The truck alarm rang into the night as Hurricane Helene’s surge waters rose, the headlights flashing frantically. When Luke Bonner and his family escaped their flooded home by skiff, they paddled past his Ford 150 now submerged in “belly-deep” water.

Residents of the booming region are confronting a new reality: Even when storms make landfall far away, their impact is being felt.

Hurricane Helene hit Florida last week, leaving devastation from the historic storm surge that ravaged coastal communities in the Tampa Bay area.