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The Physical and Emotional Pain Lasts Long After the Repairs
Having survived a CAT Four hurricane years ago, each new storm reminds me of that trauma.
First, you see yards littered with unending damaged furniture and salt-water-soaked drywall. Then, you are drawn to their eyes. There is fear and sadness in the faces that never go away. They are exhausted from cleaning up and talking with endless insurance company personnel. They have not slept or eaten well in days. As you enter what is left of the storm survivors’ homes and witness the carnage, you start to understand the depth of the trauma.
The above photograph was taken on October 5, 2024, in the Harbor Isles neighborhood of St. Petersburg, Florida. A category-four (out of a maximum of five) storm, Hurricane Helene, landed in Florida's sparsely populated “Big Bend” area. About 100 miles to the south, the same storm impacted my city and the most densely populated county in the state—Pinellas. The storm surge was a record 8–9 feet about mean low tide.
This surge seems small compared to the 15-foot wall of water that came ashore in Perry, Florida, well to our north. But many homes, businesses, apartments, and condos sit on or very close to the water. When high tide occurred around midnight on September 27, massive flooding resulted.
Our friends’ home is only one story and took on several feet of water. Being in one of the earliest evacuation zones, they were not home for the storm. When they returned, they found several feet of fetid salt water in the house, which took almost a day to recede.
A day later, a nearby sewage treatment facility failed from the storm, and feces were in their house, too. Mold quickly grew, and they were forced to move to a hotel. Their daughters’ home was damaged, too. We helped them today remove some of the debris. No one knows when all of the mountains of wreckage will be picked up as officials say there is not enough room in the local landfills.
Surviving A Category Four Hurricane
My ex-wife and I experienced Hurricane Frederick in 1979 while we lived in Mobile, Alabama. The storm was relatively dry, and we did not live near the water, so we did not experience flooding. However, the winds were ferocious.
