For older adults in Tampa, moving can be difficult. A lifetime worth of belongings is a lot to sort through in making decisions about what to bring to a new home. Throw a hurricane on top of that and the results are devastating.
“It’s as if you lose someone tragically and you can’t process it,” said Kathy Blair (MS, MBA), Founder and Principal of KRB Move Management. “The hurricanes came in the middle of the night. They couldn’t process the goodbyes to their belongings like they would during a move.”
KRB is a Senior Move Management (SMM) company, certified by the National Association of Senior & Specialty Move Managers (NASMM). SMMs provide older adults with assistance in organizing, downsizing, space planning, packing and helping with the move-out and move-in process. SMMs are trained to focus on the physical and psychological needs of their clients to make the relocation process as smooth and seamless as possible for people who might have lived in their homes for many decades and who could have physical infirmities, dementia or other disabilities.
According to a 2022 U.S. Census Bureau report more than three million adults age 65 and over moved during the prior year, or about 6.2 percent of the population 65 or older. The same report showed that about 165,000 people age 65 or older moved in, or out, of Florida during the same time period. It’s a population that continues to be mobile despite overall downward trends in the mobility of the U.S. population.
As it relates to Tampa-area hurricanes, Blair said mobility has been a huge issue for the older population. “If some people can dig in and remove things from their damaged homes, and get everything out, this group is more challenged physically in doing that.” Blair said Tampa Bay’s older population is tending to rely more on disaster relief companies coming in to help. But,understandably, those companies operate without the same attention to detail that an SMM would.
“Typically what we would do is apply a process,” Blair said. “The hardest thing I’m seeing, and it’s really hard to look at, is that their lives are on the curb. It’s their underwear. Their photo albums. People’s yearbooks. Things they could have made peace with letting go of if it was their decision.”
Anecdotally, Blair said a lot of older adults decided not to evacuate their homes based on their previous experiences. They really didn’t think the water would reach their homes. Evacuations tend to be harder on older people and they justified their decisions based on the hassle of getting out versus the risk of what they thought would be minor damage.
Blair believes the aftermath of the storms will hasten older adults’ plans to leave the Tampa Bay area. Many might have been planning for it to be closer to their children and grandchildren. Now, there’s the added desire to be out of harm’s way and avoid the risk of future storms.
“People have Hurricane fatigue and there’s a shifting of what’s important to people and what they can afford to do. Many of our seniors are retired living on a fixed income. It’s going to impact decisions,” Blair said.
In North St. Petersburg, where Blair lives, flooding was the ultimate cause of damage.
“Some of the [older adults] didn’t carry coverage,” Blair said. “This community had not been flooded before. They didn’t think it would happen.”
Confusion about what flood insurance actually covers has ensued and many have received an education they never wanted. Insurance costs and pressure to increase Home OwnersAssociation (HOA) dues simply add to the reasons older adults might decide to leave Tampa Bay and surrounding areas for other states. Or, at the very least, head inland.
I do think we’ll see more of people moving inland in Florida thinking, ‘I have to get off the water.’ I can’t live like this. I’m going to move to a condo in a no flood zone,” Blair said.
About Olympia
Olympia is a full-service residential and commercial moving company and commercial services firm. In addition to the packing, loading and hauling household goods for homeowners who are moving across the street or around the country, Olympia performs commercial services including warehousing for FF+E projects, decommissioning and liquidation, facilities management and logistics and much more. Olympia is an INTERstate Agent for Wheaton World Wide Moving. You can learn more about Olympia at olympiamoving.com and Olympiaofficemovers.com or call 800-222-4744
(800) 222-4744
info@olympiamoving.com
