Amanda Maynard sat on her father’s porch in Eight Mile, Alabama holding her belly as she reminisced on her life in Old Homosassa, Florida.

Maynard, 35, is eight-months pregnant and instead of preparing for the baby’s arrival she is in a new state starting her entire life over after Hurricane Helene ruined her home and most of her family’s belongings.

“You know, everybody talks about leaving their home and like their roots and stuff and settling down somewhere else,” Maynard said.

“We miss our life. We miss our normal life. We can’t wait till it gets back to normal, but it won’t get back to normal because like our house is gone. We can’t just go home.”

On Sept. 24, Helene quickly expanded into a Category 4 hurricane before striking Florida.

Maynard said she left her house along with her boyfriend Rob Korfman, and her two children, Clover and Clark McWhirter, two days before Helene struck to stay with a friend in Beverly Hills, Florida because of the flood danger.

After returning home, they found the house was no longer inhabitable.

“It took 72 hours to get back to our house,” Maynard said.

“Even though it’s raised like four or five feet off the ground, there were at least four or five feet of water inside of our house, and it looked like a bomb went off inside of there, just full of mud …. It’s pretty much gone.”

The family had already packed electronics, clothes, diapers, a few Stephen King books, a photo album and an urn containing the ashes of the children’s father who died several years ago.

‘I never want to go through it again’

They stayed with the grandmother of her two eldest children for a few days but because of the storm the grandmother’s home also had no running water.

Maynard then contacted her dad in Eight Mile who said they could stay with him.

The family packed up their remaining belongings, several of their chickens and cats and traveled more than eight hours to her dad’s house. They have now been in Alabama for more than a week.

They may never return.

Maynard and Korfman say the likelihood of facing similar storms is too high and they never wanted to, “live near the water ever again.”

“I don’t want to live in a flood zone,” Maynard said.

“I don’t ever want to have to, like, pack up my life and leave it again and not know if I can come back to it, I experienced a lot of things, but I think it’s still probably hitting us for how hard, how like, actually hard this is.

“So, I think we’re pretty positive people. Keep a smile on our face, just roll with the punches. But it really sucks, and I never want to go through it again, so I would never put myself or my children in a position to lose their literal everything.”

Although the family was not in Florida to experience Milton, its devastation has still been able to touch their lives hundreds of miles away.

‘We don’t know where we live’

The couple put in a $50 rental application with Gulf Belt Properties Inc.

After waiting a few days to see if the application was received, Maynard was told that the rental property was still awaiting to confirm Korfman’s rental history.

Korfman had an apartment in Bradenton, Florida, but the problem is that the eye of Milton struck the apartment complex. Maynard said the manager told her the application could not move forward until the rental application process was done.

Maynard described the ordeal as “inhumane” given what the family has been through.

“We’re just kind of in limbo at my dad’s house. I’m eight months pregnant, 33 weeks yesterday,” Maynard said.

“My son is autistic, so a routine is really important for him, and every time we have to re-establish a routine, it’s a whole thing, but the kids are missing out on school because we don’t know where we live.

“And at this point, I’m just going to be like going to an emergency room when I give birth, because the property managers will not rent to us without the rental history being confirmed. They’re like, we don’t care.”

Despite their life being upended, quotidian pressures and future plans continue to put stress on Maynard and Korfman.

Maynard had to push back her $500 car insurance payment. Her medical insurance is not accepted in Alabama and she is without an OBGYN.

Korfman said he luckily found a job at a gas station.

But the price of non-refundable rental applications could quickly compound if they are rejected numerous times. And they are now forced to spend funds that they were saving for Penny, the baby, just to buy necessities.

‘I don’t think the hurricanes are going to stop’

The trauma has taken its toll on Maynard, who fears that the stress may harm Penny and worries the child will be born into an unstable situation.

“A newborn needs stability,” Maynard said. “And right now we don’t really have that.”

The couple said they believe that the two devastating storms that forced the family to restart their lives were due to climate change fueled by human actions.

Korfman said that he recalled Helene sitting in the Gulf of Mexico and intensifying rapidly in the extremely warm waters.

Two reports released this previous week indicated that climate change linked to humans led to the warmer ocean waters amplifying the two catastrophic hurricanes.

Maynard said the prospects of climate change make her worry for her children’s future especially.

“Another reason we left Florida, is because I don’t think the hurricanes are going to stop being mean,” Maynard said. “The Gulf is like four degrees warmer than it should be…it’s not looking good out there for the future.”