When Dr. Sharon Slater spotted “Paul” in a Red Cross shelter in Fort Myers, Florida, the 45-year-old chef was standing between two beds looking very agitated.
She approached him gently, introduced herself as a clinical psychologist from Israel’s United Hatzalah Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit (PCRU), and asked if she could speak to him.
Paul told Slater that he and his wife had sold everything and moved to Fort Myers from Missouri two weeks prior to the hurricane.
Now, the house in which they’d invested all their money was demolished. A small plastic bag held everything he owned.
“He kept repeating, ‘I lost everything, I couldn’t save anything.’ He had no job, no home, no possessions,” Slater tells ISRAEL21c.