Evacuation from Hurricanes Helene and Milton

We live on a barrier island off of Clearwater, Florida. Last week Helene pushed an 8’ storm surge over the island. Our garage and workshop were flooded with 2-3 feet of water. We lost one car, our boat and almost everything in Linda’s workshop. We spent the next few days hauling all the damaged debris to the curb.

We were fortunate as our house was built after 1978 and the main living area was required to be elevated to at least 10’ Above Sea Level. Most of our neighbors homes were built before the FEMA law and are at 6’. They lost everything and their homes are uninhabitable.

Now Hurricane Milton is barreling down on us with a threatened storm surge of over 10’. This could destroy most of the homes in our area.

I started writing this blog with a focus on reducing stress and risk in retirement. Our last major hurricane was 1921 and we have all been lulled into complacency.

I am resolved to rebuild and recover.