With her home gone and all her belongings trashed by Hurricane Ian, Alice Pujols wept as she picked through soggy clothes, toys and overturned furniture piled head-high outside a stranger's house, looking to salvage something — anything — for her four children and herself.I&m trying to make it to the next day,& she said.
&That's all I can do.
It's really depressing.
It really is.For those who lost everything to a natural disaster and even those spared, the anguish can be crushing to return home to find so much gone.
Grief can run the gamut from frequent tears to utter despair.
Two men in their 70s even took their own lives after viewing their losses, said the medical examiner in Lee County, where Ian first made landfall in southwestern Florida, AP reported. The emotional toll in the days, weeks and months after a hurricane, flood or wildfire can be crippling.
More pressing needs for food, shelter and clothing often take priority to seeking counseling, which is in short supply even in good times.When someone's in a state of trauma that so many are in, they don''t know where to begin,& said Beth Hatch, CEO of the Collier County, Florida, branch of the National Alliance of Mental Illness.
&They need that hand-holding and they need to know that there's so many people here to help them.Hurricane Ian hammered Florida with such ferocity that it wiped out whole neighborhoods, tossed boats onto highways, swept away beaches and swamped homes in roof-deep waters.With sustained winds of 150 mph (240 kph), it was one of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit southwest Florida.
It later cut a watery and wind-battered swath across the Florida peninsula before turning out to sea to regain strength and pummel South Carolina.It killed more than 100 people, the majority of victims in Florida, making it the third-deadliest storm to hit the United States mainland this century.
Even a week after it passed through, officials warned that more victims could yet be found as they continued to inspect the damage.
The storm knocked out power to 2.6 million and caused billions of dollars in damage.Research has shown that between a third and half of those who survive a disaster develop some type of mental distress, said Jennifer Horney, an epidemiology professor at the University of Delaware who studies natural disaster impacts on public health.Post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety rise along with substance abuse.
Those with existing mental disorders are at greater risk of having those conditions exacerbated by the trauma.A variety of help is available as additional resources are sent to the area.The state of Florida was setting up support centers and the federal government has a 24-hour disaster distress helpline to provide counseling and crisis support.
Hatch's organization was going to some homes in hard-hit areas to check on clients with mental illness.The vast majority of people, though, were still assessing damage, trying to retrieve and dry out possessions worth keeping and drag what couldn''t be saved to growing trash heaps by the side of the road.On Pine Island, just off the Florida mainland where Ian first struck, an emotional Alan Bickford said he was trying to take a longer view because what lay before him was bleak: the floors of his home were coated in stinky muck and his yard was littered with framed photos, furniture and other items he&d hauled outside.Joe Kuczko hunkered down with his parents as their Pine Island mobile home was battered by the storm.
Kuczko got a gash in his foot that he stitched himself after a piece of the roof blew off.Pieces of mangled metal lay on the ground Thursday along with containers full of possessions and clothes hung to dry as Kuczko, shirtless and with a sunburn on his back, strung up a tarp to keep the rain out of what remained of the home.I lost the first 30 years of my life,& he said.
&Every time I hear the wind blow and a piece of aluminum shift, it's like PTSD.The post ‘Nothing's left&: Hurricane Ian leaves emotional toll behind first appeared on Ariana News.