Milton and Helene are taking a toll on the mental health of Floridians, leaving a trail of anxiety and frayed nerves

In a harsh new world of climate disasters, Amber Henry clutched her four young children as they stood atop the oven in their home in Lakeland, Florida.

In a harsh new world of climate disasters, Amber Henry clutched her four young children as they stood atop the oven in their home in Lakeland, Florida. Transformers exploded outside. The surging floodwaters from Hurricane Milton poured in through the windows late Wednesday and their refrigerator slowly floated away. “All I could do is pray and I had to be brave,” Henry told CNN the next day, saying she feared being electrocuted and leaving her children to fend for themselves. “Mom, I don’t want to die for my birthday,” Henry recalled her daughter, who will soon be 11, telling her before the single mother summoned the will and strength to safely lead her children to a neighbor’s house on higher ground. The family’s home, around 35 miles east of Tampa, wasn’t even in an evacuation zone. Broad swaths of the Sunshine State, in fact, are experiencing back-to-back jolts of anxiety, uncertainty and fear that experts say could have lasting effects. Milton’s fury has already claimed at least 17 lives in Florida, delivering a lethal storm surge, torrential rains and dozens of tornadoes – compounding the suffering inflicted less than two weeks earlier by another “once in a lifetime” storm, Helene, which killed another 20 people as it barreled through the state.