INDIAN ROCKS BEACH — A temporary flood barrier now rings City Hall, part of an effort to keep the city’s headquarters running through the next hurricane.
Crews installed the AquaFence system around the building at 1507 Bay Palm Blvd. earlier this month, nearly two years after hurricanes Helene and Milton pushed floodwaters as high as 5 feet through this barrier island community and left the historic structure uninhabitable. The city bought the system with $476,000 in state funding that then-Mayor Denise Houseberg announced in July.
“This is a proactive measure,” City Manager Ryan Henderson said during a visit to the site Sept. 3. “I think it demonstrates how serious we are about keeping things running during a storm, and we were very fortunate to have had the state representatives working with us who had the foresight to understand how important this system could be for our city.”
The barrier stands about 5 feet high and goes up in sections that can be taken down once hurricane season ends Nov. 30. City officials concede it is not much to look at. What matters, they said, is that it keeps the building and everything inside it from being destroyed again.
That destruction was thorough the first time. The 2024 storms closed City Hall for a year, forcing city meetings into local churches and hotels. Computers, filing systems, desks and other essential equipment were ruined as well, sending officials and staff into a nomadic existence as they kept the city’s day-to-day operations going.
“This system goes a long way toward the continuation of operations to ensure that we can still function in a storm,” Henderson said. “We can remove this at the end of hurricane season and store this off-site and redeploy it next year.”
The system also has open access points that can be closed easily, he said.
AquaFence barriers remain uncommon in the Tampa Bay area, though not unheard of. Tampa General Hospital has used one for years, and another surrounds a wastewater treatment plant in St. Petersburg. Henderson said the system suited Indian Rocks Beach because it protects the building without permanently altering it.
“This building is beautiful. It fits the community and it’s definitely who we are,” he said. “This city has an identity, and City Hall matches that identity.”
Henderson added: “I think the community recognizes we all went through the storms of 2024 together, and many neighbors were displaced. We were displaced from our home, too. And we need to be responsive to their needs. And if City Hall is operational, that’s how we can best serve the community.”