This podcast features interviews with storm survivors in southwest Florida in the week after Hurricane Ian’s landfall, where catastrophic flood and wind impacts were observed.

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Transcript:

00;00;03;16 - 00;00;30;17
Hal Needham
On the last episode of the GeoTrek podcast, we documented the arrival of Hurricane Ian in southwest Florida. I documented this hurricane from a parking garage in Punta Gorda, Florida, where we experienced to hurricane eyewall was category four winds and the relatively calm eye here. Everyone, this is Dr. Howell, host of the GeoTrek podcast. This next episode, number 49, picks up right after the storm passed with numerous interviews of locals who rode out the storm.

00;00;30;26 - 00;00;50;19
Hal Needham
Let me walk you through this week's podcast guest and share a little bit about their geography. I interviewed a man named James Grime in the city of Fort Myers. James His family goes back many generations in the area. He and I have had previous conversations about the hurricane history of southwest Florida on the National Tropical Weather Conference, and James is part of the city.

00;00;50;19 - 00;01;12;13
Hal Needham
Ian inflicted substantial wind damage but not storm surge flooding. After speaking with James, I conducted two interviews in a part of South Fort Myers called Iona. One woman spoke to us about how new building codes that required homes to be built to a higher elevation saved her home from flooding in the same neighborhood. We interviewed a man named Basil from New York who now lived in Sanibel Island.

00;01;12;25 - 00;01;39;28
Hal Needham
His area was very severely impacted by Ian. He was able to evacuate, though, and was just getting back to assess the damage. We also interviewed a woman named Kim from Illinois. She rode out in near the southern tip of Fort Myers, very close to Fort Myers Beach. The damage in this area was catastrophic. The fast flowing water level reached about eight feet above ground level here, destroying everything at ground level and depositing large boats and yachts in neighborhoods.

00;01;40;13 - 00;02;02;17
Hal Needham
The interviews with Marshall, Brian and Brant were recorded right at the foot of the bridge to Fort Myers Beach. This bridge was closed to everyone, including high profile media, when we were there. These guys set up Dudley's Beach side barbecue, really as a ministry to distribute free food to anyone who was hungry. High profile media walked right past them all day and they said we were the first team to record their story.

00;02;03;08 - 00;02;24;07
Hal Needham
These guys lost a lot in the storm, yet still chose to serve others. We love to highlight those kind of stories. GeoTrek. Before we get into these stories, I wanted to share a bit about the podcast. GeoTrek travels the world to find stories about the relationship between people and nature. Our stories investigate the impact of extreme weather, disasters and hazards on individuals and communities.

00;02;24;20 - 00;02;42;00
Hal Needham
Our goal is to help you better understand how the world works so you can take actions to make yourself, your family and your community more resilient from all the extremes Mother Nature can throw at us. Hey, before we get into this episode, we have a favor to ask you. We'd really appreciate if you would subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast platform.

00;02;42;14 - 00;03;06;19
Hal Needham
Your subscription helps us mark progress, which enables us to make more professional partnerships moving forward and ensures many more episodes of the GeoTrek podcast in the future. Well, hey, if you were part of our disaster reporting team, I would encourage you to bring along a backpack with water, food and sunscreen and prepare for a long day, walking through debris and engaging with people who are severely impacted by the Category four hurricane.

00;03;06;19 - 00;03;25;22
Hal Needham
Ian. I always it's always my prayer and my hope to just keep my eyes open, to be an encouragement and to really see kind of what's really going on behind the scenes. Who can we really listen to and learn from their stories and hopefully encourage people along the way? James I wanted to talk kind of before, during and after.

00;03;25;22 - 00;03;34;09
Hal Needham
Ian So your family's been here for a long time in Southwest Florida. Could you go back and some of that history You talked about your grandma even being affected by hurricane?

00;03;34;17 - 00;03;46;25
Speaker 2
My grandmother, my mother. We're here for Donna. We lived through Charley. We lived through Irma. I was the first person on my family to leave for a hurricane with Hurricane Irma.

00;03;47;15 - 00;04;07;19
Hal Needham
So southwest Florida has this interesting history in that there have been some close calls and even some hits, but we've never really had a big surge event in recent decades. There have been a lot of Irma and Charley where, in a sense, surge misses. How did that maybe how did that create in a hurricane history maybe affect what what went on with in complacency?

