Field Notes: Florida doctor recounts hurricanes Helene, Milton

Hurricane Milton, a “historic storm” for Florida’s Gulf Coast, came ashore near Siesta Key Wednesday as a category 3 hurricane little more than a dozen days after Hurricane Helene hit the state’s Big Bend on its way to causing catastrophic flooding in the southeastern United States. Two storms, 13 days apart with an inestimable financial and emotional toll left in their wake.  

⏩ $233,000 in industry, individual donations to Optometry’s Fund for Disaster Relief 

Preparation can only get optometry practices so far, and as the nation witnessed with the rapidly intensifying Helene—now Milton—time is a premium that many just don’t have. 

“At some point we have to be at peace that we’ve done all that we can do,” writes G. Timothy Petito, O.D. Those stoic comments come as Dr. Petito, the Accreditation Council on Optometric Education (ACOE) chair, can only watch and listen for what will become of his St. Petersburg, Florida, practice. Initial reports suggested 18 inches of rain fell across much of the bay area. Like 7.2 million other Floridians upended by mandatory evacuations, Dr. Petito is waiting for the first reports out of western Florida after Milton’s landfall.  

Adjacent to an inlet along greater Tampa Bay, Dr. Petito’s practice has seen its fair share of Florida hurricanes. But nothing quite like Milton. 

The toll is yet to be determined. To be certain, it may still be days—or longer—before he'll know. But as Dr. Petito awaits, he recounts his experience facing not one but two hurricanes in as many weeks. 

Field Notes from G. Timothy Petito, O.D., Florida, Oct. 9, 2024 

Florida’s west coast has seen more than a dozen hurricanes in my time in practice. It’s often wind damage, rain intrusion or runoff-based flooding and storm surge that drive our concerns. But wind mitigation comes from roof shape and covering, building and window construction and strength. My building is built to withstand 200 mile-per-hour winds, while our windows (and we have a lot of windows) are hurricane-rated with debris-resistant film, so wind has never been much concern. 

But water is a different matter. Hurricanes here rotate counterclockwise with winds north of the eye travelling east-to-west and winds south of the eye generally going west to east. Even though my office is 100 yards from a small bay, contiguous with Tampa Bay itself, and built to be 19-feet above sea level, all these years, hurricanes have never been able to effectively push storm surge into the bay and threaten my office. Some have even made landfall south of Tampa Bay, effectively emptying water from the bay and helping with water runoff. 

All of that changed with Hurricane Helene.   

Hurricane Helene was a rare hurricane that developed in the Gulf of Mexico. Most Atlantic hurricanes develop from tropical disturbances off the coast of Africa. Those disturbances develop and are tracked for a week-to-10-days before they get close enough to threaten the U.S. coast, and longer to threaten the gulf coast states.  However, Helene formed south of Cuba on Sept. 22. I wasn’t even aware that it existed until a patient asked me what I was doing to prepare for it the morning of the 23rd. 

So, I started to track it, and from its size and projected path, it didn’t appear to pose a physical threat to the office. But of course, every time there’s a hurricane near the west coast of Florida, most patients cancel appointments. That decreased patient engagement can last from a week to a month, depending on how close a hurricane is to us. There is always an economic impact independent of any physical effects of a storm. 

That next day at 11 a.m., Sept. 24, a sheriff came to inform our office that we wouldn’t be allowed to open the next day due to a mandatory evacuation order for our location and all businesses were barred from operations. At that time, the storm track was still projected straight north, 150 miles west of our coast and only 150 miles wide. This really seemed strange. For reference, only the pandemic caused such an order previously—and never before a hurricane. 

Yet, by 2 p.m., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicated Helene had rapidly developed into a category 4 storm and grew to a massive, 550 miles wide. I took a break from a call with the ACOE to tell staff we’d be canceling appointments for the rest of the week; the storm was so big that the wind field would cover the whole state. But it had already been done as the sheriff returned to say we would be closed for the week. I wasn’t planning to evacuate and hadn’t even given thought to office preparation beyond informing patients and rescheduling them. However, the growing size and strength of the storm made me decide to evacuate. My staff all decided to stay. 

Everyone now knows Helene became one of the most dangerous storms recorded, hitting a sparsely populated part of Florida on Sept. 26. At our office, the winds lined up perfectly to drive a record storm surge 6-7 feet around the shores of Tampa Bay. And for the first time, water lapped at the sidewalk outside my office. 

The entire neighborhood behind my office, only 10-12 feet above sea level, was inundated. Mountains of debris have lined the streets ever since Helene. I returned to my office the following Monday to find no damage, but many of our patients had suffered severe damage and were displaced because of it. 

Three days later, Oct. 3, another rare tropical depression began to form in the southern Gulf with no projected path determined yet. The week ended for us with no concern of any storm. 

But over the weekend, a projected path for a category 3 storm took shape, aimed directly at Pinellas County. That Monday, Oct. 7, the storm became a category 5. Its target: Tampa Bay. 

