Hurricane Ian Southwest Florida housing crisis families weigh next stips

In the streets of Southwest Florida, soggy mountains of furnishings, drywall and insulation sign one other looming storm.

Hurricane Ian’s wrath final month destroyed 1000’s of houses, throwing storm-battered residents right into a housing market that was already unaffordable.

The numbers trickling out spell the toll: In Lee County, officers have to this point deemed greater than 5,000 houses destroyed and one other practically 13,000 with main harm. Charlotte County spokesman Brian Gleason mentioned employees there have been nonetheless conducting harm assessments however that the county is anticipating a housing crisis “both right now and for the long term.”

PHOTOS: Residents struggle after flooding | Downtown Fort Myers two weeks later

Federal emergency officers have helped greater than 1,300 households relocate to lodges or motels and have put in greater than 2,200 non permanent roofs on broken houses. Residents can obtain as much as about $38,000 in FEMA help for misplaced property, President Joe Biden mentioned at a current news convention, which is accessible to each householders and renters.

Even with FEMA’s assist, an unsure future awaits Hurricane Ian’s victims who’re seeking a place to call home again. They are a part of a rising housing crisis on Florida’s Gulf Coast within the aftermath of one of many nation’s worst storms. 

One seeks a cushty refuge for a most cancers affected person’s ultimate months. Another goals of a mountain home removed from the shoreline. Still others need to keep in Florida however do not fairly know methods to make it occur.

These are their tales.

ROD QUINLAN: ‘One day at a time’

Each day because the storm, Rod Quinlan has been elbow-deep within the muck of what’s left of his home.

He discovered two priceless watches throughout one expedition. On one other, he dug out a tiny vase that saved the remaining ashes of his spouse’s mother and father.

“It was a stroke of luck,” Quinlan, 64, mentioned.

He and his spouse, Cynthia, had emigrated from Zimbabwe to the states years in the past and, in 2000, settled in Florida, most lately in a rental dwelling on East Riverside Drive alongside the Caloosahatchee River.

Home grew to become particularly necessary a yr in the past, when Cynthia was recognized with stage 4 pancreatic most cancers. The dwelling on the river, close to her household and her docs, was speculated to be her ultimate resting place.

But the serene, sensible location grew to become a legal responsibility when Ian slammed into Lee County. Storm surge swept into the house, slamming furnishings, breaking apart partitions, “like a washing machine had tumbled everything they have and spread it everywhere,” mentioned Lee Ailant, Cynthia’s daughter and Rod’s step-daughter.

“Each day, it’s really sunk in,” Rod Quinlan mentioned. “I started to feel it was quite overwhelming. Goodness me. That’s our whole life, disappeared in the snap of a finger.”

They’ve been staying with Ailant, her husband and the couple’s 4-year-old son in Ailant’s cottage in Alva. Ailant’s son has been sleeping in her and her husband’s room so she might flip her son’s room into a cushty place for her mom. At simply 1,000 sq. ft, it’s not a long-term resolution. 

Friends from across the state and from close by southern states have supplied to take them in, however the couple doesn’t need to go away Cynthia’s docs, or her son, who has Down syndrome and lives in a close-by group dwelling.

“And we want to stay to help the community,” mentioned Quinlan, who works as an engineer for a neighborhood contractor. “We’re part of this community.”

But searching for alternate housing within the space, particularly totally furnished, has confirmed tough, the double squeeze of low provide and excessive demand. They discovered a list that may have been good for the couple, however the proprietor was asking a staggering sum: $400 to $500 a day, Ailant mentioned. Other listings have been upwards of $3,000 a month, past the couple’s worth vary.

Meantime, Cynthia’s prognosis looms. It’s unlikely she’ll make it to Christmas, Quinlan mentioned.

“At this stage, to be honest with you,” he mentioned, “it’s one day at a time.”

THE ZEIGLERS: Family of eight ponders leaving Florida

Erin Zeigler had lived in Florida nearly her complete life. She’d weathered hurricanes earlier than: Andrew, Charley and Irma stick out to her.

