(NewsNation) — For more than a week, Hurricane Milton was forecasted to make direct landfall over the Tampa Bay area. Yet, in a last-minute wobble, the Category 3 storm veered away from the city Wednesday and spared locals from an anticipated massive storm surge.
Instead, the hurricane made landfall in Siesta Key as a Category 3 storm Wednesday night.
Now, Pinellas County residents are thanking a benevolent spirit they say guards them from storms and other hazards.
The Tocobaga Tribe lore
Local legend has it that mounds built by the Tocobaga tribe hundreds of years ago protected the area from major storms for centuries.
The tribe lived in small villages between what is now Safety Harbor and the Gandy area, from 900 to the 1500s, but died out from disease and violence from Spanish settlers in the 17th century, according to Pinellas County’s website.
In those villages, the tribe would build mounds made of layers of shells and sand. The mounds were used as temples, homes and burial grounds. The oldest remaining one is located near Old Tampa Bay.
Some locals claim the tribe blessed the mounds for protection from hurricanes and other hazards, but we have yet to confirm the validity of their story.
“The Tocobaga tribe legend is big down here. People feel it keeps us safe,” Largo resident Denise Walenter-Just told NewsNation.
Locals praise Tocobaga for averting Milton
Milton tracked to the south in the final hours and landed as a Category 3 storm Wednesday night in Siesta Key, about 70 miles south of Tampa. While it caused a lot of damage and water levels may continue to rise for days, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said it was not “the worst-case scenario.”
The deadly storm surge feared for Tampa appears not to have materialized, though the situation in the area was still a major emergency. The storm brought up to 18 inches of rain to spots in the Tampa and St. Petersburg areas.
DeSantis said that the worst storm surge appeared to be in Sarasota County, where it was 8 to 10 feet — less than in the worst place during Helene.
“Everyone is thanking the Tocobaga for not getting a direct hit,” Walenter-Just said.
Tampa City Councilman Bill Carlson said Thursday he and his neighbors were relieved when Milton took a last-minute turn away from their hometown.
Carlson attributed the hurricane’s southern wobble to the Native American spirit.
“Many people in the area believe there’s a Native American spirit there that protects us from storms because it seems like every time a storm comes it either turns left or turns right,” Carlson said.
The region didn’t escape the hurricane entirely. Carlson lives in a mandatory evacuation zone and spoke to NewsNation remotely from a hotel. Many people are still without power, and the city is asking residents not to venture out yet, cautioning about flooding and downed power lines.
Did Tocobaga legend cost lives?
While locals thank the Tocobaga spirit, the legend has the potential to cause more harm than good in the Tampa Bay area.
When Hurricane Helene dragged along Florida’s western coast, residents refused to evacuate thinking the hit wouldn’t do much damage to their area.
However, local officials warned Floridians to evacuate ahead of the storm, saying Helene’s storm surge could be deadly.
It was. At least 12 people died in Pinellas County from the Category 4 storm. Helene hit the Tampa Bay area harder than any other hurricane in 103 years.
While the property damage was mostly unavoidable, there didn’t have to be any deaths — the National Hurricane Center issued its first storm surge warning two days before Helene arrived, telling the barrier islands’ residents they should pack up and get out.
Helene’s devastation shocked locals.
Walenter-Just said Pinellas County doesn’t normally flood that bad before, so people don’t evacuate, even though the news was stressing that Helene was going to be bad.
“People have had water before but four feet inside your home is just unimaginable,” she said.
For Helene, most of Walenter-Just’s neighbors and friends decided to stay put. She was also going to stay at her home just over the Indian Rocks Causeway Bridge but decided when Helene approached to retreat further inland to her daughter’s place.
For Milton, Walenter-Just boarded up her home and planned to stay with her daughter from the beginning. She wasn’t taking any chances.
Helene’s devastation prevented additional casualties
Seminole, Florida, resident Harry Berg rode out Hurricane Milton with his family instead of evacuating. He told NewsNation on Thursday morning that if he had to make that decision all over again, he wouldn’t stay.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.
After a very long night and lots of flooding, Berg concluded that he was grateful for Helene’s initial impact. He explained that Helene gave the Tampa Bay area a “little kiss” on its way by, leaving some destruction in its wake along the Pinellas County coastline. By doing so, it instilled a bit of fear within the locals.
“Everybody thinks that the Tampa Bay area is always going to be spared because of the Tocobago Indian lore,” he said.
He said that because Helene hit just under two weeks ago, millions of people evacuated from the western coastline out of fear that what could happen with Milton would be worse than Helene. Berg ultimately believes the evacuations lowered Milton’s casualty count.
The Associated Press and NewsNation affiliate WFLA contributed to this report.