Nothing is left: Hurricane Ian leaves emotional toll behind


FORT MYERS, FL, Oct 10 (U.S.): With her home disappearing and all of her belongings destroyed by Hurricane Ian, Alice Pujols wept as she picked up wet clothes, toys and overturned furniture piled on top of her head outside a stranger’s home, looking to save anything for her four children and herself.

“I’m trying to get through the next day,” she said. “That’s all I can do. It’s really frustrating. It really is.”

For those who lost everything to a natural disaster and even those who survived, it can be overwhelming pain to return home only to find so much gone. Sadness can extend the gamut from frequent crying to utter despair, the Associated Press reports.

The coroner in Lee County, where Ian made landfall in southwest Florida, said two men in their 70s committed suicide even after witnessing their losses.

The emotional toll in the days, weeks, and months following a hurricane, flood, or wildfire can be devastating. Often the most urgent needs of food, shelter and clothing take priority in seeking advice, which is in short supply even in good times.

“When someone is in a state of trauma experienced by so many, they don’t know where to start,” said Beth Hatch, chief executive of Collier County, Florida, a branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “They need this hand holding and they should know there are a lot of people here to help them.”

Hurricane Ian struck Florida so hard that it wiped out entire neighborhoods, dumped boats on highways, washed up beaches and swamped homes in deep water.

With sustained winds of 150 mph (240 km/h), it was one of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit southwest Florida. Later it cuts a watery, windswept patch across the Florida peninsula before turning out to sea to regain its strength and hit South Carolina.

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More than 100 people died, the majority of casualties in Florida, making it the third deadliest storm to hit the mainland United States this century. Even after a week passed, officials warned that more victims could be found as they continued to examine the damage. The storm caused 2.6 million power outages and billions of dollars in damage.

Research has shown that between a third and a half of those who survive a disaster develop some form of mental disorder, said Jennifer Horney, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Delaware who studies the effects of natural disasters on public health.

PTSD, depression, and anxiety rise along with substance abuse. Those with existing mental disorders are at greater risk of these conditions being exacerbated by trauma.

A variety of assistance is available as additional resources are sent to the area.

Florida has been setting up support centers and the federal government has a 24-hour disaster helpline to provide advice and support in crises. Hutch’s organization was going to some of the homes in the worst affected areas to check on clients with mental illness.

However, the vast majority of people were still assessing the damage, trying to recover and dry up possessions worth keeping, and hauling what could not be saved to the growing piles of roadside rubbish.

On Pine Island, off mainland Florida where he first hit Ian, emotional Allan Pickford said he was trying to take a longer look because what was in front of him was grim: the floors of his house were covered in stinky mud and his yard was littered with framed pictures, furniture, and other things he had carried outside.

“It’s like the death of a loved one,” he said. “The pain comes and goes.” “There are times when there is a small glimmer of hope or shards of hope. Then it all falls apart.”

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Surviving a deadly storm amid screeching winds, crashing waves and rising waters, or fleeing as danger approaches is terrifying and shocking. Living out of a duffel bag or suitcase in an evacuation center is annoying, stressful, and depressing.

Returning to a flood-ravaged home that needs to be destroyed to prevent mold from taking hold or, worse yet, reduced to shrapnel and scrap metal and scattered like scraps of paper is heartbreaking.

Mao Lin walked for an hour Thursday to get to the plot of land she lived on on Fort Myers Beach, which looked like a blast zone. She was sad to find her gone.

“The whole street was left with nothing,” she said. “We don’t have a house. We don’t have a car. We don’t have anything. We have nothing left.”

In recent days, the number of calls at Hatch has multiplied as people realize they can’t rebuild their lives – and overcome trauma – on their own.

“Needs will change over time,” Hatch said. “Some people have lost everything, the walls of their houses may still be standing, but they are uninhabitable.”

Cleaning up the clutter from a damaged home or finding a new one in the aftermath of a disaster lends itself to the long-term challenges of navigating the labyrinth of bureaucracy to obtain financial assistance, secure rebuilding permits or fight reimbursement insurers.

Horney studied suicide rates in counties affected by a disaster between 2003 and 2015. She and her colleagues found that suicides increased by 23% when comparing the three years before the disaster to the three years after the event, according to the study published in the journal. Crisis intervention and suicide prevention.

She said the September 30 and October 1 suicides of men in their 70s were not typical soon after a tragic accident.

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“It’s not usually immediate after a disaster,” Horney said. “It is these long-term mental health problems that are exacerbated by or caused by the disaster and that over time tend to have more serious outcomes such as suicide.”

In the aftermath of disaster, communities band together to recover and rebuild. Rescuers, aid workers, and nonprofit organizations provide food, finance, and other assistance, including counseling. But the interest eventually fades and the money dries up. Sometimes mental health emergency funds expire in two months and no more than a year.

As disasters become more frequent and intensified due to climate change, Horney said, there may be a cumulative effect on mental health. She said her study calls for more funding to repair the damage one feels but cannot see.

Most of the emotional effects of a disaster are short-lived but can be exacerbated if another catastrophic event follows.

“If it’s normal for your symptoms to go away in six months to a year, but then there’s another hurricane or another wildfire, you’re in this cycle of intensifying mental health effects,” Horney said. “The research is certainly clear that the more disasters you experience, the greater the impacts on mental health.”

Joe Kuchko reunites with his parents as a storm hit their motorhome on Pine Island. Kuczko sustained a foot wound that he sewed himself after a piece of the ceiling exploded.

Mutilated pieces of metal were laid on the floor Thursday with containers full of belongings and clothes hung to dry while Kochko, bare-chested and sunburned on his back, hung a tarpaulin to keep the rain out of what was left of the house.

“I lost the first thirty years of my life,” he said. “Every time I hear the wind blow and a piece of aluminum is blown, it’s like PTSD.”






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