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Two Suicides from Hurricane Ian Included in Death Toll

It is tragic!

It has to have happened before, but I’ve never read about it after working in emergency management for 35 years.

There was this from the New York Times: “Two deaths from the storm, Florida officials said, were men in their 70s who shot themselves after seeing the destruction to their property.”

Imagine, you have worked all your life and you move to paradise to retire. Sunshine, beaches, friends, warm temperatures and a nice place to spend your final days on earth. Along comes Hurricane Ian, and your home is destroyed, you perhaps have no flood insurance or home insurance since everything was paid for. You feel like you have nothing to live for!

Disaster mental health is going to be a really big issue in Florida.
Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.