Lower than two weeks in the past, Val Stunja was frantically stacking furnishings and belongings on her kitchen countertop. Hurricane Helene was bearing down on the west coast of Florida, and he or she was getting ready her first-floor condominium in St. Petersburg, a Tampa Bay metropolis that sits on a barrier island only a few hundred ft from the Gulf of Mexico.
Stunja, who works as an airline dispatcher, rode out the storm with a buddy on the second ground and watched in horror because the storm surge inundated the streets round her. A wall of water a number of ft deep destroyed virtually the whole lot she owns; outdoors, it pushed automobiles and boats round like toys. Stunja thought she may save her personal car by parking it on increased floor just a few miles inland, however the storm surge flooded it as properly.
Crews had solely simply begun the arduous activity of clearing shattered houses, ruined automobiles, and unfathomable quantities of particles from the neighborhoods round Stunja’s rental when she began to listen to about one other main storm: Milton, a tropical storm which fashioned within the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend and grew with beautiful ferocity right into a Class 5 hurricane over the course of lower than a day on Monday. Stunja was already headed towards a buddy’s house in Sarasota, an hour south of Tampa, when she discovered that the storm was headed proper for her. She circled and tried to fly to her hometown in Texas. When that failed, she received right into a automotive loaned by her insurance coverage firm on Monday afternoon and made for her son’s home in Jacksonville, spending hours in bumper-to-bumper site visitors headed north and east.
“I can’t assume straight,” she stated. “I’m very confused. I haven’t even filed a declare but on my home.”
Stunja is amongst tons of of 1000’s of Floridians staring down a direct hit from a second main hurricane — even earlier than they’ve come anyplace near reckoning with the harm from Hurricane Helene. The fast turnaround has given Florida residents little time to seek out, not to mention regain, their footing. The unfinished cleanup of the mess Helene created may compound the devastation to return from Hurricane Milton, and the one-two punch may have a devastating impression on the state’s capability to get well.
After Milton exploded in depth, turning into a worst-case Class 5 hurricane inside 24 hours, its wind pace surged to almost 180 mph. Meteorologists attribute the fast intensification to record-hot sea floor temperatures made 400 to 800 instances extra probably as a result of local weather change. Forecasters say Hurricane Milton may lash the Florida panhandle with storm surges reaching 12 ft excessive and convey as a lot as 15 inches of rain, doubtlessly creating flash floods. Republican Governor Ron DeSantis had declared a state of emergency for greater than 50 counties as of Monday, and a number of other have been underneath evacuation orders — together with many instructed simply 14 days in the past to evacuate forward of Helene.
“Plenty of the harm that occurred with Helene goes to worsen,” stated Carlos Martin, director of the Reworking Futures Program on the Harvard Joint Middle for Housing Research.
Wreckage from Helene might be whipped into the air by Hurricane Milton. Within the Tampa Bay space, greater than 300 autos carted damaged furnishings and different trash to a landfill on Sunday, whereas lifeguards eliminated chairs and different objects from seashores. Sarasota County, simply south of Tampa, stated it was focusing “all efforts on eradicating Hurricane Helene particles” in probably the most susceptible locations, and the county lifted landfill charges for folks residing in unincorporated areas.
Progress has been exceedingly sluggish, nonetheless; the mayor of Clearwater, a metropolis simply north of St. Petersburg, stated on Sunday that solely 5 % of the particles on Clearwater Seashore had been cleared. Some residents don’t assume town and the Federal Emergency Administration Company are doing sufficient to clear away the wreckage forward of the upcoming storm.
“That is going to all be weapons,” Clearwater resident Monika Spaldo stated, referring to the waterlogged furnishings and trash surrounding her. “The particles from all of that is going to hit home windows, roofs, automobiles, folks. … It’s going to fly and destroy the whole lot.”
Spaldo is a property supervisor at Coconut Grove, a beachside condominium complicated that was broken by storm surge from Hurricane Helene. Within the days following the storm, she felt so sick from publicity to soiled floodwaters and refuse that she virtually went to the hospital. With Hurricane Milton quickly approaching, she is terrified by all of the particles lining the streets — and what the storm to return will imply for the city’s future.
“I don’t know the way we’re ever going to get well,” she stated. “Every little thing on the island goes to be destroyed.”
In the meantime, consultants are involved that the 2 disasters putting in fast succession will complicate the important strategy of submitting insurance coverage claims so as to make victims complete for the monetary harm they’ve suffered. Those that skilled losses throughout Helene are alleged to doc them earlier than evacuating forward of Milton, in order that claims adjusters can differentiate the harm attributable to the 2 occasions. Lisa Miller, a former deputy insurance coverage commissioner for Florida, referred to as the scenario “unparalleled.”
“All bets are off,” she added.
AP Photograph / Mike Carlson
For a lot of victims, submitting insurance coverage claims so shortly may properly be not possible, given the fast sequence of occasions and the urgency of present evacuation orders. In Sarasota County on Monday, residents have been urged to depart instantly. “For those who wait, you’ll get caught in site visitors,” a authorities web site warned.
Some folks could, like Stunja, head to family’ houses in safer areas. However as a result of Helene reached as much as 500 miles inland in some components of Florida, they might need to journey a lot farther than that to seek out appropriate lodging. Others could have to take shelter in faculties or athletic services, that are listed in a county-by-county listing compiled by the Florida Division of Emergency Administration.
The Federal Emergency Administration Company usually steps in to run shelters throughout main emergencies, however its capability could also be restricted by a main staffing scarcity because it continues to take care of the aftermath of Hurricane Helene — together with fires, flooding, landslides, and tornadoes in a number of different states.
In the long term, the storms could exacerbate Florida’s insurance coverage disaster. “Individuals’s premiums are going to undergo the roof,” stated Martin of the Reworking Futures Program on the Harvard Joint Middle for Housing Research. The state is already the costliest within the nation for house insurance coverage, in accordance with a 2024 report by Insurify, a digital insurance coverage agent. Helene and Milton may improve the price of housing in different methods as properly. Buildings that have been broken throughout Helene may grow to be unrecoverable after Milton, making it tougher for folks to return.
Sara McTarnaghan, a principal analysis affiliate on the nonprofit coverage analysis group the City Institute, stated Florida hasn’t even but recovered from vulnerabilities in its housing inventory which have been created by storms that struck years in the past, together with Idalia, Ian, and Michael.
“Many components of Florida have skilled a number of occasions over the previous 5 to 10 years, which is the timeline for restoration and making repairs to current housing,” she stated. “Relying on the trajectory of Hurricane Milton it might be hitting a susceptible housing inventory and we might be seeing extra lack of models, extra pricey repairs.”
As Stunja prepares to experience out Hurricane Milton in Jacksonville, she nonetheless doesn’t know what she’s going to do after the storm passes. She’s simply begun to work by way of her flood insurance coverage declare with FEMA, however the surge from Milton may flood each flooring of her rental constructing. If that occurs, she doesn’t assume she’ll be capable of keep.
“If the second ground will get water on this one, the constructing’s in all probability a tear-down,” she stated. “If that occurs, I’ll go off-island. I like Florida, however I don’t have to be on the seaside.”
Jake Bittle and Ayurella Horn-Muller contributed reporting to this story.