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Survival Mode Season 1 Episode 3

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00:00We live in an era of increased weather disaster.
00:20Hurricanes are getting bigger and intensifying more quickly.
00:26You just don't know when it's going to be your turn.
00:30It wasn't really until 24 hours before the storm that we knew we were in the dead center.
00:36The fire chief called me and said, you know, Jackie, this is the one.
00:40This is it. This is the catastrophic storm. It's coming straight for us.
00:44It's going to annihilate us.
00:48A nightmare of historic proportions is unfolding in Florida right now.
00:53Entire neighborhoods are underwater.
00:56The church's roof is floating by our halls right now.
01:00It was like someone opened the floodgates.
01:03The situation deteriorating, I would say, by the second.
01:08We knew we were in trouble.
01:10And I had no way to get to my parents.
01:13Oh, gosh.
01:15It is terrifying.
01:17That's what these people are going through right now.
01:19We're involved. This law said we're with three out of both.
01:22You think you're going to die.
01:23Everything I did was to stay alive.
01:29There's no one that can come save you.
01:32This is survival mode.
01:33Fort Myers Beach, before Hurricane Ian, it's just a funky town.
01:51People come from all kinds of backgrounds, and they're all there for the same thing.
01:55To hang out, to see the sunset, have a couple drinks, and just relax.
01:59At 10 o'clock at night, if you want to hear music, walk a few blocks, there you are.
02:04The excitement of new neighbors every week because they're coming from Ohio, Minnesota, and Canada,
02:09so we could argue sports and have a beer together.
02:11It was just an amazing life.
02:13It is a Tuesday morning.
02:20Let's get right to our news at 8 o'clock.
02:23Hurricane Ian intensifies to a major Category 3 storm.
02:27It started pummeling western Cuba overnight,
02:30and it's expected to grow even stronger once it does hit the United States.
02:34Florida ramping up emergency preps.
02:37We had heard this all before, actually many times before.
02:41Hurricane Irma, they were calling for 14- to 16-foot storm surges,
02:47and we did not get anything, any damage on the island at all.
02:52So we felt like that it was overkill again, and that we were going to be fine.
03:02Fort Myers Beach has always been very special to me.
03:06We started coming here when I was a young child.
03:08My parents had a timeshare, and every year we came until my parents had a crazy notion
03:14to move down here, and then I followed them shortly after.
03:19Now our houses are almost exactly a mile door-to-door,
03:24so we're pretty close to each other.
03:26It was wonderful having my kids so close to their grandparents, too.
03:32They were able to spend a lot of time with them.
03:36My parents have always come with us for most storms because we have a second-story home.
03:42Their home is one of the older one-story homes that Fort Myers Beach was known for.
03:48But for this storm, they wanted to stay in their home.
03:53My dad was very high-spirited, good mood.
03:56He felt pretty confident that they were okay.
03:59They told us a mandatory evacuation on the beach, but we're going to ride this one out.
04:15We've got everything prepared as good as we can.
04:19I asked Mitch, I said, what do you want to do?
04:23Do you want to stay? Do you want to go? It's up to you.
04:27Mitch said, I guess we'll stay.
04:29I've always wanted to live on the beach.
04:37And then when I met Mitch, he wanted the same thing, and it just all worked out.
04:48We were on the beach for almost 18 years.
04:54We thought we'd be there forever.
04:56Boy, there's nobody on the beach.
05:01Oh, wait, there's somebody.
05:03Hey, Danny, come on.
05:05Come on, Lulu.
05:09I told Mitch I wanted a dog.
05:12And he goes, no.
05:13I go, come on, you know.
05:15Getting Lulu made me a lot happier.
05:20She was my little baby.
05:28Hurricane force winds will arrive on the coast starting at almost a daybreak tomorrow.
05:31So that's why if anyone is thinking about getting out, you have till about midnight tonight, and that's about it.
05:36When we heard it was going to get worse and worse and worse, I said, Mitch, we're going to go to Bev's, so we'd all be together.
