Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Treasure Island, FL

Treasure Island is a city in Pinellas County situated on a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico, on Florida's west coast.

The island got its name early in the 20th century, around 1915, when property owners trying to boost land sales secretly buried wooden chests on the beach and then pretended to discover buried treasure.

The Great Gale of 1848 carved out John's Pass at the island's north end and split off the two smaller islands now called the Isle of Palms and the Isle of Capri.

Long before development, the Tocobaga people settled the Treasure Island area in small communities beginning around 300 CE.

Treasure Island was incorporated on May 3, 1955, when the towns of Boca Ciega, Sunset Beach and Sunshine Beach merged with Treasure Island into a single city.

Treasure Island had 6,584 residents at the 2020 census, and it skews notably old: the median age was 60.1 years, and 37.5% of residents were 65 or older.

Treasure Island has around 3,800 households, but they are small, averaging only about 1.7 people each, and fewer than 8% of households include children under 18.

Treasure Island promotes itself as the 'Sand Sculpture Capital of Florida.'

Much of Treasure Island sits only about three feet above sea level, leaving the barrier-island city highly exposed to storm surge from Gulf hurricanes.