St. Pete woman with special needs stuck in evacuation shelter after back-to-back hurricanes

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — Erica Fulton is permanently in a wheel chair with six titanium rods in her spine.

She was forced to evacuate her St. Petersburg home and stay in a shelter before hurricane Helene. She hasn’t been able to stay in her home since she left.

Fulton said when the city turned off the water during Helene, raw sewage flowed thorough her home.

“Everything still backed up into my house, I had sea water and sewage water throughout the entire home,” Fulton said.

She said her home is now unlivable.

“Oh, nobody can live in that house. FEMA came out and he said, oh it’s a total loss, but they denied me for living expenses,” Fulton said.

While Helene made it bad, Hurricane Milton made it even worse.

“Then when Milton came, the foundation cracked,” Fulton said.

She said conditions have not been good for her in the county evacuation shelter.

“Until last week, I was sleeping on a cot with no mattress,” Fulton said. “Even with the air mattress I’ve been in pain. I lose feeling in my hands because I don’t have my medical equipment, it was all lost in the storm.”

She’s had limited access to showers during her stay at the shelter.

“I’ve only had three showers in three weeks and there is no hot water for the showers,” Fulton said.

Now she is hoping someone will have an apartment she can rent because she expects the repairs to her home will take a long time and she’s hoping for insurance money, or funding from FEMA, so that she can pay for a new place to stay.

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