Hurricane Ian: One Year Later

2023 • HURRICANE IAN: ONE YEAR LATER • 37 adno=3900978-1 Proud To Be A Silver Member of The Punta Gorda Chamber Of Commerce Keller Williams Peace River Partners Each Office is Independently Owned And Operated Lori Ann Mertens, REALTOR ® with her team at United Home Group, is a professional, full-time, year-round expert in Southwest Florida since 2002 who can provide you with all resources and information you need to buy, sell or invest in real estate in Southwest Florida. So whether you are buying, selling or investing she will have a plan for you. Lori Ann Mertens, REALTOR ® 1675 West Marion Ave, Suite 112 Punta Gorda, FL 33950 Email: ParadiseDreams@live.com 941-457-7072 calling or texting is Best Call for your Complimentary Market Analysis for you home in this market or your Complimentary Buyers Consultation. the eerie noises outside and occasionally loud thuds of "something" hitting parts of the house. My husband had to sit up in his wheelchair for the duration of the storm. He usually spent time in a power-lift recliner, but he wouldn't have been able to get out of the recliner without the electricity which powered the chair. And we knew from past experience that our electricity would go. When I ventured outside, I found our house had held up. There were gaping spaces near the eaves where soffits and fascia had blown off. Two large trees in the backyard had been uprooted, but it seemed everything else was pretty much intact. The most difficult part to endure was the absence of electric power. My husband had to sleep sitting up in his wheelchair. We had some battery-operated fans and he sat close to them. I fastened a neck cushion out of an old pillow and wrapped it around his neck and shoulders. Five days after Ian, my husband read in the Sun about damage in the area where his physical therapist lived. He said, " I hope — got through the storm OK with his little children." And then my husband started to cry - something I had only seen him do once before in our 61 years of marriage - when his father had passed away, 55 years previously. During that day, my husband had no appetite and was noticeably weaker. He just wanted to lie down. I called Charlotte County EMT's on their non- emergency number, asking for help in moving him from the wheelchair into bed. When they arrived and checked my husband, we were told his blood pressure was dangerously low. It was decided to transport him to a hospital in Sarasota, as hospitals in Port Charlotte were closed due to hurricane damage. As I was closing the door after the ambulance left, our electricity came back on - six days after Ian hit. The next morning , as I was getting ready to go to Sarasota, the hospital informed me that my husband had taken a turn for the worst and was being transferred to ICU. I took an Uber to the hospital and was able to sit by my husband's bedside and hold his hand. He passed away half an hour after I got there. The days after his death are also a blur. Grief is a huge weight. About two weeks later, I answered a phone call from the physical therapist. He told me that it was time to schedule a session for my husband. I sadly told him that my husband had passed away a week after the hurricane. The young man was shocked that he hadn't been told — and then he cried! - Sharon Forsch 'NEVER GOT A BREAK' My wife, Kathryn, and I decided to stay in our condo to ride out Ian. When things started to get serious we stayed on our north facing lanai and as the storm tried to blow our vinyl slider doors in, we held our hands against the frames and sometimes our legs against a table and chair to keep them from blowing in. Some were blown out of the tracks, but we were able to keep them up. Water only goes as far as the lanai floor. We stayed there during the worst part of the storm for about four and a half hours. We were hoping for a break when the eye came, but it was at Punta Gorda (I think), so we never got a break. We had much less damage in our unit, and we believe it was because we were able to hold back the wind and rain. Any damage we had came from the unit above ours which suffered substantial damage as did most of the units in our condominium community. We are still working to complete the repairs. - Joe Gallagher 'NEVER AGAIN' We stayed for Irma, so we figured we'd stay for Ian. Never again. - Alex Gregorewsky, Port Charlotte Riding it out with friends Following the announcement that Hurricane Ian was headed for the Gulf Coast, likely near Florida's Panhandle, the mood on our residential block in Port Charlotte was cautiously confident. But by Wednesday, Sept. 28, the storm's path had veered hundreds of miles farther south than predicted, and the storm surge projection for our South Gulf Cove neighborhood increased to 12 to 18 feet from 3 to 6 feet. This meant that we had roughly six hours before Charlotte Harbor's waters would potentially inundate our homes, driving us outside