Hurricane Ian
We knew it was coming a week or so beforehand. It was all over the news. Local Floridians were talking, “the biggest storm to hit Florida in one hundred years”.
We’ve been living in Florida full time for over 3 years now. We have had our share of big rainstorms, where the wind blows like crazy! A few times these storms were called hurricanes. We were never told to evacuate, because these hurricanes were going to land far north of us, but we would have high winds and rain from the outer bands. A few times we secured our outside patio furniture and moved the plants, as not to have them blow over or cause any damage.
This Hurricane, Hurricane Ian, was different. As the week before it progressed, it appeared that this was the one that was going to hit Southwest Florida hard.
We live on a canal that gets its water from the Gulf of Mexico. The news was stating that we could see 12 foot storm surges, which if was true, could put our house underwater. We had sold our pontoon boat the week prior, so we did not have to worry about that. Thank goodness.
I began to get pretty anxious. Our neighbors were anxious, folks who have lived in Florida for a long time. Our friend Ricky from across the street, who is a retired sheriff told me on one of these days, that this is the Hurricane that will cause major damage to our neighborhoods. My anxiety level was increased. Jim and I secured our home. We put things like furniture up off the floor, as we might have flooding. We brought everything outside, inside. We gathered up all our important paperwork and our two boxes of photos that we brought from California. We were as ready as we could be if we had to leave.
Two days before the storm was to make landfall, it was said that Ian would hit Tampa which is 60 miles north of us. Considering how huge this storm was, that was basically in our backyard. I got pretty scared. The news changed rapidly, and the next bit of information was that it was moving south and was going to make landfall in Sarasota, which is only 10 miles from us. At that point, we were mandatorily told to evacuate.
We are very fortunate. We have a Rv and could pretty much, pack up our important things and leave. Which is what we did. I love my home and I love where we live, but, having once sold everything we owned, and moved onto a boat, I had learned that “stuff “is not important. Leaving our home the day before the hurricane, was not difficult. I’m not married to my things. The important things were in our possession, and our lives are far more valuable than any amount of “stuff”.
We made a decision to drive the RV to a city called Okeechobee, which, as the crow flys, is about 125 miles from where we live. The storm was supposed to head from Sarasota up north through the state. It was not supposed to land anywhere near there. We knew we would get some rain and winds, but we would be far enough away as not to experience it’s wrath.
We arrived in Okeechobee the day before the storm was to land. We checked into a RV park and settled in. As we continued to monitor the storm on the news, it had once again moved in a southerly direction, with landfall now expected to hit Venice Florida, which is where we live. We were sure our home would be flooded and that would be that. I was a wreck. Jim was very supportive and allowed me my feelings. I just felt very sad.
On September 28, 2022, Hurricane Ian had moved a bit further south and made landfall at Fort Meyers Beach, which is 2 hours south of our home in Osprey.
As a Category 4 Atlantic Hurricane, it was the deadliest hurricane to strike the state of Florida since 1935. It is called the 5th largest hurricane ever to land in the United States. It’s eye wall alone was 45 miles in diameter and hurricane force winds extended another 100 miles beyond that, which unfortunately, meant that we didn’t drive far enough south to escape the winds.
Jim and I spent the majority of the day watching the news. It happened to be our ninth wedding anniversary, and I could not think of anyone better to spend a hurricane with. As the day progressed we watched the devastation begin to unfold on the TV. I was in touch with a neighbor who stayed in her home and was getting bits of information from her on how our street was doing. She told me that the street looked like a river, and the wind was blowing really hard. It was comforting to know that so far, our houses were still standing. A few other friends had chosen to stay put in the neighboring communities, and they reported that shit was flying everywhere and peoples roofs were getting torn off. Power was gone and some of my friends lost cell service. It was quite unnerving. And then, several hours after landfall, we got the winds at the RV park. It sounded like a freight train and the whistle of the 80 mile an hour winds was so scary. The RV was shaking and I seriously thought we were going to get toppled over. I looked outside often and saw trees getting blown over. I have a video of when it started, but it really doesn’t due justice to how loud and scary it was.
There was nothing we could do at this point. We had to ride it out. I prayed like a child. I was that scared. The winds went on for hours. Jim kept saying they were just gusts😂 and assured me that we would be ok. And, we were.
In the morning, the RV park was damaged, but everyone was safe. No one got hurt. There were many trees down, and we had no electricity. I heard from our friend on the street that the water was gone and there was minimal damage to some of the homes. We needed someone to go into our house to make sure it wasn’t flooded. Our backyard is enclosed. When it rains, we can get ankle deep water back there. We have pumps to suck the water out our back wall. Not knowing if the pumps would have kept up, was unknown. We do have very good hurricane windows on our home. So we were sure that, if our friend said our houses were ok, that we were in good shape.
We stayed at the RV park through that day and would make a decision on when we would go home when I could get someone to enter our home and make sure we weren’t flooded. We were safe where we were, and, not knowing what our neighborhood looked like, needed to wait until it was safe for a friend to enter our home. Looking at pictures posted on social media of our area showed much damage in Venice. Big trees torn from the earth. Roof’s gone. The beautiful Venice Theatre was gone. It was looking like a war zone. Near our home, a few cities away, was underwater. People were getting rescued by boat. My friend Debbie went and checked on our house and reported that it was dry. Jim and I rejoiced and drove home the following morning. We survived Hurricane Ian. This is a news video from our town.
I have never seen anything like it. This hurricane was devastating. To date, 118 people have died. Beautiful beach cities, many of which we have been to, are now gone. Places we went to on the Happy Destiny. Marinas we stayed at on our Loop trip, and on our honeymoon were destroyed. Millions of dollars worth of boats were sunk or thrown around like toys. The cleanup will take years. Life, for so many people, will never be the same. This is not lost on me.
We were so lucky. This is a picture of our home. The only thing that happened was our plants blew over.
Hurricane Ian
To say I never want to go through something like this again would be an understatement. I’m still having anxiety, although it’s getting better. I continue to keep the people who suffered so much tragedy, in my thoughts and prayers. I hope you will too.
❤️
