"The first week or two, everybody’s wanting to help and being supportive. But then real life settles in and everybody goes back to their life."
Every morning, Gwen Torres visited the front desk of the Holiday Inn where she had holed up with six family members. Could they stay just one more night?
Though they had a voucher from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the place was full. The hotel could give her family just one more night in the two rooms they shared. Torres, 50, would repeat her request the next day. And the days that followed.
Eventually, she managed to book a longer stay. But after two months, they would have to check out by Dec. 6. Torres didn’t know where they would go next.
Every spare dollar was spent replacing clothes, hygiene items and food, and on application fees for new housing. Her savings were running out.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, dozens of homes in Tampa’s inland Forest Hills neighborhood were trapped under stormwater and sewage for days, breeding mold and decay.
Read more at the Tampa Bay Times