One year after striking land as a Category 3 storm, Hurricane Milton continues affecting lives in Central Florida. In Volusia County, where the storm drenched parts of the county with more than 15 inches of rain, some people are still trying to recover.
Flood, build back, repeat
When Hurricane Milton hit last year, the Venables family was still in the process of recuperating from Hurricane Ian. In 2022, that powerful, Category 4 storm left three feet of water throughout the family’s 5,600-square-foot home in Port Orange — only two weeks after the family had finished renovations. Damage costs amounted to some $800,000, according to the family.
Last year, the Venables were finally able to move back into their home, after finishing most of the Ian-related repairs. “It wasn't a complete construction zone, but there were still things that weren't completed. But on the whole, it was home again,” Claire Venables said.
Just six weeks later, Hurricane Milton hit, wreaking havoc on her home again.
“I smile, because if you don't smile, you cry,” Venables said. “It's been absolutely horrific financially for us; pretty much broken us.”
Slowly but surely, the family has been making progress on addressing Milton’s damage. Although they’ve had to hire contractors for some things, the family’s taken on much of the necessary home repairs themselves, the Venables said. That’s largely because they can’t afford to front the cost of repairs while waiting for reimbursements from their insurance company, the Venables said.
“After going through that first hurricane and spending all of our savings, it was very, very difficult indeed,” Venables said.
According to Claire’s husband Mark, the family’s been stuck in an “impossible circle” with their home insurer and mortgage company. “We get money to do the work, but we can't get the money to do the work until the work is at least partially done,” he said.
The process means progress has been slower than the family would’ve liked — especially since after 15 years of living in the home, they’re planning to sell it. “Had we had the money, this house would have been finished and on the market in March,” Mark Venables said.
The Venables are aware of the challenges with trying to sell a house that’s already flooded twice. As of last year, state law requires people selling real estate to disclose a property’s flooding risk to potential buyers, including any insurance claims previously filed for flood damage. (Another, new state law with similar requirements for landlords renting to tenants also just became effective.)
RELATED: New Florida law requires real estate sellers to disclose a property’s flood risk
“People won't always want to come and buy a house that's flooded. We realize that. So our market's smaller,” Claire Venables said.
Although they’d ideally love to work with a realtor, the Venables said, they might not be able to afford one. The family is weighing whether to pursue a for-sale-by-owner arrangement. Meanwhile, investors are already making offers for the home amounting to “next to nothing,” in the neighborhood of $3-5,000, Mark said.
“Investors, you know, they're looking for a deal,” Mark said. “The house is almost like a total loss … Who is realistically going to buy it, unless someone comes along with cash?”
"It happens that quickly"
Now having flooded out twice, Claire Venables’ top recommendation for others is to be prepared. That means having critical documents packed and ready to grab in waterproof containers.
“It's all very well having your water … your torch, your battery for your flashlight,” Venables said. “That’s all important stuff, but when you're flooding and you've got to get out, you've got to be able to, literally, be able to grab and go. Because it happens that quickly.”
During Hurricane Ian, water flowed into the Venables home from all directions. But when Hurricane Milton hit, the family initially thought they might make it out relatively unscathed. It wasn’t until about 3 o’clock in the morning that they first noticed water coming in through Claire’s wardrobe.
“My husband's at the front door with our son, saying, ‘I think we're going to get over this … I don't think it's coming in,’” Venables said. “And then within 30 minutes, it not only had started to come in, but it was rising very, very quickly.”
After Ian, the family had made a pact: should they ever flood again during the night, they’d leave the house before daybreak. Safety was a key concern, Venables said, along with the difficulty of trying to get into a hotel.
“Plus, nobody wants to see your house being destroyed in front of your eyes, and you can't do anything about it,” Venables said.
When Hurricane Milton hit, Venables found herself trudging through the knee-high floodwaters raging over her five-acre property like some “awful river.” The time was about 4:30 or 5 in the morning on October 10 as she hauled along with her a few bags, plus a case of the family’s most important documents.
But even more horrifying, Venables said: she wasn’t alone. Her then-16-year-old daughter, Claudia, plodded just steps behind, hoisting a suitcase above the brackish water. The water was rising quickly, Venables said, reaching up to their waists as the pair traversed the mosquito ditches surrounding the property.
“We tried to huddle together, but [also] hold all of these bags above the water, so our documents and such weren't getting destroyed,” Venables said.
All of a sudden, Venables heard a shout: “Mum! My glasses!"
