AccuWeather's Leslie Hudson speaks with a woman in Florida who was forced to rebuild after hurricane Ian and invented a smart way to endure the power of future hurricanes.
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00:00It's still no power. Three years later, we'll get there.
00:05For Rachel Pierce, life doesn't just imitate art.
00:08It's become her reality after being hit not by one, but three hurricanes three years in a row.
00:16Everything was underwater. All my windows were smashed out. All my inventory gone.
00:20I mean, we didn't even have flooring. I'm like, where did the flooring go?
00:23Hurricane Ian sent a 13-foot storm surge across Sanibel Island in 2022.
00:29Devastating this barrier island and others along Florida's southwest coast.
00:34This is our Ian water line. The water was actually a lot higher than that.
00:38Now, as a new hurricane season begins, Rachel Pierce is ready for whatever Mother Nature brings to her corner of paradise.
00:46So we let the water in and we let it out. Everything's waterproof.
00:49If I can't beat Mother Nature, I'm just going to let Mother Nature come through.
00:51So that's what we're doing. And it worked.
00:53Pierce says her floors were completely washed away, as well as most of her original artwork.
00:59The walls of her studio were also destroyed, forcing her to reinvent island living.
01:05I did the epoxy floors. We did stucco walls.
01:08Pierce says the island became a tight-knit community after dealing with three hurricanes in those three years,
01:14selling their wares in her parking lot until stores could reopen,
01:17with a resolve to endure whatever the next hurricane season might bring.
01:23All of our eggs are in this basket, and we love this basket.
01:26This is our island. We love the way of life out here.
01:28We love the community out here.
01:30And not coming back was never an option.
01:32For AccuWeather, I'm Leslie Hudson reporting.