TREASURE ISLAND, Fla. — Tampa Bay Beaches Chamber President Robin Miller said she can count on her hands how many beach businesses in Pinellas County have reopened after back-to-back hurricanes Helene and Milton.

What You Need To Know

  • Beaches Chamber President Robin Miller estimates less than 5 percent of businesses are currently operational 

  • Miller is concerned the beaches won't look the same visually and esthetically 

  • There's no grant process available for businesses — only loans, according to Miller 

  • Miller said Sanibel Captiva has not yet fully recovered two years after Hurricane Ian 

“I’m severely worried about the businesses,” she said. “Some of them just may not be able to continue to do what they were doing.”

Miller estimated less than 5 percent of businesses from Tierra Verde to Sand Key in Clearwater are operational. She spent the past two weeks visiting all of the businesses and said owners feel hopeless.

“They’re breaking… how do they now open again? Can they? Will they?” Miller asked. “They have employees who are sitting and waiting to know if they’re going to be called into work.”

The chamber president said there are no grants available for business owners, only loans, and many do not have flood insurance.

“In some cases we do have some businesses that are lease holders. So they had insurance for contents in but not necessarily flood,” she said. “If a structure is fully owned they weren’t required to have flood and so that’s the conundrum that exists.”

Tourism fuels beach businesses, which Miller points out will obviously slow down as the beaches and businesses are in the rebuilding phase.

“My biggest concern is we know that this is not going to look the same,” she said. “Visually, esthetically.”

Last year, tourism had an economic impact of nearly $11 billion in Pinellas County with $98 million collected in bed taxes alone.

“It's going to be a long road. Depending on which beach community we're going to see quicker operations where there is new construction and resilient buildings. They're able to open quicker,” she said. “Tourism is definitely impacted and going to be impacted (in the) future. My colleagues in Sanibel Captiva, it was their two year anniversary of (Hurricane) Ian and he said two years, they still weren't even 100 percent back.”   

Miller said the Chamber has been trying to give business owners hope and show them a way forward. She said they’ll do a ribbon cutting at every business when it opens.