As southwestern Florida reels from Hurricane Ian’s devastation, residents can look to recovery efforts following other recent major storms for a roadmap back.
It could take years, experts say — and as hurricanes get stronger and buildings nationwide remain outdated, that may be the norm.
Hurricane recovery can last at least a decade and sometimes longer, said Tracy Kijewski-Correa, an engineering and global affairs professor at the University of Notre Dame who has worked on several major disasters, including 2017’s Hurricane Harvey in Texas.
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“We worked in communities after Sandy, they were still — and still are — trying to recover,” Kijewski-Correa said, referencing the “superstorm” that hit New Jersey’s coastline in 2012.
A similar lengthy timeline could be in store for Ian survivors, said University of South Florida College of Public Health instructor Elizabeth Dunn.
“Having to rebuild all these homes, grocery stores, the infrastructure, it’s going to be years for that recovery process to occur,” she said.
The cost of a hurricane
Taking into account individual payouts, federal disaster funds allocated to impacted states and agricultural losses, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information lists 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, which slammed coastal Louisiana and Mississippi as a Category 3 storm, as the costliest hurricane to…