So with the storm shutters on the Fort Myers rental home, which wasn’t in a compulsory evacuation zone, and loads of water and snacks, she thought she, her husband, and their six youngsters have been prepared for Hurricane Ian. 

The storm felt like one other strike in a tough yr for the household, filled with medical points and a contentious dispute with a neighbor, they usually’d simply came upon their lease for the three-bedroom dwelling could be taking pictures up from $1,400 to $2,400. 

But Ian was even worse than Zeigler thought it could be. During the primary half, she heard the roof begin to make clapping sounds, and she or he knew they wanted to arrange for it to come back off. She and her household moved to an inside hallway and loo with no home windows.

“I’ve been through all of them,” mentioned Zeigler, 35, of different main hurricanes that hit Florida, “and I’ve never until now sat in a hallway praying not to die.” 

In the tip, the roof stayed on, however chunks of it have been lacking, permitting water to seep into the home. It wasn’t protected for her 4-year-old to remain there, she mentioned, as a result of the air high quality was dangerous to his bronchial asthma. 

The household utilized for FEMA help and have been quickly authorised for resort vouchers. The closest resort with open rooms was greater than 100 miles north, in St. Petersburg. Adding to the problems, Zeigler mentioned, was that just a few lodges have been set as much as settle for the vouchers. Otherwise, they must pay up entrance for rooms and be reimbursed later, which they couldn’t afford.

Zeigler, a full-time pupil at Florida SouthWestern State College, and her husband, Kurt, who owns a landscaping enterprise, discovered a Comfort Inn with two rooms that took the vouchers. Still, they needed to pay $100 deposits for every room. 

The one brilliant facet was that it was simply throughout Tampa Bay from the Florida Aquarium. For Christmas, Zeigler had gotten her household memberships there and to the Naples Botanical Garden, soothing environments for her 4- and 8-year-old boys, who’ve autism. The sea life was tranquil for them, she mentioned, some normalcy after the chaos.

But the misfortune started once more the next morning, when the ear an infection her 1-year-old daughter had been coping with earlier than the storm got here again with a vengeance. They rushed again to Fort Myers, to the pediatrician’s workplace they’d come to know properly with six youngsters beneath 12.

They’re staying with a pal now, plotting their next steps. Zeigler is able to get out of Florida altogether, away from the dangerous neighbor and the storms and the relentless collection of unlucky occasions. 

She desires to remain within the south, she mentioned, however far, distant from the coast. 

RACHEL HELGERSON: Wanting to remain, however how?

Along the highway, the remnants of Rachel Helgerson’s sat in piles. 

Helgerson, 53, arrived in Fort Myers three years in the past with two suitcases, one full of garments and the opposite filled with footwear. Within just a few days, she’d landed a job at Sunflower Cafe on Fort Myers Beach, the place she met two ladies who would change into shut mates. She purchased a Ford Fiesta.  And she discovered a two-bedroom rental for $800 plus utilities — an unheard-of deal in Southwest Florida’s sizzling housing market. 

The ivory duplex with inexperienced shutters was cozy, embellished over time with furnishings handpicked from Facebook Marketplace. Beside the patio, decked out with chairs with leaf-printed cushions and a desk with a dolphin swimming up the leg, was Helgerson’s backyard, dotted with colourful flowers and bromeliads. About 10 months in the past, she welcomed in one of many mates from the cafe as a roommate.

“I had a lot of pride in my cozy little place,” she mentioned.

Then got here Hurricane Ian, and Helgerson discovered herself beginning over as soon as once more. The dwelling she’d so fastidiously curated was barely peeking out above the storm surge that swept via the coastal metropolis, neighbors instructed her. 

She’d ridden out the storm together with her roommate at a close-by pal’s home. The storm surge bought them there, too. The three ladies tried to plug the water with towels and sofa cushions, then gave up as the extent rose. They climbed onto the kitchen counters and prayed. 

