Miriam Butler gazes resignedly down a flooded street in Crystal River, northwest Florida. At 82, she is tired and has not yet had the strength to go and see the damage caused by Hurricane Idalia to her small gardening business.
“I know that the water went inside and destroyed everything,” laments this Honduran, who has lived in the state for more than thirty years. “I’m an old lady, I’ve worked so hard and these storms are really frustrating.”
In Florida, they are also common. The state, hit by devastating Hurricane Ian in September 2022, is regularly on the road to these storms.
In the middle of the street, an abandoned car was swallowed up by the waves. In some areas of this small coastal town, the storm surge caused by Idalia reached 2.7 meters in height.
Here the wind caused little damage, unlike where Idalia made landfall, some 170 km further north. The roofs are intact and the weeping willows, pines and palms that line the streets are still standing.
The risk came from water, omnipresent in this locality on the edge of a river and not far from the Gulf of Mexico.
Thursday morning, several streets are still flooded when residents begin to return home.
Michael Curry, who owns a roofing business, is already busy repairing the damage with one goal: to reopen on Monday.
Before the hurricane, he had piled sandbags and taped the doors and windows. But the force of the storm got the better of these protections, and 60 cm of water entered his business.
So he and his employees are forced to remove the carpet and prepare to replace everything to avoid mold – until the next hurricane.
“We are out of trouble this time, but in a week or a month, we may be preparing to face the same thing, it’s part of life here,” said the 43-year-old man.
– “Heaven” ?
In Florida, residents feel like they’ve escaped the worst. But the damage is undeniable: repairs will cost 12 to 20 billion dollars according to Moody’s.
That’s still far less than Hurricane Ian, which caused more than $100 billion in damage in 2022.
Near Crystal River, near an estuary known to be a refuge for manatees, Bob Bieniek walks through his two-story house, to estimate what will need to be repaired.
The 66-year-old estate agent is, like many of his neighbors, used to flooding, but he didn’t expect to suffer so much damage this time around.
At his home, the water rose to more than two meters, breaking a kitchen cabinet. The waves receded, leaving the walls full of damp.
Bob Bieniek takes this philosophically. Despite the threat of hurricanes, he cannot imagine going to live elsewhere because he is seduced by Crystal River.
“I’m going to retire here. We’ll buy a taller house, or we’ll build on stilts,” he said. “That’s how it is, life in paradise.”
01/09/2023 20:27:15 – Crystal River (United States) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP