Hello my friends. It is with a heavy heart I report in. It has been a wild few days that feel like months.
During my posts I was getting mixed reports of where the storm was. I was under the impression that it was landing in the Sarasota area and then had been told Ian had already made landfall. Right when my last post went I read a single page of my Republic of Pirates book and when I looked up again we had a whitewater rapid river going through the cars. I had everything in my car, detectors, guns, silver, gold. Had to get it... gust blew me over into the river and got slammed by a drainage pipe in the head. Made it back after grabbing the car port pole that had blown out. Back door wasn't under water yet so was able to get it open and got bags safe.
Later that night we got back to the trailer and now Gulf of Ray, and boys did we make a good choice. Trailer was spread out over 3 neighborhoods, jet skis are in a ditch over 100 yds away. The large boat I had planned to jump on in case of flooding was nowhere to be seen.
I needed to check on people near the beach and our house on the island as well, so the journey with Ranger the danger pup continued before we could get back to the Cape Coral house.
The island is the worst thing I have ever seen in my life.
Almost everything is gone, I cannot even begin to paint a picture for y'all. I will allow the pictures I add to speak for themselves. My friend who has many hardships but lives on a beat up boat wasn't able to leave. He woke up over a mile away on top of mangroves with 5 bodies around his boat strung out on the branches. Capt Tony's 100 ft head boat in the middle of San Carlos Blvd. was the saving grace for my close friend Matt who catches most of your pinfish for the SWFL area, and a news crew.
We made it to the south end of fort Myers beach to our street and the first 3 houses closes to the beach were wiped. We had a house in the canal. Boats on top of boats. Just before we got there a neighbor was found hanging out of a window. When the water was up to the attic she was able to make it in and he was swept away. The neighbors say they heard her screaming for hours. She made it out. RIP Daymon. Another woman at the end of the street was trying to make it with her family to a higher house and was hit in the face by a 2x4 full of nails and her family couldn't hold onto her. She still hasn't been found, but dogs are currently out there. Another friend was found underneath a restaurant. Another friend was in a house ripped into the gulf. Some friends saved themselves and their pets by floating on cars. One fellow bartender was rescued with his father from a sailboat in the mangroves. The devastation here is unreal. The stories I've heard are borderline unbelievable until you see them crawl out from under a building covered in grey back bay muck. Our house's bottom floor was blown out into the canal, waterline came 2 inches from the 2nd floor.
Originally they were allowing homeowners to walk on the island over the bridge. That stopped on day 2. They shut off anyone coming on island. The south end where we live is 5 miles down the island and I have a husky. That walk in the heat wasn't going to happen. Looters we're still on island so we stayed until today when it seemed the police, national guard, and fema had a good grip on things. However, the current situation for people still living there is bad. They are only bringing supplies to the very north end, and doing everything in their power to get folks off the island, just short of scooping em up. Essentially starving people out. We caught a ride out this afternoon. Cape coral still no power or internet but thank you Lowes for that.
Huge shout-out to all my fellow Floridians, we were born into this life let's be good to one another. Big thanks to Riviera Beach, Miami, Broward, Polk, and all you other guys that are going days on end sleeping in your cars.
www.foxweather.com
The pictures are just devastating. PLEASE STAY SAFE !!! Thanks for sharing with us
