More than a month after Hurricane Milton toppled the laurel oak, sending it slicing through shingle and cinderblock, the mangled roof of the house still yawned open to the sky. Fuzzy clumps of insulation blew across the living room floor.

Tampa Bay – the nation's most vulnerable metro area to storm surge – could be about to see its worst flooding in over a century.

If you’ve driven around Tampa Bay since the hurricanes, you’ve seen downed trees in the thousands. Many had a story. There was the oak in Clearwater that shaded a home at sunset, keeping energy costs down.