‘What are we going to be walking back into?’: immense costs for Americans under hurricane threat

The aftermath of Hurricane Helene and the approaching Hurricane Milton in the US south-east has left residents once again scrambling for ways to fortify their homes or, in extreme cases, to find sanctuary elsewhere. But the cost of doing so is burdensome at best and devastating at worst.

Alexandra Marcella, a resident of Sarasota, Florida, had a baby two weeks ago. Along with her newborn, toddler and husband, Marcella left home to stay with her in-laws to ride out the storm.

“Literally the day after we got home from the hospital, Helene hit. We got very lucky with that, and did not have any damage from the storm surge, but our area got totally decimated,” Marcella, a schoolteacher, said.

Knowing the risk that comes with living in her area, Marcella said she and her husband invested in a new roof in 2021 and category 5 hurricane-proof windows. But she remains worried.

Related: US south-east reels from ‘unspeakable tragedy’ of Helene as new storm looms

“We have all the things, but we’re about two streets over from a creek that feeds out to the bay, and we are just really scared of storm surge right now. So we had been planning on staying here, but we don’t want to be in a situation where we have to get rescued in the middle of the night with an infant and a toddler,” Marcella said.

Faiza Patel lives in a townhouse in downtown Tampa she bought earlier this year with her husband. The city of Tampa told all residents in zone A – where the couple live – to evacuate ahead of Milton. Patel, a pharmacist, and her husband spent the better part of Tuesday moving their cars to higher ground in a parking garage, placing shutters and tarp on their doors and sandbags outside at the base of their home to prevent flooding, shelling out hundreds of dollars in the process. She and her husband plan to evacuate to zone D, where they will stay with friends until the storm passes.

“I haven’t even got to enjoy this place for a year,” Patel said.

Like Marcella, Patel grew up in Florida, so hurricanes are nothing new. But after seeing the wreckage from Helene and now faced with the prospect of Milton, Patel, 29, said she has become more cautious and better prepared. While she was spared from Helene, Patel said her neighbors on her cul-de-sac got nearly a foot of water in their garages.

“Because we saw how bad the water was [during Helene], we ended up investing in the reusable sandbags. Most of the hurricanes that I have gone through were never this bad. I think this last hurricane, Helene, is kind of what woke everyone up. That’s the worst I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen a storm surge like that, and I’ve never seen people lose their homes like that in Florida,” Patel said.

Chris Emrich, an environmental science and public administration professor at the University of Central Florida, said there were two main scenarios those in the path of a hurricane consider: one in which they go, and one in which they stay put and brace for impact.

But for a multitude of reasons, evacuating is not a feasible option for many. Some residents cite having all of their family in the same area as a reason for not leaving, having elderly or disabled loved ones to care for, or simply not having the financial means to leave.

Emrich, who is preparing for Milton, said: “I don’t think, as a society, everyone has the option or means to make these decisions. But I also don’t think that managed retreat needs to be the last option after we’ve exhausted all the options. I think great care needs to be taken, because who am I to say who stays and who goes? There may be huge cultural and historic reasons that a community is where it is. We need to be working with communities to make these decisions. So instead of a top-down approach, this needs to become a bottom-up approach.”

And the financial implications of a hurricane can be devastating. Residents returning to their homes after evacuating may face a new, tragic reality upon seeing the extent of the damage.

Just an inch of water can cause roughly $25,000 worth of damage to a property, according to Fema.

The damage from Helene has cost between about $30.5bn and $47.5bn in total damage from winds and flooding across 16 states, according to CoreLogic , a data and analytics company.

“A significant portion of the losses from this hurricane are likely to go uninsured, leaving the individual property owner responsible for paying for repairs,” CoreLogic said.

The structural damage to the homes and businesses leaves residents spending an unexpected amount to repair or replace roofs, baseboards, drywall, or much more.

Although federal assistance agencies such as Fema help affected homeowners and residents, Emrich said it was by no means an economic solution to the damage caused by a hurricane or other natural disaster.

He said: “Fema is great for what Fema is. Fema is a disaster response organization, so they come in after a disaster and help, but they are not made by mission to make people whole. So anyone that thinks that the feds are going to come and help them and they are going to recover are probably misinformed.”

The maximum amount for a Fema grant is $42,500 for housing or other assistance needed for disaster-related costs. But the average Fema payout a single family received between 2016 and 2022 was only $3,000 – which could be a fraction of what is ultimately spent on home repairs.

“There’s a disconnect between what people think they’re going to get and what they actually get,” Emrich said.

To even possibly qualify for a Fema grant, the US president must declare the natural disaster a national emergency – and not all flood events get this designation.

Instead of placing bets on federal assistance, Emrich recommends forward planning. In addition to stocking up on non-perishable foods and water, those living in hurricane-prone areas should shop for a flood insurance policy – particularly a federally managed one from the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), he said. Fema also encourages those in vulnerable regions to purchase flood insurance.

But those in Florida are already at a disadvantage. At an average of nearly $10,000 a year for a home valued at $300,000, Florida has the highest home insurance premiums in the country, due in large part to the risk posed by the many natural disasters it endures. And neither home nor rental insurance cover flooding, so to add flood insurance on top means Floridians are expected to spend even more to protect their homes.

When buying their home, Patel’s mortgage lender required them to take out a flood insurance policy. But the price of the policy took the couple by surprise.

“We had to do so much research and find insurance that wasn’t going to rip us off. Because it was so expensive, we ended up going with one that was honestly one of the cheaper options, but it does include what we would need,” she said. “That was a huge burden that I wasn’t expecting.”

The cheaper option was $1,300 annually.

There is typically a 30-day waiting period between the purchase of a policy and when it becomes effective, so that window of opportunity has passed for those in Milton’s path, which is leaving many second-guessing not purchasing a policy sooner.

“Because we don’t live in a flood zone, we don’t have flood insurance. And that’s another thing that is hard to deal with. If our house does flood and we have a storm surge, what do we do?” Marcella said.

Marcella and her husband have looked into flood insurance before but fear they will be dropped from it like they were with her home insurance several times due to the risk of their home’s location.

She has also considered more drastic measures, like moving altogether.

Marcella said: “I would love to leave, but my husband has a business here and our families are both here. When you’re in the community and it’s established, and both of our families are here, it’s a bit trickier in that sense.”

Through tears, Marcella said she just hopes her worst fears don’t come true when her family returns home.

“Looking at all of this baby stuff in the nursery, and being like, ‘What is essential to take and what am I willing to lose?’ is a lot, emotionally, to go through. What are we going to be walking back into? It’s daunting to consider like losing all this stuff that is sentimental.”