A 12- to 15-foot storm surge prediction for the bay was well above what we’d seen with Helene a week earlier, and meant we’d see widespread inundation throughout our practice. We could harden the exterior by covering windows and doors, but that would only protect us against a 9-foot surge. And by Monday, no plywood was available even if we wanted to try. Besides, the other half of the building is a restaurant that didn’t attempt to harden its exterior, so water intrusion was inevitable. A lack of trucks meant we couldn’t even move the equipment out of the office in that amount of time, so we did what we could. 

Evacuation orders for Helene involved Zone A, about 600,000 people trying to move north all at once. But this evacuation order included A, B and C—1.6 million or more people trying to leave in just three days. It was most important for me that my staff could leave as soon as possible, so we wrapped everything in plastic, backed up the data on our computers and moved everything as high up as possible. Critical papers were scanned for backup, non-critical paper was tossed—wet paper is difficult to clean-up after a storm and leads to a mold risk—and we called patients to inform them we were closed. Most were well on their way out of town.  

As small-business owners, we worry about the financial toll of disasters. We plan for as much as we can by building or renting sustainable buildings, insure against foreseeable risks and react when we can to the maximum extent possible. But at some point, we have to be at peace that we’ve done all that we could do. 

The most important thing is to protect your staff and yourself.  

Right now, my staff and I are safely out of harm's way. I am watching and waiting to see whether our preparations were sufficient or not. It will be several days after the storm before we can get back into the area. And if Helene is any indication, maybe several more before power is restored. 

⏩ Read more about the emergency appeal in Hurricane Helene-ravaged states 

Industry, profession rally to support disaster relief with $233,000 in donations  

Even as attention focuses on Hurricane Milton’s landfall, many optometry practices are still picking up the pieces from the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene only two weeks prior. Affected doctors, staff and students from the Carolinas to Tennessee, Florida, Georgia and more are contending with flood-related destruction that washed away homes, business, roads and even towns. 

On Sept. 30, The AOA Foundation issued an emergency appeal for donations to Optometry’s Fund for Disaster Relief (OFDR) to which the profession quickly responded. Now totaling more than $233,000 in contributions, including 50,000 each from the Health Care Alliance for Patient Safety and AOAExcel®, $100,000 from AOA Visionary Supporter EssilorLuxottica, and more than $33,000 in individual contributions, OFDR continues to take applications from doctors and students impacted by Helene and Milton.

“EssilorLuxottica is committed to the profession in good times and difficult times. Delivering essential care to their communities is a calling, but in times of crisis, doctors need a lifeline of support to enable them to do what they do best. We are incredibly proud to support the AOA’s Disaster Relief Fund over the years and especially today, with two natural disasters hitting the region hard back to back. In addition to our OFDR contribution, we will directly support our customers in the region, helping them restart their practices so they can get back on their feet,” says Fabrizio Uguzzoni, President of Professional Solutions, EssilorLuxottica Americas.

“Optometry is, at its heart, a family, and AOAExcel did not hesitate to step up for our family with this important donation to OFDR,” says Sam Pierce, O.D., AOAExcel chair. “We stand by all doctors of optometry and students impacted by these devastating disasters.” 

“We know doctors of optometry and practices face significant challenges in delivering care to those who need it most during these disasters, and OFDR is a powerful resource to help them continue to provide eye health and vision care in their communities,” says David Cockrell, O.D., Health Care Alliance for Patient Safety chair. “The Health Care Alliance for Patient Safety is proud to support this important initiative and ensure that patients have access to essential care.” 

To date, OFDR has awarded 14 grants, after quickly processing, reviewing and notifying recipients of their grants given the urgent need. Applicants for OFDR grants reported a litany of catastrophic damage: practice closure due to a loss of electricity; flooding and mudslides washing out driveway; without electrical, cellphone and water service; major sinkhole opened on property; and tree through the roof of house, causing flooding inside.  

Doctors were still assessing the damage to their practices and homes. 

“Optometry's Fund for Disaster Relief, administered by The AOA Foundation, is committed to supporting our colleagues as they recover from the devastation caused by the recent storms,” AOA Foundation President Belinda R. Starkey, O.D., says. 

“We are proud to provide critical resources to help ensure that optometrists can continue to serve their communities during these challenging times,” Dr. Starkey adds. “We appreciate the gifts that have been donated, including those from members and our corporate supporters. Given the forecasts, the need will be great.” 

Disasters are unpredictable and life-altering, but the AOA Foundation is determined to ensure OFDR is always ready to help doctors of optometry and optometry students overcome challenging times. Your support helps the foundation support programs such as OFDR. Here’s how you can support OFDR or find grant information: 

• Donate to The AOA Foundation.Help make sure OFDR grants are available for our colleagues affected by these disasters.
  

• Submit an OFDR application. Have you been affected by these or other disasters? Learn more about grant criteria and complete the OFDR application and Form W-9. 

Affected individuals could be eligible for grants up to $4,000 to help provide financial support with an aim toward helping cover necessary expenses and expediting doctors’ ability to reopen their practices to serve their patients.” 

There are more than 7,700 licensed practicing doctors of optometry in the six states most impacted by Helene and Milton.