Milton and Helene are negatively impacting the mental well-being of Florida residents, leading to a surge of anxiety and worn-out nerves.
Hurricane Milton went berserk outside, blowing up transformers. The floodwaters from Milton, driven by the hurricane, surged in through the windows late on a Wednesday. This resulted in their refrigerator slowly drifting away.
Henry shared their story with CNN the day after, expressing anxiety and courage. They feared getting electrocuted and leaving their children vulnerable. Henry's daughter, about to turn 11, had expressed her fear of dying on her birthday. With newfound courage, Henry managed to guide their children to a neighbor's house on higher ground. Their home, located around 35 miles east of Tampa, wasn't even in an evacuation zone.
Florida is currently dealing with a wave of stress, uncertainty, and fear, according to experts. This wave could have long-term effects.
Milton has already taken at least 17 lives in Florida, bringing lethal storm surges, torrential rains, and dozens of tornadoes. This was just two weeks after another "once in a lifetime" storm, Helene, caused another 20 fatalities.
These back-to-back hurricanes have left a trail of devastation, despair, and jittery nerves. Experts warn that this could make Floridians more prone to depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister was emotional as he witnessed the flooding about 20 miles east of Tampa in Valrico. The floodwaters from the Alafia River were six feet deep in some areas, touching the house walls.
A flood warning was issued for the river in Lithia as it surpassed major flood stage on Thursday and exceeded more than 24 feet on Friday. In Hillsborough County alone, first responders have rescued over 700 people since Milton made landfall on Wednesday night as a Category 3 storm near Siesta Key, on Florida's west coast, with 120 mph sustained winds.
"Where do those people go that don't have family? They don't have friends. They don't have the money to get a hotel. What happens to them?" Chronister questioned, referring to locals still losing homes days after Milton made landfall.
Even after the floodwaters recede, the stress and anxiety can lead to enduring mental health issues.
According to a 2022 study, Florida residents who survived Hurricanes Irma and Michael in 2017 and 2018 were more likely to experience complex mental health problems. Hurricanes and flooding generate anxiety, depression, and stress. Storms can intensify existing mental health problems or prompt new ones. And the biggest health concern from a flood might be mental, studies have shown.
"What we're seeing now is much more intense in terms of repeated exposure," said Dana Rose Garfin, a psychologist and public health professor at UCLA who co-authored the 2022 study.
"There's the psychological aspect of not really having time to recover and prepare before you're on to the next crisis," Garfin explained. "But in this case, there was the physical inability to recover from the disaster before the next one hit. People were still clearing the debris."
‘Your heart breaks for these people’
Over a million utility customers in Florida were still without power over the weekend, as per PowerOutage.us. The areas with the highest number of outages were those where Milton made landfall, including Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee, and Sarasota counties.
Milton brought the ocean's wrath ashore with several feet of storm surge, three months’ worth of rain in three hours in some areas, and a deadly tornado outbreak. It churned from the Gulf to the Atlantic, damaging homes, uprooting trees, tossing boats and trucks like toys, flooding roads, and even shredding the roof of Major League Baseball's Tropicana Field in downtown St. Petersburg.
On Thursday, Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies rescued about 135 elderly people, many using wheelchairs or walkers, who were trapped in waist-deep water at a Tampa assisted-living facility where many had been taken to from an evacuation zone.
"They were evacuated from Bradenton to stay safe," Chronister, who has been with the sheriff's office for over three decades, told CNN, his voice full of emotion. "This is a neighborhood that doesn't have much."
Water reached up to four feet into the first floors of buildings in the largely Latino community, he said. Their church, their cars, and more were gone.
"They have very little ... and they've lost everything," Chronister said. "These are people that live day to day and they have nothing ... Your heart breaks for these people."
As they waited to be loaded onto a school bus, some residents in wheelchairs, still shivering, described spending the night with their feet in the cold floodwaters that entered through windows and air conditioning vents.
Concerns about the mental health effects of back-to-back disasters come as researchers predict more frequent extreme weather events.
A study published last year in the journal Nature Climate Change found rising sea levels and climate-driven hazards could make destructive back-to-back hurricanes more common, particularly in areas such as the Gulf Coast.
"When we talk about a new era, we have to recognize these kinds of possibilities," said Ning Lin, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Princeton University and co-author of the research paper.
"Initially, we weren't considering how to handle one disaster," she mentioned. "People generally haven't considered dealing with multiple calamities sequentially."
Consecutive crises make recuperation more challenging
On a Wednesday, as Milton made its landfall, Sara Lesker managed to weather the storm in her St. Petersburg residence, relocating there just two months prior from Long Island, New York. She bunkered down with her 15-month-old daughter, who watched a Trolls movie during the night, and their two felines.
"The weather here is distinct," she shared with CNN. "We anticipated storms alongside sunshine, but the double hurricanes within less than ten days weren't anticipated."
Approximately 60 miles east that same night, in Lakeland, a WFLA TV crew eventually rescued Henry and her children after they were stranded in a flood-submerged dwelling for seven consecutive hours.
Currently, they're without a home; the family car submerged, she reported.
"I possess nothing. Me and my children didn't even own footwear. The only items we have are wet garments on our backs," Henry declared. Social security cards, birth certificates, and crucial papers are missing.
She captured footage that night showcasing the floodwaters surging within the household.
"I pleaded to God, save us. God, save us. This water is so tall. It's rising the cabinets," Henry proclaimed in the video.
From a neighbor's dwelling, Henry reported, she spotted a person up the road and called for aid before being rescued by the news crew.
"It felt like a movie, the worst nightmare yet I'm grateful I'm actually able to speak about it now," Henry stated.
The profound psychological impact of Florida's back-to-back calamities has yet to be gauged, said Dr. Gail Saltz, a clinical psychiatry professor at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Nevertheless, research suggests the hurricanes will increase vulnerability to mental health disorders and likely complicate recovery, she explained.
"This is exactly what's apparent in Florida right now," she added.
In Bartow, Florida, Kayla Lane, her brother, and mother were roused early Thursday by Milton's howling winds that destroyed a tree onto their home's roof. Insulation and additional debris showered the living room couch where they had been seated less than an hour earlier.
"Now, it's a squirrel's den," Lane described what remained of their family dwelling, 40 miles east of Tampa.
At a hotel for the time being, Lane said, her family is "healthy, physically. Emotionally, perhaps not."
Contributions from CNN’s Isabel Rosales, Ashley R. Williams, Christina Zdanowicz, Amanda Jackson, Emma Tucker, Cindy Von Quednow, Cheri Mossburg, Chelsea Bailey, Caroll Alvarado, Rebekah Riess, Devon Sayers, Mary Gilbert, Andy Rose, Zoe Scottie, Taylor Romine, and Paradise Afshar went into this report.
Despite their home being located outside of an evacuation zone, Henry and their children had to flee due to Hurricane Milton's destructive impacts. Stranded in their flooded house, they displayed remarkable courage, guiding their children to safety at a neighbor's house.
Facing difficulty in rebuilding their lives, Henry expressed concern about their future, questioning where people without resources go during such crises.
