Floodwaters in Florida Carrying Something Worse Than Water #hurricane #toxic #health

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]As investigative reporter Ashlyn web learned, she will show us how toxic tides may not just threaten these facilities, but also the homes around them.

[00:00:10]Central Florida knows all too well what hurricanes can leave behind. When Hurricane Milton flooded parts of Holly Hill, some families say raw sewage seeped into their homes, exposing them to serious health risk and forcing them to rip out walls, floors, and everything in between. Patricia Santiago has watched floodwaters creep closer to her doorstep with every storm. I'm in the middle of everything else that floods.

[00:00:36]So, yeah, I get really concerned.

[00:00:37]>> Her home has been spared so far. Oh, but what's it going to be decades from now?

[00:00:41]Right. Will I be here?

[00:00:42]>> Researchers at UCLA and UC Berkeley say the bigger threat may not come from a single hurricane, but from a slower moving problem already underway, sea level rise.

[00:00:54]But what used to occur, you know, maybe a couple times a century is by the end of this century going to become kind of an everyday event.

[00:01:01]>> Laura Cushing is one of the researchers.

[00:01:03]The team identified more than 5,500 hazardous sites across the country that could face flooding by 2100.