00;04;08;07 - 00;04;15;08
Speaker 2
Lots of complacency. People were like, oh, we lived through Charley, we're going to be fine. A lot weren't.

00;04;15;21 - 00;04;24;09
Hal Needham
Could you walk us through Charley, Wilma and Irma? What were those like here? What what were the impacts? What were those storms? What did they do in southwest Florida?

00;04;24;18 - 00;04;48;20
Speaker 2
With Charley, we had quite a bit of wind damage, power loss. Irma, I wasn't here. I came back for the aftermath. I went to Tennessee and was one going to deal with it. Irma was again two or three weeks without power in some spots. Some places got flooded from river Rise. You didn't see much storm surge. It got banged up, but it wasn't bad.

00;04;48;24 - 00;04;55;22
Speaker 2
So it led to complacency here. Oh, we survived, Charley. We survived, Irma. This is the same scale. We're going to ride it out.

00;04;56;00 - 00;05;03;09
Hal Needham
Do you think with Ian coming in, a lot of people were thinking, Oh, we've been through this before. We've been through intense hurricanes. It's just a it's going to be like Charley. Irma again.

00;05;03;20 - 00;05;14;27
Speaker 2
Yep. And not only that, EOC did a terrible job with doing mandatory evacuations. They didn't call for a mandatory until 24 hours before the storm hit.

00;05;15;11 - 00;05;33;19
Hal Needham
Let's walk through that so we know that model shift as hurricanes approach. This time, it seemed like the models were quite uncertain and shifting around a lot. What did you see in the days before, Ian, and when the trend started shifting that this storm wasn't going to make landfall near Tampa, but it's starting to shift farther south? What was going through your mind?

00;05;35;02 - 00;05;59;21
Speaker 2
Fear. That was what was going through my mind. We noticed a pattern shift Saturday night where the models themselves started to tick west or tick back east from going west. I will say that the UK met and the euro were all consistently. Fort Myers. Fort Myers. Fort Myers. Fort Myers. The GFS was all over the place, but it started to trend East.

00;06;00;09 - 00;06;06;07
Speaker 2
And then we looked at some pattern shifts in the upper atmosphere and we got concerned quickly.

00;06;06;08 - 00;06;23;16
Hal Needham
I've heard people with this storm say a lot of people misinterpret the cone of uncertainty when we have that cone and it shows potential eye positions. What are your thoughts on that? I mean, do you think that also comes into play with we were seeing a cone of uncertainty really from maybe Venice up through Tampa and up around to the panhandle.

00;06;23;25 - 00;06;32;13
Hal Needham
Do you think a lot of people understand that the impacts usually are more severe? Far to the right of the eye and that outside the cone, you could get very deadly conditions.

00;06;32;25 - 00;07;01;02
Speaker 2
Too many people focus on the center line. I want the NHC to get rid of it. Keep the cone, but don't use the center line because people focus on the center line and well, it's not coming here. Won't be bad. Yeah, I'm not trying to criticize anybody officially, but in my personal opinion, if Fort Myers Beach, Marco Island, Sanibel are in the corner concern, you don't wait until 24 hours before a storm to call for a mandatory evacuation.

00;07;01;02 - 00;07;07;22
Speaker 2
If you're in the cone concern, you call it. And next and you know, you say, oops, we missed, you're alive.

00;07;08;17 - 00;07;21;02
Hal Needham
Well, so people getting a late evacuation. Do you feel did do you know people that just said we got to get out of here or do you feel like a lot of people at that point were already thinking this is a Tampa storm? Did a lot of people just end up staying behind? Do you think.

00;07;21;17 - 00;07;39;10
Speaker 2
People were planning hurricane parties on Facebook? It's going to Tampa. We're going to get a lot of wind. Wind, Let's have a party. But Lonnie Chi legitimately was promoting a hurricane party the day before the storm hit because they were saying it's going to Tampa.

00;07;39;22 - 00;08;01;00
Hal Needham
So people really were just thinking this is a Tampa event. This is going to miss us again. Another storm of miss us. So all of a sudden on Wednesday morning, this becomes very clear, like this is even farther south. And then maybe the big impacts will be even be farther south in Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte. All of a sudden, this is really a Sanibel Fort Myers storm.

