The promise of long sunny days, beautiful beaches and a relaxed holiday vibe has lured thousands to make a life in Florida.
But for many this tropical paradise is quickly losing its appeal.
Back-to-back hurricanes and intense storms supercharged by record high temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico pummelling the area in the past two years have upended the dream many came here to live.
At the end of September, Hurricane Helene made landfall with winds reaching 140 miles per hour.
The category 4 hurricane hit Florida’s northern coastline – the Big Bend – and caused catastrophic flooding, and widespread damage and affected five other states.
Two weeks later and just as residents began picking up the pieces of their destroyed lives, they were struck again.
This time by an even more ferocious hurricane – Milton. Described as the “storm of the century”, its force was so great it triggered numerous tornadoes, power outages and extreme rainfall.
More than 200 people died in both hurricanes across six US states. And early estimates suggest Milton alone has caused $50 billion worth of damage.
For many, this has been one disaster too many.
I travelled to Tampa to meet some of the people trying to rebuild their homes and their lives. What I found were families in despair.
“For the third time we have gutted this house, you can bend down and you can see through multiple rooms,” Ashley Pangborn told me.
Ashley, her husband Greg and their two children live in Homosassa.
“It’s not just financial recovery”: Ashley Pangborn and her husband, Greg, say they regret moving to Florida because of the extreme weather
Their home was flooded in last year’s hurricane season. They had just finished repairs when Hurricane Helene struck and their house was flooded again.
“We were planning on putting our house on the market on October 1. We had our pod loaded up with stuff we saved last year. The hurricane hit and we lost all of that. We can’t sell our house anymore. We can’t move,” Ashley told me.
“It’s not just financial,” she said. “It’s mental wellbeing, physical wellbeing, emotional wellbeing. How do you keep your kids educated? How do you rebuild? Where do you live?”
“Do you regret moving here?” I asked the couple.
“For sure…this has been a nightmare,” Greg replied.
And if the super-strength storms don’t convince many to move, the insurance costs may.
Like Ashley and Greg, many in Florida are grappling with complex and expensive insurance claims. Some are unsure if they are covered at all.
Because even though Florida is America’s flattest state, almost completely surrounded by water, 80% of residents do not have flood insurance which must be bought separately from home insurance.
A community mental health group supports people with disaster fatigue
It can be very overwhelming for many. I met with a community mental health group which gets together weekly to talk through the emotional and physical strains of living through repeated natural disasters – known as disaster fatigue.
“I don’t know what I own anymore,” says one exhausted woman who had bought her home just three months prior to the hurricanes, and is now faced with an uncertain future.
Local weather presenter Greg Dee warns major storms and hurricanes could be the new normal for Florida.
“I’m at the point where I just expect this to be a yearly occurrence,” he said.
“Tampa wasn’t directly hit by a hurricane since the 1920s. And suddenly every year now it seems like there is something, just another storm.”
But those who want to stay want to be storm safe. That, though, might come with a high price tag. It may mean living in luxury hurricane-proof homes.
I went to see one development, just 30 minutes from Siesta Key, where Hurricane Milton made landfall.
It’s claimed the houses here could withstand a category 5 hurricane.
Designed for disasters, the living areas are raised above the ground, the structure is secured with steel straps and each home features hurricane-proof windows. Also included are solar power batteries to keep the lights on during power outages.
“You’ve had Helene, you’ve had Milton, how did these homes hold up?” I asked Alex Velichko from the company that designed and built these houses – Pearl Homes.
“No damage from Helene, from Milton, there was a little bit of flying debris around that barely damaged our hardy board,” Alex told me.
“But other than that as soon as the grid went down, our batteries kicked in and everybody had power and it was great.”
He told me they cost between $1.25 million and $1.8 million. He accepted it prices many people out but said he hoped as more and more homes are fitted with this kind of technology it may become more affordable in the future.
During my time here, what became apparent to me was that for many Florida is now a paradise lost.
The successive and intense natural disasters made worse by the climate crisis are only forecast to get worse, plus the skyrocketing insurance costs are becoming too much to bear.
It is raising new questions about whether the Florida dream can survive in the future.
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