A local nonprofit, Seniors in Service, launched a new program in January to better support seniors in the event of a major hurricane.
Last year, Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton hit seniors especially hard. Many apartments and manufactured home parks flooded, leaving many older residents stranded or displaced.
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“We saw in several senior communities…where seniors were paralyzed and debilitated and just kind of frozen, you know, sleeping on wet mattresses, or in residences where there was water up to their calves,” senior disaster support specialist for Seniors in Service Kelli Nielsen said.
Individuals or groups can join the “Adopt-a-Senior Community" to volunteer with the yearlong workshops.
The nonprofit’s latest initiative, the Senior Disaster Support Program, is designed to empower seniors to feel more equipped for hurricane preparation and recovery.
Nielsen said the organization aims to do that by “adopting a community at a time.”
“So we go into a senior community, [and] we make a yearlong commitment to them that we are going to come each and every month,” she said.
So far, the program provides recurring, hands-on hurricane preparedness workshops to eight communities, including senior apartments and manufactured home parks, in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties.
Participating seniors also receive a disaster kit with flashlights, batteries and other resources.
The hope is to expand this list next year, Nielsen said. The effort is primarily grant-funded by the American Red Cross with additional support from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, United Way Suncoast and Community Foundation Tampa Bay.
Gail “Murph” Murphy, 85, attends the monthly workshops hosted by the nonprofit at Bay Pointe Tower in South Pasadena.
She knows what it’s like to be caught off guard by a hurricane.
“We had ten minutes to get out. They condemned the building,” she said.
Last year, Hurricane Helene ravaged her senior apartments. As WFLA reports, the Lutheran Residences suffered extensive flooding and prolonged power outages, eventually displacing around 160 seniors.
Murphy said she was better off than some of her neighbors with mobility issues who lived on the higher floors.
“You would see these older men and women going up 16 flights of stairs,” she said.
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Murphy said the harrowing experience crystallized the importance for seniors to have a support network in place — of friends, family, neighbors or volunteers — before disaster strikes.
Gabriella Paul covers the stories of people living paycheck to paycheck in the greater Tampa Bay region for WUSF. She's also a Report for America corps member. Here’s how you can share your story with her.