05:44His place was in the back of ours, so it wouldn't get the direct hit.
05:52We were the first home off the beach there.
05:55It's a duplex, an old home built in 1941.
05:59I elevated about eight feet, so we were safe.
06:01They faced the ocean.
06:05I was right behind them.
06:07And my sister, Marty, lived across the street.
06:12She was intent on staying because she's been through so many false alarms and would leave the island and not be able to get back for two or three days.
06:22So she said, I'm staying.
06:23And I didn't see a problem with it.
06:25I was going to stay regardless because that's what I do.
06:29I love storms and thought I had a pretty good grip on when to stay, when to go.
06:42The eye of Hurricane Ian is on the verge of making landfall on the state's heavily populated West Coast, right around Fort Myers.
06:50The impact expected to be catastrophic.
06:53The rain started and it was minimal at first.
07:00It wasn't until the water was rushing in and we could see it rising quickly, not just inches, but feet, that we began to get a little nervous.
07:10Officials say that the storm surge coupled with the rain are the top safety concerns for the millions of Floridians who are in this storm's path.
07:20Someone put a trail cam on Fort Myers Beach on a telephone pole.
07:27I mean, you just see crashing waves coming in and it is ominous and it is scary.
07:32The water started to rise mid-morning, but the storm didn't make landfall until three in the afternoon.
07:41This is five hours before the storm is making landfall and you're already getting images of the water rising in people's neighborhoods.
07:47Okay, okay, okay.
07:49I'm thinking, we still got hours.
07:51The storm's not even here yet.
07:54This is only going to get worse.
07:57We're anticipating within the next three to four hours, this is going to be making landfall just outside of Fort Myers.
08:12I also want to note that it's not until the center of the eye makes landfall that we call it a landfall, but, you know, no bones about it.
08:20We are already seeing some very strong winds.
08:22We continued to run to the front window to see the levels of the house across the street from us.
08:33Look at all the wood just floating down our street.
08:38At one point, an entire roof line just floated down the road.
08:44The whole roof is floating by our house right now.
08:48Huge pieces of homes and it just was flowing fast.
08:52We had started to lose power, so we weren't getting any more news on the TV.
08:59So we were really counting on people we were talking to on the phone.
09:03I did talk to my neighbor, Joanne, a very dear friend of mine, quite frequently.
09:07She was up in Pennsylvania at the time.
09:10I was trying to get any information I could about how much longer the storm was going to be on us.
09:15It was horrifying to hear the fear in Dana's voice about what potentially could be happening at her parents' house.
09:24They live across from the beach in a ground floor house.
09:28I mean, you obviously, your mind thinks the worst.
09:33They had told us that they were just sitting on their bed, and then the bed started to float.
09:43And I was just, the thoughts going through my head were horrifying.
09:48I had no way to get to them.
09:50My dad just kept reassuring me, so I wouldn't worry.
09:54Just kept saying, we're going to be okay, Dana.
09:56We're safe.
09:56We're floating on the mattress.
09:58We're going to be okay.
09:59That was about the last thing he said.
10:05And I love you.
10:07That was the last I heard from him.
10:13There's no doubt that this is worst case scenario.
10:15There are a lot of people who live year round on houseboats.
10:18They are a neighborhood in a sense.
10:21And they are starting to feel the brunt of it.
10:29My wife and I wanted to buy a sailboat, and eventually we saw this boat here in Fort Myers.
10:37But the name was Katrina.
10:40Yeah, exactly.
10:43So we changed the name after 10 because for us, after 10 years, we finally bought a boat and lived on it to be able to travel the world.
10:53That was the intent.
10:54If I would have known, probably I would have kept Katrina.
10:59You know what I'm saying?
11:01So Ian was coming, and we said to ourself, well, you know what?
11:07Boat floats.
11:08If we do things right, we'll be here after the hurricane.
11:12So we did.
11:13We took a mooring ball a week prior.
11:17We knew that a mooring ball was secured, well secured.
11:21The mooring ball is attached to the seafloor through a deep auger, which goes down like 10 or 15 feet.
