ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Residents and crews worked to clean up after Debby in St. Petersburg Monday.

At the edge of the flooded Shore Acres neighborhood, Michael Larkin said he was feeling thankful.

“We got lucky,” said Larkin. “We didn’t have any flooding here - some water in the streets. But unfortunately, I’m looking down at my neighbors. I don’t think they were so lucky.”

Larkin said he spent the morning cleaning up storm debris in his yard on 14th Lane Northeast. St. Petersburg officials spent the afternoon surveying other parts of the city for damage.

“Right now, we’ve got about 65 tree tickets that we’re working,” Community Enrichment Administrator Mike Jefferis said at a site on Union St. where crews worked to remove a large limb from a stop sign. “We’re coming across trees that are either too saturated from all the rain we’ve had, they’re completely uprooted, or we’re coming upon situations like this, where we have stop signs that have been damaged.”

According to the city, nearly 400 team members spent Monday assessing damage from Debby. They found more than 50 downed trees and flooding. 

“It could have been much worse,” said Mayor Ken Welch.

Welch thanked crews for their clean-up efforts Monday afternoon. St. Petersburg has been looking at ways to mitigate worsening flooding - holding public meetings on resiliency efforts and installing new backflow preventers in flood-prone Shore Acres. Welch said storms like this one show the need for planning ahead.

“This was, again, a tropical storm that was well to our west, and given how far away it was, you’ve seen the impacts, and so we have to continue to invest in our infrastructure for that day when we do have a storm that’s closer to us,” Welch said.

“I do feel like it happens every six months,” said Larkin. “So, I think it’s the new normal, unfortunately.”

The city said damage assessments will continue Tuesday.