CLEARWATER, Fla. — Despite some signs of recovery for Hurricane Milton victims, there are still many families struggling to put their lives back together after losing everything.

What You Need To Know

  • Former residents of The Standard Apartments in Clearwater say they're still struggling to recover after Hurricane Milton

  • Nikki Whiting lived there and assumed their renters insurance would cover the damage, but it was denied because it was caused by flooding

  • Renters in Florida can purchase flood insurance to protect their belongings from flood damage, which regular renters insurance does not cover

One family who lived at The Standard Apartments in Clearwater says they felt they did everything right leading up to the storm, but it still wasn’t enough.

First responders rescued more than 500 people from The Standard Apartments during Hurricane Milton when it flooded. In some areas, the water was neck deep.

Nikki Whiting and her family lived at there at the time, and they had to be rescued. She says after the initial shock wore off, she realized she’d made a big mistake with her renter's insurance, because it covered nothing.

Up until just a couple weeks ago, Whiting and her family had been living in a hotel since Milton.

“We thought we were ahead of the game actually, with planning not to leave our home, we were prepared, we had stocked up on food, we did everything we were supposed to do,” she said.

Whiting says they also had renter's insurance.

“There wasn’t enough towels and blankets or anything to stop all the water that came into the apartment so yeah, it was really tough to look at all your stuff being pushed around, throwed around and there’s nothing you can do.”

She still thought it would be OK. “I told my husband, 'Well, we have renter's insurance, we should be fine.' No, Progressive denied us on our renter's insurance, saying with us living in Florida, that we need flood insurance as well to go along with our property insurance, something we did not know,” she said.

Without any reimbursement from insurance, Whiting says recovering from Hurricane Milton is especially rough.

“People don’t understand how hard it is to start over, to start over from scratch, and it’s really, really hard and when you think that you’re doing everything right,” she said.

But even through some of her darkest times, she has seen the light, thanks to the generosity of her community, and her faith.

“Keep your faith, stay prayed up because I am a firm believer that God doesn’t put more on you than you can bear, and standing on our faith is what really got us through this through all the tears,” she said.

She encourages everyone to know exactly what their insurance covers. Renters in Florida can purchase flood insurance to protect their belongings from flood damage, which regular renter's insurance does not cover.

Whiting mentioned the support her family has received from the community, including her church, and her dentist. Her dentist started a fundraiser for Nikki’s family after hearing what happened during Hurricane Milton.

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