Florida’s Pre-Hurricane Shopping Traumatic; ‘Storm-stress Syndrome’ Cases Reported

Although areas of the eastern Atlantic Ocean and western Gulf of Mexico are calm, with no tropical storms on the radar, the reaction to the start of the 2005 hurricane season has been traumatic: Florida shoppers, attempting to take advantage of the state’s June 1 to 12 tax-free holiday have been flocking to local stores, and mental health experts are even reporting cases on “storm-stress syndrome.”

Although shoppers have 12-consecutive shopping days, until June 12, to stock up on hurricane supplies, shoppers jammed the parking lots and checkout lines at stores, especially at Home Depot, which announced yesterday it would “match” the state’s tax-free holiday by discounting the same supplies by the same discount.

Many stores like Lowe’s, Home Depot, WalMart and Sam’s had to assign one person just to transport generators from their stock room to the sales floor and to customer’s vehicles. Although the state capped the tax-free price for portable generators at $750, models below that value sold like the proverbial “hot cakes.”

One woman, checking out at a Home Depot, was heard saying she was buying a portable generator to use in her condominium.

Florida retailers reported phenomenal generator sales, dozens within the first hour they were open, and demand did not subside during the first day of the tax-free sale.

At the same time, all the recent news coverage and hurricane predictions have caused what mental health experts are describing as “storm stress syndrome.”

Crisis counseling organizations saw a 20 to 30 percent spike in phone call volume the week before June 1, and anticipate the overload will continue.

Counselors encountered the first cases of the malady after last year’s storms and have again begun to receive more calls as publicity built up toward the 2005 hurricane season. Local counselors said storm-stress syndrome is an anxiety that can be triggered by something as simple as heavy rain or a storm with thunder and lightning, all of which occur often in Florida during the summer months and have absolutely no link to hurricanes.

Topics Florida Catastrophe Natural Disasters Windstorm Hurricane