In Hurricane Season, Floridians Should be Wary

When volunteers arrived in Gulfport last September to help survivors of Hurricane Helene, they found older adults stranded in high-rise residential buildings with no working elevators.

The Category 4 hurricane left volunteers lugging food and water up 17 flights of stairs to people unable to walk down. And that wasn’t the only challenge. When volunteers’ knocks went unanswered, for example, neighbors often didn’t know if the resident had evacuated or needed help but couldn’t get to the door.

As the 2025 hurricane season revs up, the Seniors in Service of Tampa Bay program, which dispatched the volunteers, has been working to help Floridians get to know their neighbors so they can better lean on each other in a storm or other disaster.

Meeting monthly with residents of mobile home parks and apartment complexes, members of the organization’s Senior Disaster Support Program help set up neighborhood phone trees and other systems designed to ensure no one gets forgotten.

Sarah Rosenbaum, who is Seniors in Service’s community engagement manager, says the group’s main goal is building a sense of community.

“It’s like Joe, who’s on the 17th floor, now can call Bob, who’s on the fourth floor, because Bob’s in shape and can take him water when Joe can’t make it down the steps,” she says.

Encouraging people to reach out to neighbors is one way AARP Florida and other organizations are helping the state’s residents be prepared during hurricane season. Underway since June 1, the season lasts until Nov. 30 and follows a busy 2024 storm season.

2024 storms deadly, destructive

Three hurricanes–Debby, Helene and Milton–wreaked havoc on Florida last year, killing more than 80 people in the state, including from related causes such as falling trees, traffic crashes and people stepping on downed power lines. They also destroyed or severely damaged thousands of homes and businesses.

Older adults especially need to prepare long before the first warnings hit, AARP Florida and others say. That’s because they’re more likely to need to stock up on medication, have physical conditions that complicate packing up quickly, or care for a frail or sick spouse or other family member who would need help evacuating.

“The worst thing is to kind of ignore it,” says Kip Corriveau, who until recently was director of senior and caregiver services for First Contact, a nonprofit that operates the 211 helpline for Pinellas and Hernando counties. “So plan. And if you are physically challenged or you are a caregiver, it’s even more incumbent on you to plan.”

AARP Florida State Director Jeff Johnson says heading into hurricane season is a good time to nurture relationships with family or friends who live inland and might be willing to accommodate you if you need to evacuate. Shelters are designed as a last resort for people with nowhere else to go, Johnson says.

“Knowing the shelter system is important,” he adds. “Knowing your friends is more important.”

Taking disaster prep seriously

Corriveau, 59, and his wife, Lena Georges, 63, know the additional challenges caregivers face. Georges’ 90-year-old father, who lives with them and is mostly bedridden with late-stage Alzheimer’s disease, would be extremely difficult to move.

“It’s one thing if you could just pick up and go,” he says. “When you’re a caregiver, you’re really kind of stuck, particularly in our situation, where my father-in-law is really not mobile anymore.”

Their home in Palm Harbor is on higher ground inland. Corriveau encourages people who choose to shelter in place to stockpile at least seven days of medication and other supplies.

Even so, Corriveau says, caregivers need to plan in case they’re ordered to evacuate. For many, that includes registering for the Florida Special Needs Registry at snr.flhealthresponse.com; it tells officials who in their area might need assistance in a disaster.

“If you want help, you can get help, but you’ve got to ask,” Corriveau says.

One upside of last year’s catastrophic hurricane season: More Floridians are taking disaster prep seriously this year, says Carmen Rodriguez, Seniors in Service’s senior companion program coordinator for Pinellas County.

Rodriguez says she hopes this year won’t be as bad. If it is, she says, “I think people will [have] a different mindset.”

Katherine Shaver has been a journalist for more than 30 years, including 26 years at The Washington Post.

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Tips and Resources for Severe Weather

• Check if you’re in a flood zone. And if you live in a mobile or manufactured home, plan to evacuate.
• Sign up for county text, email or phone emergency alerts.
• Consider where you could evacuate. Prioritize staying with friends or family who live inland.
• If you don’t have family or friends nearby, research local shelter options, including those for people with special medical needs or pets.
• If you or someone in your home is medically fragile, sign up at the Florida Special Needs Registry for updates from local emergency officials. Find it at snr.flhealthresponse.com.
• Stock up on supplies, including a waterproof container for medication and key legal documents, extra batteries, tarps, a portable charger for cell phones, nonperishable food, a battery-powered hand-crank radio and a First Aid kit.
• Keep extra cash for gas and supplies in case ATMs or credit card machines go down.
• Follow evacuation orders — before roads get gridlocked.
• You can find AARP Florida tips and resources at aarp.org/fldisasterhelp.

More Disaster Resources

• AARP Disaster Resilience Tool Kit
• How Older Adults Can Prepare for Floods, Hurricanes, Emergencies
• Do-It-Yourself Project: Operation Emergency Prepare