00;08;01;00 - 00;08;08;25
Hal Needham
I mean, so so all of a sudden, the rain bands start coming in. What's going through your mind? Are you still communicate with people in harm's way? Walk us through Wednesday morning, the day of landfall.

00;08;09;02 - 00;08;29;00
Speaker 2
Wednesday morning. We started going live on the page at 10 a.m. because Kiley, my partner's daughter, who also is part of the page, had class at Tallahassee Community College. We went live on the page at 10:00, and he was still alive when I lost power at noon.

00;08;30;17 - 00;08;45;05
Hal Needham
So they were going live in just engaging with people all that morning. I mean, props to all of you for just a constant engagement. You lost power at noon and you were describing to me a little bit like this, this was a long duration event here. You never really got the eye. You were in the eyewall for a long time.

00;08;45;05 - 00;08;54;01
Hal Needham
Mean, what was the day of landfall like for you here personally? You're riding this out, you're elevated, you're really above the floodwater. But the winds just have to be hammering you most of that day.

00;08;54;21 - 00;09;10;14
Speaker 2
My biggest concern was keeping my family safe. The winds were I mean, I didn't have anything ometer on me, but they were going pretty good. I mean, as you can see from this, this they set it up to look like a jungle.

00;09;12;05 - 00;09;16;24
Hal Needham
Yeah, a lot of trees, a lot of wooded, very lush vegetation. And a lot of that unfortunately came down.

00;09;16;28 - 00;09;18;12
Speaker 2
And a lot of it came into windows.

00;09;19;02 - 00;09;34;10
Hal Needham
So you had a lot of let's talk about that. So I showed up. I was surprised to see not many boarded up windows. People have talked about Impact Glass and some people have said you're not going to see boarded up windows. There's a lot of impact glass. Is that really true? How did the windows in general perform around here?

00;09;34;14 - 00;09;49;20
Speaker 2
The windows here where I'm at held up great. They are impact rated. But yeah, around here, a lot of places have gone to the impacts. You won't see a lot of boards, but you will still see shutters over impact windows here.

00;09;49;29 - 00;09;51;23
Hal Needham
I say just in case there's flying debris.

00;09;51;23 - 00;09;53;17
Speaker 2
Yeah, people learned from Charlie.

00;09;54;05 - 00;10;13;02
Hal Needham
I can tell. Right. So Charlie, obviously a cat for impact. Irma also Cat four while south of here not as much wind here, but still a big impact in the region. James, what do you think moving forward? I mean, how does this change the perception of hurricanes and risk and all the preparation and everything move moving beyond in?

00;10;13;02 - 00;10;28;02
Speaker 2
Hopefully people listen when they get told to leave leave. Hopefully this will change the dynamic of, well, it's going to Tampa. I don't need to worry about it. Mother Nature doesn't care what a forecast says.

00;10;28;15 - 00;10;29;24
Hal Needham
It's going to do, what it's going to do, right.

00;10;30;04 - 00;10;31;04
Speaker 2
It'll do what it wants.

00;10;31;05 - 00;10;45;22
Hal Needham
James, what about building better building hire? Or do you think there'll be changes and where we build, how we build, things like that? I mean, these are some longer term questions. I realize we're less than one week out from the disaster, so I know some of these things are hard to answer, but just what's your perspective on it?

00;10;45;22 - 00;10;53;03
Speaker 2
I can answer it now. No, Well, not change where things are built. Greed overrules all, greed overrules common sense.

00;10;53;05 - 00;11;03;01
Hal Needham
Could you see building codes requiring higher buildings in certain areas, areas that were surged out? Or do you think people will say this was an outlier, this was a million year storm, it'll never happen again?

00;11;03;06 - 00;11;06;03
Speaker 2
Not that it could change. It should change.

00;11;07;08 - 00;11;23;21
Hal Needham
James, really appreciate you taking time. I know these are hard things to talk about and I know it's really affected you and your family very personally. So I just so much appreciate you taking time and sharing your expertise. And even from the first time we we had conversations about storm surge and about the vulnerability of southwest Florida. I know it's an area near and dear to you.

00;11;23;21 - 00;11;33;25
Hal Needham
I think you've made a huge difference here, probably beyond what you could imagine. And people are just getting telecommunications back. I think in the upcoming weeks and months, you'll be getting a lot of grateful responses from people.

