Source(s):
Joe Pergola JJPergola@ifas.ufl.edu, 813-744-5519
Pam Phillippe pam.phillippe@charlottefl.com, 941-764-4340
Susan Flores Susan_Flores@ccps.k12.fl.us, 941-255-7525

PUNTA GORDA, Fla.—In the aftermath of back-to-back hurricanes that took an enormous human and economic toll on Florida residents, University of Florida extension agents are helping teachers and residents deal with long-term stress from the storms.

“In Charlotte County where Hurricane Charley made land-fall, the devastation and emotional toll has been severe,” said Joe Pergola, a Hillsborough County extension agent with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, who went to the disaster area after storm.

Pergola, an expert in human development and family issues, worked with teachers and school administrators, helping them cope with stress and anger management. He also delivered materials to help teachers prepare for returning students who have experienced stress.

“The first priorities dealt with survival issues like getting fresh water and a hot meal, but there was a lot more to deal with than that,” Pergola said. “These were shaken people.”

The storm seemed to sweep away surface emotions, he said. “The teachers I talked to were dealing with some very deep fears, and concerns about family and work relationships,” he said. “You can do some deep thinking when you’re sitting in your house during a hurricane, listening to the wind and wondering if you’ll live through the storm. You have time to evaluate who you are and where you are in life, and you may not like the picture.”

Some normalcy returned to Punta Gorda two weeks after the storm as electrical power was restored, providing the balm of air conditioning, warm showers, well pumps and night-time lighting to area residents whose homes survived the storm.

But the hundreds of people were left without safe housing, said Pam Phillippe, a Charlotte County extension agent. “The level of destruction means there’s essentially no rental housing available.

“I counseled families who live in one or two rooms of their homes, or in homes that have been condemned — because there is no where else to go,” said Phillippe. “Only a comparatively few families have been given trailers by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and these trailers are small so there’s no privacy for anyone.”

Schools in Charlotte County were closed for two weeks after Charley. Seven of the 20 schools were damaged too badly to reopen, and those students were re-assigned to undamaged or repaired schools.

With roughly double the usual attendance at the undamaged schools, split sessions were the only option. The first class begins at 6:30 a.m. and the last class ends just after 7 p.m. The distances involved mean bus pick-ups as early as 5:00 a.m., with the last drop off at 8:30 p.m.

The altered school schedules have meant that working parents must arrange for out-of- school care for their children. “Most of the buildings that housed day-care businesses, like the YMCAs and the Cooper Street program, were destroyed,” Phillippe said. “Finding a place for children has been next to impossible.”

Educators also worried about school rivalries, Pergola said, now that the students attend the same school. The sign and school logo on the front of the school are changed twice daily to reflect the loyalties of the students within. Keeping all students from a school on either the morning or afternoon shift was one key, Pergola said, as was counseling the teachers.

Extension counselors saw “very typical” stresses in families in the weeks immediately after Charley, said Phillippe. “My families said they had difficulty in concentrating, and they were worried about what they saw as extreme forgetfulness,” Phillippe said. “Many worked in the service industry, in hotels, restaurants or small businesses that were destroyed by the storm. Those jobs are gone. The parents are stressed out and of course their kids pick up on this.

“Children, especially those in elementary school, don’t like change,” Phillippe said. “Yet for many of our students, everything that was firm in their lives — where they lived, where they went to school, what they owned — has disappeared.”

Teachers in Charlotte County are dealing with the effects of prolonged stress in their student’s lives. “They show up without school supplies, understandable when a kid has no home,” said Susan Flores, a school social worker at Murdock Middle School. “They are distracted, and it’s hard to get them to sit down and focus on anything.”

“Having the teachers and staff briefed on what to expect from the kids before they returned to school was a big help,” Flores said.

Other stress symptoms extension staff have cautioned teachers to expect from their students include stomachaches, fear of being away from their parents and depression.

“It’s difficult,” Phillippe said. “Teachers like things in order, and there’s just no way that anything is going to be in any sort of order for a long time.”

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