11:29You're out in the middle of the water.
11:31There's nothing that you can bang into, and you're also able to float up with the storm surge.
11:35So I couldn't think of a better spot to be in that hurricane.
11:39But then, by the time they did say, hey, you guys need to leave, it was too late.
11:44It started shaking.
11:51It started blowing like I'd never seen before.
11:59The current was just raging one way, and the wind was blowing the other way.
12:04So all the boats were spinning around in circles, which is very unusual in a hurricane.
12:10Tracy was right in front of me.
12:12He was a big boat.
12:16I think the biggest boat on a mooring field.
12:19My boat's a tank.
12:20It's 85,000 pounds.
12:22But the waves and the wind were whipping us around.
12:26We both heard a snap, and we looked at each other, and we just said, well, we're loose.
12:33We snapped the chain right off the mooring wall.
12:36It was kind of like, here we go, you know, buckle up.
12:41And we went into survival mode.
12:45The wind pushed him.
12:47He had no control.
12:48He was quite close to me.
12:51Not good.
12:52I cannot move away.
12:55I cannot do anything, because he was coming fast.
13:00I was sure he was going to hit us.
13:03That's when I told my wife that this is it.
13:06There was nothing to do except hope.
13:11The time for evacuating is over.
13:21Those who have not evacuated are being urged to shelter in place immediately.
13:26I was on Facebook.
13:38I was watching what everybody was saying.
13:40At first, it was kind of like how we always post about the storms.
13:44OK, this is a good one.
13:46I can feel the house rumbling and that kind of thing.
13:50And then you could kind of hear, oh, no, oh, no, oh, no.
13:54He probably made a very bad decision to stay.
14:00You never really heard worry out of Mitch.
14:03It was something that was definitely out of character for him.
14:06Here goes an air bar.
14:10Oh, my God.
14:15Wrong decision.
14:18He was worried about his bar.
14:20He had a little man cave under his house with all of his paraphernalia
14:23from all the years that he had gone to the Cubbies games and the Bears games.
14:27And he used to have potluck dinners under there.
14:29And everybody would come and bring a dish and share and hang out.
14:35How sad to see a bar going down the street.
14:40Very, very sad.
14:41I said, it's OK.
14:44We'll get another bar.
14:46We'll, you know, figure it out.
14:48And then it was shortly after that that all hell broke loose.
14:58The water just there coming in so fast.
15:02It was like someone opened the floodgates.
15:04Mitch and Mary kept asking, do we need to get out of here?
15:11And my comment over and over to Mitch was, Mitch, we got 100% a chance of being OK if we stay in the house.
15:16But we got about a 25% chance that we jump into that.
15:19And I truly believed that.
15:24Up until the last minute, I thought the house is the best place to be.
15:29Until it was collapsing around us.
15:32That's around the same time that Mitch said, OK, we're terrified.
15:37My husband saw it and then he showed it to me.
15:40He said, you know, I think Mitch and Mary are in some trouble.
15:42That's when we both both knew this was going to this was way worse than anybody could have could have understood.
15:52Never seen a storm surge like this in my life.
15:56You're talking about a 15 foot wall of water with a storm surge.
16:00There's nowhere to go.
16:02They're going through a hellacious tragedy.
16:06Carry them in your heart.
16:12Breaking news, a catastrophic direct hit.
16:21Hurricane Ian slamming into Florida's Gulf Coast as a devastating Category 4 storm.
16:27Packing dangerous winds of up to 155 miles per hour.
16:34The wind sounded like a freight train.
16:37It was so loud and so strong.
16:40The palm trees were bent over completely sideways.
16:44We had windows that started busting out, which sounded like gunfire.
16:50And then we were terrified.
16:53My son's bedroom ceiling had already saturated and it collapsed.
16:59We have a video of actually our entire kitchen ceiling caving in.
17:06OK, so kitchen just fell through.
17:09We knew we were in trouble.
17:10But our thoughts never left my parents.
