3 Weeks Until Hurricane Season, FL Residents Still Dealing W. Helen, Debby And Idalia - And That's Just 2023 and 2024
Idalia. Debby. Helene. Not visiting friends, not neighbors. All hurricanes that have not yet faded into memory for the residents of Taylor county in Florida, where all three powerful storms hit in just two years. “It’s hard to look at these hurricanes as memories when we’re still living with the aftermath and worrying about what’s coming next,” said Thomas Demps. After taking direct hits from Hurricane Idalia in August 2023, Hurricane Debby in August 2024 and Hurricane Helene in September 2024, Demps, a current county commissioner and former mayor of the town of Perry, said residents of the county are recovering and bracing at the same time as 2025’s hurricane season now looms.
“Taylor county sustained an incredible amount of damage from the three major storms that came through, and we are still recovering,” he said “We are very fortunate to not have lost any lives, but the damage to property and structures has been heartbreaking.” But with less than a month before the start of hurricane season on 1 June, residents like businessman Jared Hunt are still recovering from the catastrophic damage from the past two years. In August 2023, Idalia caused major damage to Hunt’s home, and the storm surge came within a foot of the Keaton Beach convenience store he owns with his wife. Still, wind damage and power loss caused the Hunts to lose more than $50,000 in food and supplies at the store.
Helene wasn’t as merciful. “Our house was damaged beyond livable condition,” Hunt said “As far as the store goes, we came back to absolutely nothing. The canopy over the fuel dispensers is all that was left. The 3,000 sq ft building I left to evacuate was gone. There was nothing to do but push the rubble to the road for pickup. “We did get some money from our flood insurance but only about one-fifth of what the policy was for, and that went straight to the mortgage note. Our wind and contents coverage sent us a check around the end of March for $4,000.”
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Danny Glover, the Taylor county emergency management director, has spent the past eight months preparing for the certainty of another hit - not the probability. Glover, who took the lead in Taylor county’s efforts to recover and rebuild in October 2024, has flooding on his mind, as well as the terrible impact of hurricane-force winds. Located on Florida’s Big Bend – the Gulf coast region where Florida’s peninsula curves into its panhandle, Taylor county’s coastal areas “are more vulnerable to flooding than ever before”, Glover says. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), global warming and climate change are causing ocean warming and rising sea levels, which has fueled the increasing strength and frequency of hurricanes. The Noaa data projects sea levels to rise two to three feet by 2100.
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Danny Glover, the Taylor county emergency management director, has spent the past eight months preparing for the certainty of another hit - not the probability. Glover, who took the lead in Taylor county’s efforts to recover and rebuild in October 2024, has flooding on his mind, as well as the terrible impact of hurricane-force winds. Located on Florida’s Big Bend – the Gulf coast region where Florida’s peninsula curves into its panhandle, Taylor county’s coastal areas “are more vulnerable to flooding than ever before”, Glover says. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), global warming and climate change are causing ocean warming and rising sea levels, which has fueled the increasing strength and frequency of hurricanes. The Noaa data projects sea levels to rise two to three feet by 2100.
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/08/florida-hurricane-season