When Life Brings More Than One Storm: A PAR Story from Florida
Life doesn't pause when a storm hits.
For PAR volunteers, cleaning up after a disaster is about more than only running chainsaws and removing debris.
Because people are about more than one storm.
On Oct 15, 2026, Day 3 of their deployment in the Milton, Florida, area following Hurricane Isaias, our volunteers were assessing damage at three neighboring homes belonging to the same family.
As they spoke with a daughter, they learned her 94-year-old mother, who lived in one of the homes, had passed away that very morning after a long battle with cancer.
Her mother had been receiving hospice care at home. During the hurricane, the home's back awning had slammed into the house before blowing into the front yard.
Although her passing that morning had not been caused by the hurricane, our volunteers found themselves alongside a family navigating more than one kind of loss in the midst of the storm's aftermath.
It was a humbling reminder that every home has a story, and every family may be facing more than we can see.
We're grateful for the opportunity to serve these families, one home and one act of kindness at a time.
