Hurricane survivor warns Florida recovery could take years

(The Center Square) - Hurricane Isaias damaged parts of Florida Friday night, leaving residents to start a recovery process that disaster advocate Tara Boyd says could take years.

Boyd urged residents that are in a hurricane's path to evacuate when advised.

During Hurricane Ian in 2022, she said rising water filled her Fort Myers, Florida, home so fast that she and her husband had to swim out.

"We treaded the water for nearly eight hours, slept in a random car, walked home to see our house had been destroyed and all of our personal belongings washed away," Boyd said.

"After surviving Ian, we will never stay again," she said. "It's not worth staying because you never know."

Boyd said she and her husband were homeless for about six months before getting a travel trailer where they lived for more than three years until they bought their home in January.

"The road to recovery is going to be years," Boyd said. "Even though the storm hit in one day, it's not just like it's one day and then it's done."

Boyd said the recovery process became as bad as surviving Hurricane Ian. She said she kept going to the library where Federal Emergency Management Agency representatives were stationed, only to be asked for documents that were destroyed when her home flooded.

"They want paperwork that you no longer have," Boyd said. "And it's not easy to prove who you are when you have nothing to prove who you are."

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She was surprised to learn that having insurance and being able to access federal disaster assistance did not mean that you could recover quickly.

"I truly thought, 'We're going to be fine. We have insurance. FEMA's going to come. Red Cross is going to come,'" Boyd said. "Well, you're in for a rude awakening because that's not how it happens."

Boyd criticized insurance companies, saying disaster survivors can spend years paying premiums only to deal with disputes or denials when they file claims after a storm.

"Insurance companies need to be held responsible," Boyd said. "People pay for decades into them, and then they actually need them and they get denial letters."

Boyd said the lessons from Hurricane Ian continue to shape how she fights for survivors who are recovering.

A lot of the support she received after Hurricane Ian came from neighbors, relatives and strangers, which is what prompted her to go into survivor advocacy.

"It was our neighbors and friends and our family members and strangers that saw us on the news and reached out and found me on Facebook," Boyd said. "It was literally strangers."

Boyd founded the Lee County Disaster Survivors Association and later became involved with REBUILD, a survivor advocacy group that says it believes "disaster survivors are essential voices in understanding what works, identifying what fails, and building a disaster response system that puts communities first."