ST. PETERSBURG — Households and businesses in northeast St. Petersburg will be able to flush toilets, take showers and do laundry beginning at midnight tonight ahead of schedule.
Mayor Ken Welch announced Friday at a 5:30 p.m. news conference that with help from an emergency contractor, crews are bringing the Northeast Water Reclamation Facility back online piece by piece. The city announced its decision to shut off the sewage plant at 10:46 p.m. Thursday near peak storm surge from Hurricane Helene.
City officials knew but did not reveal until 5:30 p.m. Thursday, past the window to evacuate, that there was a 50-50 chance the plant would have to be turned off to avoid prolonged damage. The northeast plant, the lowest-lying of the city’s three sewage plants, could not handle 7 feet of storm surge. The city had expected for days to see a historic storm surge of 5 to 8 feet…