Duke Energy Florida will announce on Wednesday recipients of $50,000 grants to Pinellas County-based organizations, an event timed to honor the anniversary of last year’s Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

The back-to-back hurricanes, which wrought destruction across the region, made landfall in Florida just two weeks apart. Helen struck the Big Bend region on Sept. 26, 2024. Though it didn’t make landfall anywhere near Pinellas County, the area experienced extensive and catastrophic flooding from significant storm surge.

Milton hit just south of Tampa Bay, near Siesta Key, on Oct. 9. While flooding was not as big of an issue from Milton, sustained tropical storm-force winds from the “dirty side of the storm” caused widespread structural damage, including blowing the roof off Tropicana Field

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