‘Nowhere else to go’: Southwest Florida seniors struggle to recover after Milton, Helene

Libbie Bowers sat near the wreckage of her storage shed, deciding which of her belongings were salvageable. Some of Bowers’ possessions floated in the lake behind her house, while other bits lay strewn across neighboring lawns.

Bowers, 85, chose to stay in her Bradenton duplex during Hurricane Milton, which roared through her retirement community Wednesday night with winds over 100 mph. As she sat in her bathroom with food, water and her tabby cat, Sadie, Bowers wished she had heeded the evacuation orders.

“It was just like a train coming through,” she said.

The retired social worker emerged from her home Thursday morning to see her carport and shed were demolished during the storm, and many of her belongings tossed among fallen tree limbs. Bowers began the long process of cleaning up but struggled due to her age and knee replacement surgery last year.

Friends and neighbors from her il Villagiio over-55 community pitched in to help Bowers clean up debris, salvage what they could and dump what was too waterlogged to keep. Without help from those around her, Bowers said she wouldn’t have been able to manage. Despite the loss of her shed and carport, Bowers said she was fortunate to suffer little damage to her home.

“I wanted to cry,” Bowers said. “Then I said, ‘No, don’t cry. Be thankful that everything in here is intact.”

Florida has long been a draw for senior citizens, with warm weather and seaside views drawing millions of retirees to the Sunshine State. Gov. Ron DeSantis once joked that Florida was “God’s waiting room.”

Not built to withstand powerful hurricanes

Yet the neighborhoods of RVs, small condos and manufactured homes, popular among the 65-and-up crowd, aren’t built to withstand the wrath of a major hurricane. After suffering back-to-back blows from hurricanes Helene and Milton just two weeks apart, Gulf Coast seniors are struggling to recover from a devastating storm season that’s not yet over.

Ruth Strickland, 87, lives in the same retirement community as Bowers and chose to evacuate for the first time in her life during Hurricane Milton. While her duplex survived the storm, Strickland said this hurricane season has been the worst the community has seen.

Strickland has a severe hearing disability and back problems, making it difficult for her to evacuate or handle the fallout of a storm. With both of her adult children living out of state, Strickland relied on members of her retirement community to help prepare her home and flee farther inland.

Many of Strickland’s neighbors also have physical disabilities that compound the effects of already devastating hurricanes, she said. Losing access to electricity, water and cell service after a storm can be dire for an elderly person, especially if they live alone.

“If I didn’t live here, I don’t think I could handle it,” Strickland said.

‘I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to live there’

In nearby Sarasota, the manufactured home community known as Orange Acres, whose residents are 55 and over, was left in tatters after both hurricanes.

Richard Asp, 77, stood on a ladder Saturday morning attempting to fix the side of his roof. Asp lost his roof to Hurricane Ian in 2022 but said he never dealt with anything like the double whammy of Helene and Milton.

Helene took out Asp’s carport and lanai, and he boarded his windows in anticipation of Milton. Without those preparations, Asp said he’s not sure there would’ve been much left of his home.

Asp and his wife Joelanne, 78, live on a fixed income as retirees. Trying to make ends meet amid rising inflation has been a struggle, Richard said — adding in the cost of hurricane repairs makes that situation impossible.

“We have a certain amount each week that we spend on groceries,” Richard said. “And we just have less and less in our cart.”

Richard Asp, who worked in software, and Joelanne Asp, a retired nursing assistant, are considering going back to work after Helene and Milton. They applied for FEMA assistance and are awaiting a home inspection from the agency.

Another Orange Acres resident, Nancy Sarson, 82, saw only minor damage to her roof and carport during Helene — then Milton struck just two weeks later. The storm demolished Sarson’s lanai, mangled the roof and crumpled the metal shutters on her home like paper.

After Milton, Sarson’s existing health conditions made an already nightmarish recovery process worse. Sarson had part of her lung removed after having lung cancer, and said she’s afraid her leaking roof will grow mold. Without electricity or a generator, the heat makes it hard for her to breathe, she said.

“I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to live there,” Sarson said, her voice choked with tears. “But I have nowhere else to go.”

Sarson said she damaged her shoulder dragging wreckage from her home to the curb because she couldn’t find anyone to help. She has no family, and has struggled to get in contact with FEMA for assistance. The Orange Acres managers do their best to help, she said, but there’s only so much they can do.

Dealing with the aftermath of two hurricanes alone has been “really hard,” Sarson said. Milton cut off Sarson’s access to cell service and electricity to charge her phone. Not being able to get in touch with friends or watch the news has left her feeling isolated, she said.

Sarson’s food stamps and limited income aren’t enough to survive, she said, let alone adding the cost of damages from Helene and Milton.

“I have $20 in the bank, and I have no savings, and I have no insurance,” she said. “And I don’t know what to do.”

Health issues for many

Denise Bruno, 66, is one of the youngest residents of Orange Acres. Bruno said many of her neighbors have serious health conditions or lack the mobility to recover from hurricane season.

When Hurricane Milton hit, Bruno was on shift as a housekeeper. During the storm, she repeated the phrase, “I don’t have a home,” to herself over and over to prepare for the worst, she said.

Milton swept away Bruno’s shed, ruined her washing machine and dryer and shattered her windows. Despite the damage, Bruno considers herself lucky, she said. Many of her neighbors had their roofs ripped off, while her home of over a decade only saw some damage.

“I was really scared,” Bruno said. “But you know, you gotta pick up the pieces and move on.”

This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at williamskylie@ufl.edu . You can donate to support our students here .