When Hurricanes Strike Twice

Our family’s journey through crisis

2024 brought plenty of challenges to my wife, her family, and me. It felt like my wife and I were trying to put out multiple fires with a water gun, running from one crisis to another. We busted our butts and got a lot done. While things still haven’t fully resolved, we’ve learned much and grown even more together.

While we were coming to terms with and dealing with legal issues concerning an ex-employee, Hurricane Helene hit the Florida coast on September 26th, 2024. It was a category 4 hurricane that caused both wind and flood damage to my wife’s parent’s home. According to the Tampa Bay Times, it was the worst hurricane to hit Tampa Bay in over a century. (http://tiny.cc/z2lh001)

My wife had bought the home for her parents about a decade ago so they could retire and spend time with family. This house has hosted many parties and many great memories were made there. I’ve had many wonderful times there myself.

We had no idea what to do and we scrambled to figure out next steps. Her parents wanted to stay in the house because moving around is tough for them as they are in their late 70s and early 80s. This was a significant source of stress because we read about black mold forming on drywall from flooding. We didn’t want to risk her elderly parents experiencing harm at their advanced age.

I scrambled to figure out what to do with insurance because the damage was extensive, with flooding to around 4-5 feet within the house. Everything inside had to be thrown out and most of the house gutted because flood waters often contain sewage and black mold growth endangers everyone.

I joined a Facebook group to get more information and support. We reached out to family contacts to see if they had any advice. I called the flood and wind insurance companies dozens of times because we needed to get a field adjuster to the house in order to begin the claims process. I was often given the runaround and it was extremely frustrating trying to figure things out and help our family when it felt like no one could point me in the right direction.

When it rains, it pours

Then some terrible news came. My wife’s sister is well-connected in the area and she told us that they all needed to evacuate as soon as possible. Another hurricane was coming, Hurricane Milton, and this one was supposed to be even more serious, a category 5 storm.

We then scrambled to get my wife’s parents out of the house. They’d been dragging their feet for just over a week and I was prepared to fly to Florida to physically carry them out of the house. Thankfully, my wife’s siblings were able to move them out of their house and into their apartment. We then braced ourselves for Hurricane Milton.

Thank goodness. The second storm wasn’t as bad as the first, but it still caused more damage to the house.

Stepping up for each other

The thing that mattered most was that Hanh’s family was safe. However, we had much work ahead of us. We needed to mitigate mold, rebuild the house (basically a full remodel), and work on the wind and flood insurance claims. We’ve encountered speed bumps and road blocks throughout each step of the process, with contractors ghosting us, new permitting rules, insurance backlogs and field adjuster reassignments, and having to figure everything out ourselves.

I estimate that I’ve spent about 250 hours in the past six months on hurricane-related work and my wife has clocked in more than that herself. This is on top of running our business, childcare, and my part-time work in politics. October-December 2024 was ground zero for pain.

Working through this hurricane situation has taken over six months so far and it’s still ongoing. The rebuild has been done for a few months, but we’re still working on the flood and wind insurance claims.

Life during this process has been a whirlwind, but we’ve both consistently stepped up for one another. We’ve been tested individually and with our relationship and we’ve come out stronger than ever. I don’t think we could have learned and grown so much any other way; steel truly sharpens steel.

Going through this experience taught me a lot

First of all, it strengthened my relationship with my wife. We have leaned on each other for support in many ways throughout 2024. Support with childcare, emotional support, and by doing hard work and making things happen for one another.

There are mixed reviews online, but I believe that there’s much value in hiring a public adjuster. This is someone who can advocate for you when insurance wants to deny a claims payment or minimize what they pay out. Just make sure to ask for references and to read online reviews. There are many public adjusters out there that aren’t worth it or are even out there to defraud desperate homeowners. Please feel free to reach out if you ever need advice about this.

I also have a monthly reminder to work on selling the home. I don’t want any of us to ever go through this experience again. Moving to a high-rise apartment to shield from flood and wind damage would likely help much moving forward.

This experience has also taught me the importance of reaching out and accepting help. There have been many times when I’ve tried to do everything myself with childcare, the business, legal stuff, and hurricane work, but I’ve learned the hard way that I need to step back, ask for and accept help, and find some space so I can make this work I do more sustainable.

We’re well into 2025 now and I’ve been taking these learnings to heart. I’ve been taking some time to myself to recover from 2024. It’s going well, but I’m still triggered from time to time when work from back then pops back up. All of the projects we worked on from last year are still in progress in some kind of way. They’re thankfully all in a much better place now.

Recovery and looking forward

I understand that recovering from trauma isn’t linear or quick—it often seems like it’s one step forward and two steps backward. But I rest easy knowing that I have loved ones to support me and that I’ll be there for myself as well (the latter has been a lifelong project that’s finally working out).

I’m now feeling a weight lifted off of us with the parent’s house rebuilt, her parents moved back in, and we're getting insurance claims payouts to make us whole from all of the repair costs. We both worked so hard and this is all validation of our hard work. So much stress and turmoil that we went through individually and as a family.. but we got it done!

One of my favorite lines from the Bible is from Romans 5:3-5: Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; character, hope. I’m not currently a believer, but I see the hope that suffering and overcoming suffering has brought to some of my closest loved ones. My wish is that we all arrive at hope after we endure the suffering that life serves us. I love you all very much.