00;11;34;01 - 00;11;36;21
Speaker 2
Thank you, sir. And that means a lot coming from you.

00;11;37;00 - 00;11;46;21
Hal Needham
I also give hugs in disaster zone, so I and I feel free, you know, keep in touch with us and let us know how you're doing and if there's anything that you need as well.

00;11;46;23 - 00;11;59;18
Speaker 2
Yeah, we'll do definitely. I want to thank you for the work you've done because your the U. Search project may make a difference.

00;11;59;18 - 00;12;11;27
Hal Needham
Hey, thank you. I appreciate that. You know, we're looking for ways to partner better. A lot of times we're just kind of doing this on our own remotely. And we after this, we thought, you know, we really want to have local partnerships where we partner with middle schools, high schools, colleges.

00;12;12;05 - 00;12;12;19
Speaker 2
I'll get you in.

00;12;12;21 - 00;12;33;25
Hal Needham
And just I can't wait to be really cool. Every community should know their flood history. And I've learned from this. Every forecast should come along people and say, you can talk about miles per hour wind. You can talk about feet of storm surge, you can do all the maps you want. But perhaps we need to also come alongside people and say, although you got hit by a Category four in Charley, this Category four, it's different.

00;12;33;25 - 00;12;51;09
Hal Needham
And here's why. Although you feel like you got hit by Irma as a Category four, here's how this storm is different. Right? I think we need to know the local hurricane history and come alongside people instead of just throwing numbers at them. These storms are so rare, they're so violent and they're so far outside people's frame of reference.

00;12;51;15 - 00;12;54;15
Hal Needham
At some point, you're sharing miles per hour. That mean nothing to people, right?

00;12;54;16 - 00;13;09;00
Speaker 2
Yeah. I mean, if you look at it, we celebrated the five year anniversary of Irma just a few weeks ago. For the vast majority of its that are long timers like me, they've forgotten Irma already.

00;13;09;21 - 00;13;12;01
Hal Needham
I mean people have already forgotten some of these older storms.

00;13;12;01 - 00;13;14;28
Speaker 2
Yeah, they had already forgotten Irma. They had already forgotten Charley.

00;13;15;09 - 00;13;29;09
Hal Needham
It's like. As if you're not vulnerable, You're. You're bulletproof, right? So I think there's a perspective, especially when a lot of these storms miss. I'm concerned about Tampa. Sarasota, again, up there, people said we never get hit. That's really the perception there.

00;13;29;21 - 00;13;46;16
Speaker 2
If Tampa gets hit by a storm like Irma or God forbid, in, it'll be gone. People are so complacent. You will see numbers that will make Katrina look like a toy.

00;13;47;16 - 00;14;06;28
Hal Needham
James I rolled into Sarasota the day before landfall. At that time, the models had Sarasota getting a direct hit from a major hurricane. I rolled in with ten days of food, then ten days of water to two tanks of gasoline. I expected to find a ghost town. And what I found was a completely operational city. I didn't see one boarded up building everything was just business as normal.

00;14;06;28 - 00;14;09;02
Hal Needham
The day before, a major hurricane strike was forecast.

00;14;09;03 - 00;14;22;25
Speaker 2
Like I said, complacency and complacency kills. People are, oh, it's not going to hit. It's not going to hit because you've seen now Charley, Irma, Ian under the gun, all of a sudden it shifts. Oh, it's going to shift again.

00;14;23;22 - 00;14;27;18
Hal Needham
So once you've seen that pattern a few times, you think, Oh, it's going to happen again and they're going.

00;14;27;18 - 00;14;32;05
Speaker 2
To get complacent. And when it doesn't shift, people are going to die.

00;14;32;16 - 00;14;51;20
Hal Needham
Yeah. James, I appreciate you taking time. I know this is a somber time. I'm with Basil here. We're we're in a southern part of Fort Myers. Is this a considered Iona area? Yes. So, Baz, I'm glad that you're okay. First of all, I know that you and some of your friends and family may have been really affected by Hurricane Ian here.

00;14;51;20 - 00;15;07;01
Speaker 3
Yeah. So we got lucky. Well, I was in Sanibel. My family was back up in New York, so they're safe and sound. You know, I was going to stay except that all of a sudden we started talking about a hurricane for Cat five.

