I am sure you have heard about Hurricane Ian and the devastation the storm caused all over the state of Florida on September 28, 2022. The eye went right over Cape Coral and Fort Myers was right in the path of destruction. I remember being in Richmond, Virginia when Hurricane Gaston came through. It was windy, and we lost power for 10 days. Of course, we bought a generator but never used it!
Gaston gave Richmond so much rain that our historic downtown was flooded. Downtown Richmond is called Shockhoe Bottom because it is at the bottom of two hills. The area had over six feet of water in restaurants, businesses, and houses. Cars were floating all over the place and then landed on top of each other. People needed to be rescued from their cars, apartments, and bridges. It was one of the saddest things I had seen.
Hurricane Ian started unfolding September 24th. I was in Virginia Beach for a wedding and I was going to fly to Florida on Monday. Jeff was going to meet me there Wednesday to check on the house and clean the boat. My mom had been watching the weather and suggested we not go because of the potential storm. We agreed, and I headed back to Pennsylvania after the wedding weekend.
At first, we were concerned about our friends and family in the Tampa area, but then the storm turned south, and we became very concerned about our friends, family, and our home in Fort Myers. My Valentine and I were in our summer home watching Hurricane Ian unfold on our TV.
My husband was pretty relaxed at first. He has been through a few hurricanes and said the news always talks about storm surges and wind. He said storm surge never happens. Even though we thought things would be okay we had our son take a few things inside and asked our friends to go over and help tie up the boat. Our son was going to Cape Coral with his buddies and our other son came to North Fort Myers to stay with his mom.
As we watched on the screen we were horrified at how huge this storm was building up to be. It was strong and slow and was heading right for us. I was nervous and wasn’t sure what was going to happen. We were able to talk with a few friends and family members until the power went out but then all we could do was watch. We still have a few cameras set up around the house from our caregiving days, and we watched as our new pool door kept swinging open and then slamming closed. Around 3 pm, our power went out. We stayed in touch with the neighbors for another couple of hours, but we didn’t want to drain their phone batteries. We just wanted to know what was going on but all we had was the storm coverage.
We received this picture of the street straight out from our house. The neighbors said the whole neighborhood was flooded with about four feet of water which meant our house house was surrounded by water. Then we lost touch with everyone and just had to start praying that everyone was going to be ok.
The next morning we were able to get in touch with our son and Jeff’s dad. They said the storm was crazy and the scariest thing they had been through. Our son went back to our house and called us. Water was still halfway up our driveway and in our backyard, our garage doors were pushed open, and the garage was in disarray. He said, “You guys need to get here NOW!” I was scared of what we were going to come home to.
We booked a flight out of Cleveland into Fort Myers but it was canceled. So we got one out of Pittsburgh into Fort Lauderdale. Our friend’s daughter picked us up along with her mom who was able to get a flight out of Cleveland. The normal two-hour ride from Lauderdale to Fort Myers seemed like it took forever. Traffic was heavy and everyone was stopping for gas and other supplies.
We got to our house and opened the garage door. Wow. We just kind of stood there in disbelief. My car and our son’s friend’s car were trashed. Paddle boards were lifted and landed in awkward positions. Trash cans were full of water. Trash was spilled from the bags. There was half an inch of soot and dirt and muck covering everything. There were still two inches of water in my car.
We didn’t know where to start. We couldn’t even clear a path to get into the house. So we just got straight to work. Thank goodness our friends and their daughter were with us. They had clear minds and weren’t emotionally attached to our stuff so they just started pulling things out of our garage one by one. We made piles of things to be saved and things to go in the trash. The things to save had to be power-washed and sanitized. But it was a start. We only did one-half of the garage that day. But what a long day it was.
Even though we were exhausted we felt blessed. Our neighbors down each of our side streets had 46 inches of water throughout their whole house. We had 46 inches of water in our garage and about 18 inches in our entryway. Our house and our pool happened to be on a 48-inch cement block. We were two inches away from destruction. I couldn’t even imagine where we would have started if our whole house looked like our garage did.
At the end of the day, we were covered in mud. We were exhausted physically and emotionally. Even though we considered ourselves blessed and lucky to only have the mess in the garage and our front entryway, we still couldn’t believe it.
On day two we continued cleaning. We finished up the garage and got the entryway clean. We felt we were in a decent spot. We worked on our yard then we started helping our neighbors. We power-washed driveways, pool decks, and inside of people’s homes. We cut and dragged out wet heavy carpet. We pulled people’s washers, dryers, refrigerators, bedroom sets, TVs, tables, chairs, and clothes to the curb. There was no saving of anything. it all needed to be removed and need to be taken to the curb.
The crazy thing was that people would come around and ask or just take it from the garbage pile. More power to them is they can fix it but these tools had been covered in water for at least 48 hours. It helped us get rid of the pile in our house so we said take it!
As we talked with more and more neighbors we realized how devastating this storm was. Three of our neighbors stayed. One was in a one-story, and he was wading in water for over 12 hours. He slept on top of his truck because he didn’t know where else to go. How horrifying. We heard of other stories of people swimming from one house to another. Or rescuing people who were floating by. It made me thankful that we were not in Fort Myers at the time of the storm.
What I did notice was how the whole neighborhood came together. Everyone got done what they could in their homes then they were all out on the street helping each other. Helping each other move or lift furniture, helping each other power wash the garage floor, pool deck, or driveway, and helping each other return items to their rightful owner after digging it out from the rubbish pile left behind. Then at the end of the day we all came together to sit on the back deck and have a beer. I guess in every storm there is a silver lining. People helping people was an inspiring sight to see.