Does Tampa/St. Pete Have A Levee System Like New Orleans??

[Sean in New Orleans]

Just wondering if Tampa/St. Pete has an adequate levee system to protect from the storm surge? If not--they need to get out of dodge!!

[mf_dolphin]

Nope. We're as flat as a board here.

[Lowpressure]

No, it has a minimal sea wall, maybe three feet in some places and none at all in others. New Orleans has a sea wall to help with river flood issues.

[Sean in New Orleans]

Our levees are for river flooding on the river, but the entire metro area is completely surrounded by levees to protect us from storm surge, as well. This encompasses a majority of our levees. The river levee is less than 10% of our levee system.

[flnative]

Lived in Tampa... No levees on that side of the bay either. Largest hostpital is right on the water of bay.

[Sean in New Orleans]

Lived in Tampa... No levees on that side of the bay either. Largest hostpital is right on the water of bay.

Why such poor planning being on the Gulf???

[Dmetal81]

If you look at the evacuation plan posted on a previous thread you'll see that there is not only a hospital on the bay, but many schools shelters, and even an airport. They havent had a big one it seems in the 1900's I guess they thought they never would.....

[flnative]

Lots of reasons. Tampa feels bullet proof since they always seem to get away with near misses. Don't want to destroy the view maybe- this is a tourist state. Don't want to remind the non natives who are spending their big money for real estate just how vulnerable it is. Part of it is that Tampa is an old city and a major port from way back and you cannot just move a city. Levees on the other hand would make some sense. So many people who live in Florida have never been through a storm so they don't want to spend the money when they don't understand the danger.