As the days stretch into months after Tampa Bay’s most destructive hurricane season in a century, the lonely slog of recovery has only just begun. Coping grows harder as the early hours of adrenaline fade into the purgatory of getting by. Housing is scarce. Endless paperwork bleeds into numbing hours on hold.

If you’ve driven around Tampa Bay since the hurricanes, you’ve seen downed trees in the thousands. Many had a story. There was the oak in Clearwater that shaded a home at sunset, keeping energy costs down.