Back at Helgerson’s home, it took days for the water to recede. Gone was the handpicked furnishings, the backyard, the images of her late mom, the five-year anniversary band from her husband, who died in 2008 at simply 41. So was her automotive, and her roommate’s.

“We salvaged nothing,” she mentioned. “Absolutely nothing.”

Now, every week and a half after the storm, she’s staying with mates and taking issues daily. But she is aware of one factor: Even after the storm trauma, so dangerous that she’s begun to have nightmares that she’s drowning, and despite the fact that her dad desires her to come back again to Michigan, Helgerson desires to remain. 

She’s made good mates, and she or he’s seen the ability of neighborhood because the storm, how neighbors pitch in to assist one another. She’s additionally close to a liver heart in Tampa that impressed her to maneuver to Florida within the first place. It’s one of many solely spots within the nation that performs the surgical procedure she’ll want, she mentioned, to deal with harm from a case of Hepatitis B she caught after a blood transfusion. 

“God has his reasons for everything,” she mentioned. “What the reason behind this is, I haven’t figured that out.”

SUSAN DiGREGORIO: Dreams of a mountain home

Susan DiGregorio emerged from her visitor room closet unscathed.

The 81-year-old had ridden out the storm in her mobile home at a park in Punta Gorda, smack within the path of Ian’s lethal crawl. 

DiGregorio owes her survival to God, and neighbor Loraine Lynch quipped that there have to be some fact to that: the Category 4 winds had blown the roof off DiGregorio’s cellular dwelling. Days later, as Lynch cleared away particles, she observed a brick construction had landed on high of the house in the absolute best spot, atop a load-bearing wall within the kitchen. 

“She really had somebody watching over her,” mentioned Lynch, who lives in and helps handle Bay Palms Mobile Home Park. 

Miraculous survival apart, DiGregorio, alongside together with her two cats and two birds, wanted a spot to reside. Without household as an possibility, she moved into a faculty shelter in solar-powered Babcock Ranch, the place she slept on a cot, loved snacks “up the wazoo” and considered beginning once more.

DiGregorio had lived in Punta Gorda half her life, which meant she’d additionally endured Hurricane Charley’s wrath in 2004. With local weather change bringing stronger and extra frequent storms, she’s over the danger of staying in coastal Florida.

“The third time is not always the charm,” she mentioned, “so yeah, I’d like to get out and get away.”

Her dream metropolis? Townsend, Tenn., nestled close to Great Smoky Mountains National Park the place she’d as soon as owned a trip dwelling together with her husband. She favored how quiet it was, away from the tourism boons of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, and she or he’s a sucker for mountain views and distinct seasons.

But all of it is dependent upon cash. DiGregorio couldn’t afford insurance coverage for her cellular dwelling, so her best choice is FEMA support. She’s utilized and is ready to see how a lot she’ll get. 

Lately, she’s been coping with one other drawback. Before the storm, DiGregorio had been planning to evacuate with a neighbor. But he got here by the day earlier than it hit and instructed her he had COVID, so she stayed again, understanding the danger at her age. After all that, DiGregorio caught the virus anyway, probably whereas she was staying within the shelter. She’s now at a hospital, feeling OK however not nice, attempting to get well, and dealing with a case supervisor to map out her next steps. 

But there’s good news, too. The cellular dwelling park neighbors have come collectively to care for her cats, Skittles and Ted. And, in one other act of happenstance, a Cape Coral lady who drove throughout the state at hand out provides ended up within the cellular dwelling park. 

She met Lynch, who talked about she had taken in a pair birds from a neighbor and wasn’t certain what to do with them. The lady, Bonnie Sarley, occurred to like birds, she mentioned. She even has one in every of her personal, a parrot named Bell. 

Sarley, 57, agreed to absorb Chloe the parrotlet and Teal the cockatiel so long as DiGregorio wanted. 

She drove them again throughout the state to her lush yard, a sanctuary.

Kathryn Varn is statewide enterprise reporter for the Gannett/USA TODAY Network – Florida. You can attain her at [email protected] or 727-238-5315.