17:17I was so scared that they were completely underwater.
17:20As I knew, we had nine feet of water and they live closer to the beach, a one story home.
17:26And we had lost contact with them.
17:28Obviously, there are people who may not have good cell phone communication right now on the west coast of Florida.
17:36The last text that I got from Dana said she was so scared.
17:41I just kept sending texts, but there was no reply.
17:47I tried to tell myself that they were going to be OK.
17:51Reports coming in of people stranded due to storm surge.
18:00When I saw Tracy's boat broke loose of his mooring ball, it took him 30 seconds to get to me to be close enough to make us sink.
18:18Yeah.
18:19We were just fighting everything.
18:24We had to have been within 10 feet of his boat.
18:26I was sure he was going to hit us.
18:29I told my wife, I told my wife, this is it.
18:32We were prepped to not die.
18:35We were prepped to bail out and hope for the best.
18:37I had no visibility whatsoever down below.
18:43Basically, it was just instinct.
18:45It just takes over.
18:46You don't think of anything else except trying not to hit anything.
18:52His boat almost went straight into somebody's house and the person in the house was videoing him coming right at him.
19:07It took us about three tries to get turned around because of the way the wind was blowing and the current was running.
19:15Finally, we got turned in the right direction and got free of everything.
19:21Then after a while, couldn't see him.
19:25We made it.
19:29So we thought.
19:31But that was the first real trial because the wind is still blowing like crazy.
19:37And the waves are still crazy.
19:42And then, poof, we lost our mooring ball.
19:47Yeah.
19:49So now we move through the field.
19:52We hit that guy.
19:54We moved this guy.
19:57You know we're a sailboat.
19:58We have an engine that's like a moped engine.
20:01So there was no way for me to use the engine to save my life.
20:04There was no sails.
20:06There was nothing I could do.
20:07Mooring ball, this launch, and we're with three other boats.
20:12I'm monitoring the Coast Guard station, and I heard someone on the radio, and they were like,
20:17I'm on mooring ball number three, and I'm broken off.
20:20I was like, okay, well, I'm on mooring ball number nine.
20:23He's right next to me.
20:24I run upstairs, and I look out, and he's within four feet of me.
20:30The wind would just take his boat and almost heal it completely over, and it would move down the water, and then it would do it again.
20:36And there's nothing I could do besides just watch this man and his family float by absolutely powerless.
20:44You're at the mercy of the storm at this point, and I just lost him out of sight.
20:52We thought that that day was our last day.
21:01You think you're going to die.
21:03You know, this is, we're not meant to be on water.
21:08We're land mammals.
21:10So this is out of your control.
21:14We have people calling 911, asking for rescue.
21:18911, what is your emergency?
21:20Oh, it's bad.
21:22I think your house is coming apart.
21:24My car's about to float away, and we can't get out.
21:27Okay, just take a deep breath for me.
21:29But officials saying it's still far too dangerous for first responders to attempt any rescues.
21:37When the water's 12 feet above ground level, there's no one that can come save you.
21:41There's no boat that can come save you.
21:42There's no helicopter that can come save you.
21:44You're on your own.
21:50Right now, Hurricane Ian making landfall in southwestern Florida
21:54has an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm, the fifth strongest ever to hit the U.S.
22:01This hurricane is exceptionally dangerous, even by the standards of hurricane-battered Florida.
22:08We were in trouble, and we had no way out.
22:13We had no way out at all.
22:16The roof started buckling.
22:23The floor started buckling.
22:27Then part of the ceiling fell on my head,
22:31and I was telling Bob, I think we better go.
22:35Mitch, we gotta go.
22:38And Mitch didn't swim.
22:39I was gonna tie a sheet around his waist so I can hold on to him.
22:49It was not an I love you man kind of moment.
22:56It was more of a, we're gonna be okay.
22:59Find something that floats, and don't let go.
23:02At that point, we jumped into 14 feet of water.
23:24I looked out the door, and I saw our half of the house fell off of the building.
23:29I mean, literally fell off of the building, just peeled away.
