US health workers say they are seeing increasing signs of mental problems in residents in the state of Florida more than a week after Hurricane Michael hit Southeastern United States, and the issue could turn a short-term disaster into a long-term recovery that will take years.
Tony Averbuch, who leads a disaster medical assistance team that is seeing 80 to 100 patients daily in tents set up in a parking lot of the badly damaged Bay Medical Sacred Heart hospital, said some people are showing signs of fraying.
“In any kind of disaster what we find is that people have been exposed to circumstances that are well beyond what they normally deal with day to day,” said Averbuch.
Just getting to the treatment site involves navigating streets with roadblocks and fallen utility lines, and the hospital building itself was ripped open by Michael’s powerful winds.
Signs of trauma aren’t a surprise for those who studied people after Hurricane…