00;15;07;12 - 00;15;09;17
Hal Needham
So when it really ramped up like that and then moved.

00;15;09;17 - 00;15;21;08
Speaker 3
From Tampa heading towards Sarasota and then, you know, it wasn't looking all that good. So put up all the hurricane shutters and everything else and hightailed it out of here.

00;15;21;08 - 00;15;26;21
Hal Needham
And as the track started moving further south, I mean, at what point were you like, okay, I really need to get out of here?

00;15;27;21 - 00;15;33;07
Speaker 3
It was probably the late the night before it hit.

00;15;33;10 - 00;15;33;21
Hal Needham
Yeah.

00;15;34;14 - 00;15;35;25
Speaker 3
I decided it was game over.

00;15;36;08 - 00;15;39;22
Hal Needham
You know? How long did it take you to prepare your property? And then, like, where did you go?

00;15;39;22 - 00;15;51;08
Speaker 3
I was preparing probably two or three days before him because I started hearing a lot more reports and watching it. So I started putting up the hurricane shutters and bolting on some hurricane.

00;15;51;08 - 00;15;52;27
Hal Needham
That's smart. So you didn't wait to the last minute?

00;15;52;27 - 00;16;14;08
Speaker 3
Oh, no, no. I only waited to the last minute to exit. Okay. Which wasn't a problem. That was easy. And then we wound up staying at my my neighbor and myself at his good friend's house, good friend's house. And, you know, we wrote it out there. And the problem was, you know, the hurricane just set by Sanibel.

00;16;14;25 - 00;16;16;24
Hal Needham
And here it moved so slowly to.

00;16;17;02 - 00;16;33;25
Speaker 3
As I say, it just set. And, you know, it was just amazing to hear. And we were out, you know, in his porch, North Fort Myers, and just watching the mess of destruction in the trees over there, there was no flooding here, had very bad flooding down here.

00;16;33;25 - 00;16;38;03
Hal Needham
And then Sanibel was even the worse. So have you been back to Sanibel since.

00;16;38;20 - 00;17;02;20
Speaker 3
I've seen it? I've seen what has transpired over there. I'm going back tomorrow. And, you know, all the stories that I've heard from people that were there and wrote it out, it's it's bad. It was bad. You know, there were a ten foot surges. What it was getting to the second floor. Some of the houses just toppled over.

00;17;02;20 - 00;17;05;19
Speaker 3
You know, it's just it was it was a war zone.

00;17;06;08 - 00;17;08;24
Hal Needham
So you've talked to people that survived it out in Sanibel?

00;17;08;24 - 00;17;11;22
Speaker 3
Absolutely. Yeah. I know a bunch of people who survived it.

00;17;11;22 - 00;17;15;25
Hal Needham
I mean, what what did they say? I mean, like you said, it was just almost indescribable, probably. Right.

00;17;15;26 - 00;17;25;24
Speaker 3
And they were on this. Luckily, they had a second and third floor, their first floor was completely demolished. They had trucks. Trucks were just overrun.

00;17;29;03 - 00;17;31;28
Hal Needham
And a lot of helicopters going over here, I think, to an aerial.

00;17;32;00 - 00;17;37;09
Speaker 3
So what are the depressing things as you have this schnucks coming over regularly with dead bodies?

00;17;37;09 - 00;17;39;05
Hal Needham
So those are still search and rescue.

00;17;39;24 - 00;17;41;21
Speaker 3
Or search and recovery.

00;17;41;25 - 00;17;43;13
Hal Needham
Search and recovery. Yeah.

00;17;43;16 - 00;18;05;12
Speaker 3
A friend of ours, Lewis, I guess it was the day after the hurricane. We went flying two days after a 1500 foot level and over Sanibel. Over Sanibel, over Fort Myers Beach. Matt Laschet You know, it was brutal. It's brutal.

00;18;05;29 - 00;18;11;22
Hal Needham
It's just I mean, from what I heard, it's just completely demolished. And even like rework, like cuts in islands and just everything looks different.

00;18;11;25 - 00;18;19;23
Speaker 3
Yes. Yeah. The shoreline on the Gulf on Sanibel is a you know, it's it's right up to the buildings.

