Tucked away just south of St. Petersburg in Pinellas County, the coastal town of Gulfport boasts old-world charm: bungalows built in the 1960s, a plethora of small businesses, and locals who have been around for years.

But after three major hurricanes and a quarter of his land flooded, Mayor Sam Henderson said he’s worried about how Gulfport might not look the same once the pieces are put back together.

Henderson has been the city’s mayor since 2013, after serving on the city council since 2009. This year, he is also visiting professor in environmental science at USF St. Petersburg’s Judy Genshaft Honors College.

“It’s that kind of thing, the willingness, even when someone is going through a difficult time, to want to reach out and be there for others,” he said, reflecting on how the “good-natured spirit” of his constituents has brilliant during this time. .

“I really welcome this kind of behavior.”

We spoke with Henderson about how Gulfport is trying to return to a sense of normalcy, including what it’s like to lead students, an entire city and himself to recovery.

The devastating effects, he said, began with Hurricane Debby.

“That one took us by surprise, so we ended up with a lot of ships coming ashore, some storms, some coastal flooding,” he said. “For me, that hurricane is kind of what started our journey, because it really set the tone for the storms to come.”

As the mayor of Gulfport, could you briefly tell me how the city was affected by hurricanes Helene and Milton?

Helene was of course the most vicious in terms of damage. We had about 25% of our acreage in Gulfport that was flooded. A lot of residents, a lot of businesses were affected. Indeed, many of our municipal facilities were also affected. And we’re still in the process of going through and making those adjustments as we try to clear things up and get people on the road to recovery.

So with the recovery efforts, is there a concern of gentrification or maybe a loss of longtime community members who have been present in Gulfport?

Absolutely, and we’re already seeing some of these losses before the hurricane, just with the spikes in the housing market and people being priced out.

If your structure was a loss, then you have to rebuild to what FEMA refers to as the base flood elevation, which is a height that can range from, you know, a foot to over 10 feet above the flood elevation , which means raising structures, which change the scale of the city, which greatly increases the cost of reconstruction.

So we’re very concerned about that for our residents who are being displaced because that changes the demographics of who can live here and that 100% will force some people out against their will through no fault of their own. You know, roll the dice from Mother Nature.

And with such severe impacts, I wanted to ask you, beyond the physical damage, have you noticed an impact on people’s mental health, including your own?

Oh, absolutely. I mean, I’m definitely a believer that hope and despair can occupy the same space. And every day, we see that, you know, there are days that are good days and days that are bad days, so there’s a lot of sadness and pain and disbelief. And so the reality we see now is quite hard for people, not only for their personal losses.

For example, the people on the side of town where I live, who are above, we haven’t been flooded here on the north side of town, but it’s just a general sense of loss of the Gulfport that we knew and loved let’s go in this storm, you know, a real desire to go back to what we had.

Yes, it was quite powerful and it is quite tangible. When you go out and talk to people and drive and see the difference in what the city looks like and knowing how many people have been displaced and how many people are going through struggles or trying to figure out what the next move is. it is, it is very disturbing

For you personally, holding such an important position as the mayor of Gulfport, and then you’re also a teacher. I was wondering how you might have balanced your own journey, your own recovery, with the need to represent yourself to the people you know, your constituents.

Personally, I feel like I didn’t balance it well. In terms of my mental and emotional health, I had a hard time sleeping. It’s been a lot of jumping back and forth from task to task, but in terms of feeling like it’s a collaborative effort, whether it’s helping the students make that transition and get through the semester, or helping the residents and business owners to get the answers and results and connections they need with other agencies to move forward.

It’s been very uplifting in some ways, but it’s definitely exhausting, and there are a lot of people who have a lot more weight on their shoulders than I do, but it definitely took a toll.