23:39There was no decision at that point.
23:41I mean, we knew this house is gone.
23:44We had to jump.
23:46I thought we would all find something we could hold on to
23:49that would get us to something else we could hold on to, maybe.
23:53Mitch was gonna go first,
23:55but he got knocked down by water.
23:57A wave came by that was over the top of the door,
24:01and it knocked him backwards, and he slid across the floor.
24:05So I went first,
24:08and I had Lulu in my arms,
24:10and Lulu jumped out of my arms.
24:14She was gone.
24:17There was no way she was gonna survive this.
24:20When Mary jumped in, I got washed away.
24:30So I was immediately whitewater rafting down the street.
24:34She was behind me.
24:35I looked back, and I saw Mitch jump,
24:38but immediately turned around,
24:39because I had things to deal with.
24:42All you think about is survival.
24:47And I told myself,
24:49I'm not letting this hurricane kill me.
24:52I'm not dying like this.
24:54First plan in my mind was to grab onto a tree.
25:01I saw a branch sticking up out of the water,
25:04and I grabbed onto it, and it was strong.
25:07And as I held onto it, I looked over,
25:09and there's a second branch of a tree
25:11sticking maybe two feet out of the water,
25:13and it was strong.
25:15This is where I lose it.
25:17And I swear to God, this tree hugged me.
25:22It had everything in the right place.
25:24It had a place for my foot,
25:25a place I could wrap my leg around.
25:29Gosh, in an instant,
25:30I went from, you're probably dead,
25:32to, this is okay.
25:35And I looked up,
25:36and the first thing I saw was Mary's arm
25:38holding onto a railing of a house.
25:42I just knew I had to survive.
25:44And as long as I saw Bob,
25:48as long as I knew he was there,
25:51then I felt safe.
25:58And we just sit and wait.
26:00I watched things go by me,
26:02things I own,
26:03things I love dearly,
26:05paintings and furniture go by,
26:07and my life kind of washed it away here.
26:10I kept watching my sister's house.
26:12I could see it.
26:13The sight of it.
26:14I walked across the street,
26:15and they looked good.
26:17After about 15 or 20 minutes,
26:20I looked back over,
26:21and my sister's house wasn't there.
26:25The surge finally won,
26:27and it collapsed.
26:29So I kept watching it,
26:31looking for any sign of her or Mitch,
26:33and saw nothing.
26:35We just kept looking at each other,
26:41just thinking,
26:42when is it going to end?
26:45Now,
26:45two of the big problems here,
26:47the size and the speed of this hurricane.
26:49Not only is it 600 miles across,
26:52it's moving at less than 10 miles per hour,
26:54and is expected to slow to three or four.
26:57That's roughly walking speed.
26:59It was like the never-ending hurricane.
27:04Most of the hurricanes I've been through,
27:06they've been, you know,
27:07two hours, three hours,
27:08and they're all over.
27:09But this one just seemed to last forever.
27:11Everything I did was to stay alive.
27:18Once you're in a life-or-death situation,
27:21you don't have any feeling anymore.
27:23You got to do what you got to do.
27:26So I dropped my anchor,
27:27and now I'm spinning on 200 feet of chain.
27:31There was one boat in my way.
27:33My chain got entangled with him.
27:36Now we're fighting.
27:37We're spinning around.
27:39He was coming, boom, hitting.
27:41Hitting us everywhere.
27:43Backside everywhere.
27:45And I knew every hit,
27:46something's going to happen.
27:47We might punch a hole.
27:50So my wife says,
27:52you got to cut him loose.
27:55We knew there was nobody on the boat
27:57because all the hit we were having,
27:59he would have been out,
28:00say, hey, bro, what's up with you?
28:01You know, there was nobody there.
28:03It was a boat or us.
28:06So I decided us.
28:09One of the toughest decisions
28:11I had to make in my life
28:12is taking somebody else's stuff
28:14and let it loose,
28:16knowing that it's going to be damaged.
