having to follow those FEMA rules and what's at stake
has created a very long mindfield of a process, because
if we don't follow those rules that FEMA has laid out,
we run the risk of losing our status with the
(03:31):
National Flood Insurance Program, which means everyone would see an
insurance increase. If we don't follow those rules, we run
the risk of our residents and the city itself not
getting FEMA reimbursements. And we also run the risk of
not having our areas in our flood zones eligible for
federally subsidized home loans like Fanny Man Freddie Max. So
beyond just the immediate disaster of trying to get people
(03:53):
back in their homes, we're also looking at trying to
preserve our economic future moving forward, because there's, just as
I said, a lot at stake.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
What do Gulf Board residents need right now most as
they are continuing to deal with coming back from the hurricanes, and.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
They need they need their insurance settlements, they need their
FEMA reimbursements. They could really use additional assistance from the
state and the federal government in terms of housing subsidies
to help close the gap while they're waiting to get
back in their homes, or rebuild their homes, or elevate
their homes. And they need to be able to get
(04:30):
this work underway. And as the at our end, having
to administerate these federal and state programs, our hands have
really been tied about how quickly we can move as
we're relying on those resources from the outside and on
these accurate assessments from the folks who are in. The
intent is for them to be here to help.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
I'm sure that the mayor and commissioners, whoever gets elected
next Tuesday, they don't want to spend the entirety of
their turn terms tied up with the process of recovery.
What are some of the other issues that you would
like to see addressed, assuming that you get elected to
(05:10):
another term.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Well, first and foremost, I mean, nothing takes precedence over
the hurricane stuff at the moment. But one of the
things that I think is so important for our city
is that we have so many of our own city
departments and the level of autonomy that provides. Also, I
think we've learned a lot of lessons in this process,
so going forward we will face future storms that what
(05:33):
we just saw this past fall. I have no doubt
that it will not be a seventy year period until
we encounter this again. So all of our coastal communities
need to learn these lessons going forward so that this
can be more efficient next time. And we're hoping that
the state and the federal government are also learning these lessons.
But for us, we want to get rebuilt. We want
to get back to providing services to our residents. We
(05:54):
want to get back to improving our parks, strengthening our
infrastructure like our sewer and waste water systems, and getting
back to the regular work of just steadily improving our city.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Sam Henderson, the Mayor of Gulfport, the incumbent running for
another term, and thank you very much for joining us
here on beyond the news.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Gordon, thank you have a good one
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