“It's dark and it's windy and it's rainy and it's awful, and we don't know what's happening with our home. And her glasses had slid to the end of her nose,” Venables said. With her arms full, balancing her belongings above the water, Claudia couldn’t adjust them herself.
“I reached out and I pushed them back on,” Venables said. Four more times, Claudia’s glasses began to slip off her face; four more times, Venables managed to secure them. Then, it happened once more.
“As I went to reach for them, they fell off her nose, and they fell into the water, and they got whisked away,” Venables said. It was “complete chaos,” she said, with Claudia sobbing as the pair finally reached the vehicle they’d use to escape from the house.
“How do I make this better for my daughter?”
After briefly debating whether she should go back inside the house to search for another pair of glasses for Claudia, Venables decided to stay in the car and start driving to higher ground. The pair was headed to meet up with Venables’ husband and son, who’d left earlier — three dogs in tow — to stake out at the family’s RV in Daytona Beach.
“The waters were still rising. The electrical wires — things had dropped. There were sparks flying all over the [ground], there were trees across the roads,” Venables said. “And I'm driving and navigating … But in the meantime, I'm thinking, thinking, thinking — as mums usually do — how do I make this better for my daughter?”
Suddenly, Venables had a thought: was Claudia’s tennis bag in the back of the car? If so, she figured, there should be a spare pair of glasses inside. Once the pair was safely reunited with the rest of the family at the RV, Venables checked for the bag: success. She handed over Claudia’s spare glasses, in what became a rather surreal celebratory moment.
“She gave me a big hug; she was just so thrilled,” Venables said. “That, if nothing else, was the best thing that ever could happen, because at least I could make her life a little bit better.”
The role of climate change
Even though the Venables’ flooding problems are beginning to feel dreadfully familiar, they’re also relatively new, in the grand scheme of things, Claire Venables said.
“We've now lived here for 15 years. And it's only been in the last couple of years that we've actually had problems with flooding,” Venables said. “We've gone through hurricanes [before], and it's been fine.”
Other area residents also say flooding problems are getting worse. Many blame overzealous development of land in Volusia County, particularly of wetlands and floodplains. Some residents also say local governments are ineffective in their management of stormwater flow.
Another factor at play is human-driven climate change. At a global scale, it isn’t necessarily making hurricanes and heavy rain events happen more frequently, according to current science. But for the heavy rain events that do come, climate change is causing them to bring more rain with them, said Florida State Climatologist David Zierden.
“Where we are seeing a change is in extreme rainfall,” Zierden said. “We're seeing more rainfall in the heavier events. And that's very consistent with the theory: a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture.”
Heavy rain events are bringing 37% more rain to the southeastern United States, Zierden said, citing the fifth National Climate Assessment published in 2023.
Extreme rainfall events are defined by the NCA as the top 1% of daily rainfall accumulations. By that definition, in Volusia County, a daily rainfall totaling three inches or more would qualify as an extreme rain event, depending on the season of year, Zierden said.
Currently, global weather and climate prediction modeling tools aren’t equipped to localize conclusions or predictions about rainfall patterns, according to Zierden. That’s a challenge he said the University of South Florida’s Florida Flood Hub for Applied Research and Innovation is working to tackle.
Zierden belongs to the Flood Hub’s rainfall workgroup, which is focused on improving both short-term forecasts and longer-term projections. “So now we're not just designing a new project for the current risk, but we're also looking at the future risk and how it might change,” he said.
Moving forward
On an afternoon in early October, Claire Venables sorted through a box of flood-damaged memorabilia: sonograms, achievement certificates, Mark’s elementary-school pictures and some of her children’s favorite books. Birth certificates were destroyed and had to be replaced.
“It's quite easy to say this, but actually living it is hard: things are replaceable,” Venables said. She knows what’s most important is that everyone is physically okay.
“However, it’s the school photographs from when they were in pre-K or nursery school … Those kinds of things that will never be replaced,” Venables said.
An eternal optimist, Venables said, she finds hope in watching her two children excel, despite all the strife they’ve endured. Both have struggled with mental health issues, following the floods. Yet Venables’ son Miles, a junior in high school, was just inducted into the National Honor Society. Meanwhile, Claudia is “living her best life” away from Florida, in her first year of college, Venables said.
“We are super proud,” Venables said.
So far this year, Florida has been spared from any direct hits from both tropical storms and hurricanes. Back in August, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was still predicting an “above-normal” 2025 Atlantic hurricane season. So far, it’s been a quieter season than expected.