00;18;20;17 - 00;18;32;23
Hal Needham
And it's it's heavy stuff. Right. Because, I mean, this is where you live. You've known people all through out there, some of which has survived and maybe some that did. And it's just got to really be difficult to process it. All right.

00;18;33;03 - 00;18;54;00
Speaker 3
It's a war zone. It yeah, it's horrible. I mean, I've been coming down here for 25 years, owned the place there for probably 12 years on my house now here, three years down there. And, you know, but we're going to make it through, will rebuild and move on. It's going to take a long time this time around, but we'll get it done.

00;18;54;03 - 00;19;02;29
Hal Needham
Yeah, I think once you get the storm surge, it really makes it really different. Right? It's not just wind damage. It's not just trees on houses and suddenly you're moving all this floodwater through the community.

00;19;03;05 - 00;19;21;25
Speaker 3
So the problem is and friends that were there afterwards took pictures of my place. And it is a war zone. You know, my my house luckily survived, but I saw what the streets look like and other people's houses and the amount of mud that's in other people's houses is just brutal.

00;19;22;11 - 00;19;25;12
Hal Needham
Even if some of these houses survived, maybe they took on so much water and mud.

00;19;25;12 - 00;19;32;19
Speaker 3
What you need, we need to get in there quickly to you know, reduce the risk of mold and mildew.

00;19;32;20 - 00;19;33;14
Hal Needham
That's right. That's right.

00;19;33;14 - 00;19;37;11
Speaker 3
You know, and that's really the issue right now, the ones that are still standing.

00;19;37;16 - 00;19;46;13
Hal Needham
Do you think it will there be any barriers for people, for residents to get back in, or do you think like authorities or will there be like restrictions for residents to get back in or.

00;19;46;13 - 00;20;03;24
Speaker 3
No, I'm actually going over tomorrow. You know, I'm a resident and I have the reentry pass and the body will take us over by boat. And, you know, myself and another guy is on a home association board and we're going to check everybody's house and we'll take it from there.

00;20;04;03 - 00;20;11;05
Hal Needham
There's a last question. Do you think any do you think as homes build back, they'll build differently higher or different materials? Or do you feel like this is just, you know, what.

00;20;11;17 - 00;20;28;00
Speaker 3
Category four, Category five? I don't know how much different you can go from here. I mean, I was in Hurricane Sandy in New York, you know, but that was a hurricane, you know, one cat, cat one. And that came over my house. This is a whole different.

00;20;28;00 - 00;20;32;00
Hal Needham
Yeah, this just the wind is hard to describe what it was like. Right. It's a different game.

00;20;32;09 - 00;20;44;09
Speaker 3
It really is. You know, unfortunate. I shouldn't call it a game because a lot of people lost their lives, you know? But with regards to prevention, you know, there's worse in everything in life.

00;20;44;09 - 00;20;48;06
Hal Needham
Sure. Sure. And this is a beautiful place to live. I really hope for a quick recovery here.

00;20;48;12 - 00;20;50;23
Speaker 3
Yeah. And the people are good, strong. So. Yeah.

00;20;51;04 - 00;21;05;02
Hal Needham
Look, we'll get it is. Appreciate you taking time, I hope, for a quick recovery. So thank you for taking time. Any We were talking. So the other day I saw you and you were explaining what it was like to ride out the storm here. I mean, what what was that like for you?

00;21;05;02 - 00;21;15;04
Speaker 4
I have to say, it was worse than Charley. I can't explain how it was. It was just very noisy, awful.

00;21;16;22 - 00;21;25;16
Hal Needham
So, I mean, there was a wind, it was water, It was everything. I mean, what was maybe walk us through the day that this storm hit. Just what did you see as the day progressed?

00;21;25;16 - 00;21;36;27
Speaker 4
Well, at first it was just like I've been through hurricane before, hurricanes before. And I thought I was just going to be okay.

00;21;37;11 - 00;21;40;08
Hal Needham
So you think, okay, you've lived here for some time. How long have you lived here?

00;21;40;08 - 00;21;40;25
Speaker 4
Five years.

00;21;40;27 - 00;21;46;12
Hal Needham
Okay. So you've lived here 25 years. You've been through a lot of hurricanes. You thought this will be another hurricane. You've been through this before.

