Tampa’s Forest Hills neighborhood isn’t supposed to flood. Neither are the neighborhoods behind Fowler Ave.

Many residents and business owners there don’t have flood insurance, since most dwellings occupy zone X, the highest and driest ground across the city, with a 0.2 percent or less chance of flooding.

But after Hurricane Milton, Tampa’s mayor Jane Castor referred to the area surrounding Fowler Ave. as “Lake Fowler,” where cars and mailboxes lay submerged as residents waded across the street to each other. About 135 guests at an assisted living facility nearby were rescued from waist-deep waters, including some who were wheelchair-bound.

On North Boulevard, floodwaters had risen above car windshields. Residents paddled kayaks and skiffs down the road, stopping to chat with neighbors who stood in knee deep water in their driveways.

What happened?

At a Friday news conference, Tampa mayor Jane Castor said the issues were caused by pump failures and generator failures. A mix of city and county pumps delicately control lake levels in the Forest Hills neighborhood.

Castor said the city was working to pump water out at a rate of 30,000 gallons per minute from the Fowler area. As of Saturday morning, the Forest Hills neighborhood had restored power to three pumps with generators and was installing a fourth generator, where water levels rose at Lake Eckles. Water levels had “significantly decreased overnight” on N. Boulevard and 109th, according to the Forest Hills Neighborhood Association.

The city’s mobility director Vik Bhide said having a generator in place initially would have helped.

“To be clear, if we had a generator out there, it would have kicked in, and that would have helped the situation out,” Bhide said. “Having said that, the fact is that while we have plenty of pumping stations with generators out there, we don’t have them everywhere. That is something that we will be looking at when we do a hot wash after these two storms, especially given that we expect these kinds of storms.”

Bhide said the reason there was no backup generator is because places like Forest Hills don’t usually flood.

“They don’t usually get 11 inches of rain, and it’s obvious that we have to prepare much more broadly, but this isn’t unique to just the city of Tampa,” he said. “That’s true for most cities where between the cost and the value, there are considerations that will change.”

Castor said she would have loved to have enough generators for all the downed traffic signals too.

City councilman Luis Viera has been asking for answers.

He said his first priority is how to provide equity and the restitution for those impacted.

“The buck stops here,” he said. “There’s a lot of anxiety out there. There’s a lot of hopelessness, there’s a lot of anger.”

The city set up neighborhood relief stations at Copeland Park and the Babe Zacharias Golf Course, where Viera and Castor met with residents Friday.

As residents stocked up on emergency drinking water and waited in line for hot dogs sizzling on a nearby grill, Castor tried to quell their anxiety, but said she wasn’t certain lake levels wouldn’t flood even more homes.

“I wish I could give that guarantee and that peace of mind to all the residents, but we did not forecast the flooding that we’re seeing now,” she said. “What I can say is that we’re doing everything we can.”

Tito Marquetti, 34, was checking on a house that had been in his wife’s family for generations.

“I grew up here, and can say I’ve never seen people kayaking down North Boulevard,” he said.

Miriam and Alex Rivera were among the few whose homes didn’t flood in Forest Hills. They watched at least five neighbors flee as water entered their homes.

Gilberto Pagan, 71, moved from New York to the 10900 block of North Blvd four years ago. He stood outside gazing at flood waters that had risen above some neighbors’ mailboxes and water lapped at a Toyota belonging to his niece. Flooding hadn’t crossed his mind.

“Well, there’s the first time for everything,” he said.