28:19We thought that the boat would have crashed
28:21and everything,
28:21but we had to be separated.
28:25There was no question about that
28:27because eventually,
28:28one of us would have sunk.
28:30I really just wanted the storm to be over,
28:36but it didn't stop.
28:38And it was just relentless.
28:42At some point, there was relief
28:43when I could tell
28:44the sky is getting a little bit lighter,
28:46but I looked around at that point
28:47and I saw that,
28:50oh my God,
28:50like, where'd all the boats go?
28:52I'm really concerned
29:12about what we're going to find out tomorrow.
29:14I mean, this whole community,
29:15we're going to be in this together.
29:16By the evening hours,
29:20the mood just was somber.
29:21I felt defeated.
29:23After my shift,
29:25I mean, I just,
29:26I just went into my car
29:28and I cried.
29:29I bawled for like two hours
29:30because I knew that people had died.
29:34Like, I knew it.
29:35We were probably in the water,
29:41I don't know,
29:42maybe five, six hours.
29:45The water subsided a little bit.
29:48The wind died down a little bit.
29:51And then Bob made his way over by me
29:54and told me we had to make our way over
29:56to the house across the way.
30:00It was still standing.
30:01We climbed the steps.
30:05I tried to break into the kitchen door
30:07and could not.
30:09So we,
30:09we stayed on the landing that night.
30:13We just kept next to each other
30:15to stay warm.
30:19I did not think about Mitch.
30:23I didn't want to.
30:25I blocked it all out
30:27and I think that's maybe why I made it.
30:30Because if you dwell
30:32on what's going on,
30:36I, I, I don't know if I'd be here.
30:48The wind did not stop all night.
30:52I couldn't find sleep.
30:54I was too scared that
30:55the ceilings were going to fall in on us.
30:58As my husband finally found sleep
31:01and my daughter was sleeping
31:02and I sat wide awake all night,
31:05I thought about
31:06what the next morning was going to bring.
31:10My thoughts never left my parents.
31:15I thought things like
31:16we should have made them come to our house.
31:18Things that I should have done differently,
31:20for sure.
31:21The next morning
31:34when the sun came up,
31:36it was
31:38just kind of surreal.
31:40You looked around
31:41and birds are chirping
31:42and the sun's out.
31:46But, uh,
31:47we saw destruction everywhere.
31:48The sand on the roads
31:53were about a foot
31:54on the road.
31:56It looked like
31:57basically we had a blizzard.
31:59And I said,
32:00I gotta see if Mitch is okay.
32:01I haven't heard from him.
32:04As I walked
32:05towards the house,
32:07I couldn't even tell
32:08if that was really his road or not.
32:10You really couldn't tell
32:11where you were.
32:13It wasn't until I got down
32:14closer,
32:15I'm like,
32:16oh my God,
32:16the house isn't even there.
32:19It was like
32:19it had just broken apart
32:21and disintegrated.
32:23And then I saw the pilings.
32:25The only thing left
32:25on the pilings
32:26of his bar
32:27was that Chicago Cubs pennant.
32:29Everything else
32:30was just wiped out, gone.
32:31Hey, Barbie,
32:35it's Bob.
32:36I'm alive.
32:39The memories are here too,
32:41but Mitch and sis
32:42were still in the door.
32:44I hope you can touch things.
32:49My sister, Marty,
32:50was so strong
32:51and such a fighter.
32:53She was smart.
32:55There's no way
32:56this storm
32:57was gonna get her.
32:58I held out hope
33:00until they found her body
33:02in the mangroves
33:04across the bay,
33:05about probably
33:06a half mile away.
33:10Marty was amazing.
33:12After I lost my mother,
33:13she was the mother figure
33:15in my life.
33:18I appreciate her more
33:19every day.
33:20Ironically,
33:28Mitch always said,
33:30I'm gonna die
33:31on this beach.
33:33And
33:33he did.
33:38He was found
33:40about halfway
33:41down the block.
33:43That's all I know.
33:46He was
33:47my everything.