into floodwater filled with downed power lines, sharp and heavy debris - and alligators. Marianne and I have been married long enough to know each other's thinking. She watched me pace room to room, searching for batteries, life jackets and important papers, while I took note of her face and eyes as she monitored AccuWeather on TV. "Ready?" I said. "Let me get my Kindle," Marianne said. We had decided ahead of time, along with our friends and neighbors Tim and Sarah, to shelter in place. Our houses are hardened for severe storms and elevated to stay dry in a substantial surge. Since Tim and Sarah were already harboring two other couples, family also originally from Maine, we joined their party. As Ian's winds strengthened to 155 mph and turned sooner and sharper than forecast, it eventually made landfall at Cayo Costa, the barrier island near home where I camp and fish. Over that same span of time, we got to know Tim's cousins Bob, Lil, John and Linda, residents of North Port. We swapped stories, ate ham sandwiches and sipped beer while monitoring Ian's progress with an old-fashioned transistor radio. At 4 p.m., we had to raise our voices over the intensifying noise of banging corrugated metal shutters. We took turns reporting what we could see outside through a slit between two shutters: another palm tree snapped in two and a 10-foot aluminum gutter sailing like a paper airplane. And then the power went out. Tim turned on two lanterns, and Sarah retrieved a deck of cards. Seven stud proved an effective time filler, though no one could maintain their poker face whenever a sudden boom spelled a crash involving a building or a boat or a tree. Tim scooted more frequently to the "viewing window," measuring with the long beam of a flashlight the water line on his neighbor's dock. "Is it time to head upstairs to the second story?" I asked. Sarah didn't think so. All of us, in fact, were skeptical of a super surge since there had never been one where we live. But we also acknowledged the rash of unprecedented weather events in recent history, so Tim maintained his vigil. At 10 p.m., the shutters quieted. Ian had passed. Once again, no surge in South Gulf Cove. Marianne and I drove the short distance home, a risky decision since we had to motor through half a foot of water and downed trees covering Ingraham Blvd. Our house itself was mostly intact, as was Tim and Sarah's. But as with nearly everyone else's property in South Gulf Cove, our boat canopy was gone, pool cage ravaged, and roof damaged by wind and flying debris. - David and Marianne McGrath, Port Charlotte THANKS TO KINGSGATE NEIGHBORS My wife lovely Phyllis is going on 88 and I'm going on 86 and we painfully get around pretty good but we are disabled. Our lovely Kingsgate neighbors Don and Susan and Steve and Suzanne indicated beforehand they would help us button up our shutters if the hurricane was going to hit us. We have Bahama shutters on the side, acrylics in the front and according folding shutters on our lanai. We knew that if we were buttoned up we would be in good shape, our lots were 25 feet above sea level so we didn't worry about storm surge. We invited dear friends from Punta Gorda Isles, Jan and Jerry to stay with us through the storm because of their huge storm surge warnings and at the last minute, they accepted our offer. Steve picked them up and brought them over since we had no place for their car. They brought over easy to prepare food, water and Jerry's heavy duty powerful flashlight that he carried with him when he was a New Castle County Delaware policeman. We were out on our shuttered lanai during the peak of the storm playing card games. Periodically, Jerry would get up with his trusty flashlight and go through the house checking the ceilings for leaks and return saying, "This house is really built good, no leaks." Periodically, Jan would go look out our distorted acrylic front shutters to see if everything looked good. One of our lanai shutters popped open about 6 inches and we were afraid the big wind would open them all the way, but it didn't. I was able to get a video of the wind, rain and swirling water on our pond. The hurricane stalling for about 6 hours during the peak was really worrisome. We eventually went to sleep and early the next morning, Jerry was as up and outside opening our lanai shutters so we could see life again and he and Jan left to go check on their home which had significant damage and his tied down boat was destroyed, pool cage wiped out and a lot of tile roof damaged. On the other hand we were fortunate, a lot of missing shingles requiring a new roof but no leaks inside and about 6 inches or so soffits damage. We were fortunate enough to hookup with a reliable roofer and our tip-top insurance company was quick to respond to our needs. Of course we had to cover the hurricane deductible part of the repair that we expected.

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