33:50and
33:51I cannot
33:53accept the fact
33:55I'll never see him again.
34:10As soon as the sun came up,
34:12I woke up my husband
34:13and daughter
34:14and said,
34:16we need to go.
34:17We need to walk
34:18to my parents' house.
34:20We left the house
34:21at seven.
34:23It was
34:23eerily quiet.
34:26It was a very
34:27strange feeling.
34:29There were other
34:30people out
34:31and they were
34:32walking around
34:33with just
34:34a complete
34:35look of
34:36shock.
34:38They were like
34:39zombies.
34:41We just
34:42couldn't imagine
34:43what we were going
34:44to come upon
34:45when we got
34:45to my parents' house.
34:47Especially
34:48as we walked
34:49down the beach
34:50and continued
34:51to see
34:52houses that
34:54were newer,
34:55bigger,
34:56and completely destroyed.
35:00As we got closer
35:01to the house,
35:02we realized
35:02that there literally
35:03was nothing left
35:04of their home
35:05except the exterior
35:06concrete walls.
35:08There was no doors,
35:09no windows,
35:10no furniture.
35:12My heart
35:12started racing.
35:14My husband
35:14and my daughter
35:15and I started running
35:16as fast as we could
35:17to the door,
35:19praying that my parents
35:20were still alive.
35:33We were running
35:34as fast as we could
35:35through the door.
35:36As soon as I
35:38walked through,
35:39I called my dad's
35:41name,
35:42and in the shakiest
35:43voice,
35:44he said,
35:47Oh,
35:47thank God,
35:48Dana.
35:51I saw my parents
35:53sitting over here.
35:55They both were
35:56sitting on the ground,
35:57unable to move,
35:59very unwell
36:00and beaten up.
36:02My mom was
36:02bleeding,
36:04and we all just
36:04burst into tears.
36:06Knowing that
36:07they were alive.
36:11She thought
36:12we were going
36:12to be dead,
36:13and we weren't,
36:16so it was,
36:17oh,
36:17I'm sorry.
36:21We lost contact
36:22with Dana
36:23just before
36:23it all broke loose
36:25at our house.
36:26And I told her,
36:27we were okay,
36:27we're on the bed,
36:28this is our situation,
36:29we're just going
36:30to ride it out.
36:30It wasn't too long
36:31after that,
36:32that the mattress
36:32started to float
36:33off of the bed,
36:34and water kept rising
36:36and kept rising,
36:37and we were just
36:37bobbing up and down,
36:39and before it was over,
36:40the waves were cresting
36:41at the eve of the house.
36:43When those waves came,
36:47I just held on to Lee,
36:48and I said,
36:48it's going to be a tough one,
36:50hang on,
36:50don't let go,
36:51we're going to get
36:52through this.
36:52And then we just
36:53both bob up in the water
36:55and bob back down.
36:59Poor little Lee,
36:59she's up off of the floor,
37:01and her legs are swinging
37:02back and forth
37:03every time the wave came in,
37:05and she turned to me
37:06and said,
37:06Tom,
37:06are we going to die tonight?
37:10And I said,
37:11no,
37:12not tonight, sweetie,
37:13that's not going
37:14to happen tonight.
37:17My parents
37:18were severely dehydrated.
37:21They were both
37:22shaking severely,
37:24and it was at that time
37:26firefighters had walked
37:27up the driveway.
37:30Within a five-second glance
37:32at them,
37:34we knew they had
37:35to leave,
37:36or they weren't going
37:37to make it very long,
37:38especially her mom.
37:39So I called on the radio
37:41a few times.
37:4220, 25 minutes went by,
37:45and about that time,
37:46we heard a helicopter
37:46overhead.
37:51And I just sat there
37:52and cried as he,
37:54as they flew away.
38:06Hey, how are you?
38:09Good to see you.
38:10Mm-hmm.
38:12How are we doing?
38:12Give me a hug, buddy.
38:13Yeah.
38:14So good to see you.
38:15Finally, good to see you
38:16at a good time, you know?
38:18Good to see you doing well.
38:19It took,
38:20I have to say,
38:22probably nine months
38:23to a year
38:23for me to stop
38:24having dreams
38:25that had something
38:26to do with the destruction
38:27or what happened
38:28to Fort Myers Beach.
38:29All of us that stayed
38:34are going through
38:35the same thoughts
38:36in our heads.
38:36You know,
38:37we should have gone.
38:38We shouldn't have stayed.
38:39We made a mistake.
38:41It was as extreme
38:43as they said
38:43it possibly could be.
38:48The death toll
38:49from Hurricane Ian
38:50has made it
38:51the deadliest storm
38:53to hit that state
38:54in nearly nine decades.
38:56It claimed more than
38:57150 lives
38:58directly and indirectly
38:59and left a trail
39:00of destruction.
39:01For millions here,
39:03this will be
39:03a very long road
39:05to recovery.
39:08These things
39:08are going to happen
39:09more frequently
39:10in the future.
39:12Our water
39:12is consistently warm.
39:14It's been
39:14consistently higher
39:16than average.
39:17It's well over
39:18kind of that threshold
39:19of 80 degrees.
39:22Unless there's
39:22a drastic change
39:23in the water temperature,
39:25we're always going
39:26to have that fuel
39:27to give these storms.
39:32Take the warning
39:33seriously.
39:34Just because
39:35one storm
39:36didn't affect
39:37the way they said
39:38doesn't mean
39:38the next one won't.
39:39Three storms in a row
39:40could cry wolf
39:42and the one that doesn't
39:43is the one that kills you.
39:48Cheers, guys,
39:49to surviving Hurricane Ian
39:50and to being together again
39:51and having a chance.
39:52Yes, thank you.
39:53Hope it never happens again.
39:55The hurricane
39:58really changed
39:59my life
40:00to be honest with you
40:01so much so
40:03that we sold the boat.
40:05I cannot do that anymore.
40:09The emotion
40:10was so extreme
40:11that I hear wind.
40:13I'm scared
40:14of a branch falling.
40:16So I'm still
40:18not healed.
40:19like you said
40:20we had about 24 hours
40:21of good news.
40:22We are not able
40:23to enjoy it anymore.
40:34The experience changed me
40:35more in
40:37how I enjoy
40:38this moment.
40:40Eat dessert first
40:41kind of concept
40:42is what I'm going to
40:45spend the rest
40:45of my life doing.
40:46I'm the luckiest guy
40:49on earth.
40:51It's just pure luck
40:52that that tree was there.
40:58No one's seen this
40:59actually until
41:00this morning.
41:02I got my tree.
41:06The tree
41:07that saved my life.
41:08The morning
41:13after the hurricane
41:14Bob came
41:15and got me
41:16and said
41:17Mary
41:17you gotta come
41:18with me.
41:20And I walked
41:20down there
41:21and
41:23there's Lulo
41:25covered with
41:29wet sand.
41:32Come on.
41:34Come on
41:34my baby.
41:35Oh
41:36she survived
41:42and I have
41:43no idea
41:43how.
41:45She was
41:4617 hours
41:47in the water.
41:49I just cried
41:50and I didn't
41:51want to let her go.
41:54I think
41:56that Mitch
41:57told Lulo
41:59to take care
42:01of her mommy.
42:03I honestly
42:05believe that.
42:08If it wasn't
42:09for Lulo
42:10I don't even know
42:11if I'd be this
42:12for her.
42:14She's my baby
42:15and she
42:16I don't know
42:18what I'd do
42:18without her.
42:20Okay so
42:21what are you
42:21going to do
42:22the next time
42:22a hurricane comes?
42:24You know
42:24I'm inland now
42:25and the water
42:26won't reach us
42:27there I don't think.
42:28Why don't you
42:28come over to our house?
42:29Oh I can do that.
42:32Okay.
42:34Okay I'll go
42:35to your house
42:36hurricane party.
42:37How about you?
42:39Oh, my God.
43:09Oh, my God.

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