00;21;46;12 - 00;21;49;11
Speaker 4
I am English. Did you get that?

00;21;50;16 - 00;21;54;01
Hal Needham
So you've seen a lot of bad weather is what you mean, right?

00;21;54;01 - 00;21;57;09
Speaker 4
I used to do bad weather. Absolutely. I'm used to rain.

00;21;57;21 - 00;22;00;27
Hal Needham
At what point did you think, okay, this storm is different than the other storms?

00;22;00;27 - 00;22;07;20
Speaker 4
Oh, we had to go upstairs. It just at one point we thought, this is not funny anymore. We need to get upstairs.

00;22;07;20 - 00;22;08;22
Hal Needham
From the water coming in.

00;22;08;22 - 00;22;12;25
Speaker 4
Yes, the water came in and then we thought we have to go upstairs.

00;22;13;06 - 00;22;23;27
Hal Needham
So what were you thinking as the water started coming in? I mean, were you you went upstairs. You're trying to get more distance from the water. Were you afraid that this is going to come in the house and maybe really impact you everything?

00;22;23;27 - 00;22;28;07
Speaker 4
Yes, we thought absolutely everything. You've just said it.

00;22;28;07 - 00;22;33;24
Hal Needham
And so you go upstairs and then as you're watching this unfold, just what what's going through your mind in that moment.

00;22;34;00 - 00;22;37;09
Speaker 4
Is everything was just awful, just awful.

00;22;37;20 - 00;22;39;13
Hal Needham
And it lasted a long time. The storm.

00;22;39;13 - 00;22;47;19
Speaker 4
Oh, he is not nice. We are never going to use that word again. Ian, cut that out.

00;22;48;13 - 00;22;53;12
Hal Needham
So, I mean, you've been through Charley, which was also a very intense storm, but not so long.

00;22;53;20 - 00;22;58;00
Speaker 4
Oh, no, no. This is totally different. And I've been through Irma as well.

00;22;58;15 - 00;23;03;11
Hal Needham
But this you don't seem to really like Ian very much.

00;23;03;13 - 00;23;12;07
Speaker 4
I do not like Ian at all. I'm from England and his name is Scottish. Get rid of him.

00;23;12;07 - 00;23;18;02
Hal Needham
So this storm is just raging on the wind. The sounds of flooding. At what point did you say I'm going to be okay?

00;23;20;01 - 00;23;28;28
Speaker 4
I think when we were upstairs and there was Peter and I, my husband and my girlfriend Debs, we thought, we're all together, we will be fine.

00;23;29;22 - 00;23;34;19
Hal Needham
And so you kind of knew at some moment time, okay, we're going to be okay. And eventually the water started going down.

00;23;36;07 - 00;23;38;16
Speaker 4
No, originally, no. For some.

00;23;38;18 - 00;23;39;17
Hal Needham
Stayed up for some time.

00;23;39;23 - 00;23;40;07
Speaker 4
Oh, yeah.

00;23;40;27 - 00;23;42;20
Hal Needham
Was it flowing fast through the streets?

00;23;42;21 - 00;23;47;22
Speaker 4
Very much so. Yeah. Very, very much so. Am I really going to be on the telly?

00;23;47;22 - 00;23;55;04
Hal Needham
You're going to be super famous. And the last question, when you got out and you walked around the neighborhood and started seeing what this looked like, what was that like?

00;23;55;05 - 00;24;01;26
Speaker 4
No, it was awful. It was awful. And we just wanted to make sure that our neighbors was safe and it was awful.

00;24;02;03 - 00;24;07;11
Hal Needham
Did it? Obviously, almost every home here was severely impacted. Did most of your friends make it through okay?

00;24;07;12 - 00;24;08;23
Speaker 4
Yes. Yes. Yeah.

00;24;09;09 - 00;24;17;18
Hal Needham
And I'm glad that you're okay and you're of good spirits. That's the most important part of it, is that you're you're you have good spirits. And I think you're going to make it through just fine. I hope, for a quick recovery.

00;24;17;28 - 00;24;19;10
Speaker 4
I'm going to be famous on the telly.

00;24;19;19 - 00;24;21;28
Hal Needham
So you had evacuated for the storm, right?

00;24;22;10 - 00;24;26;26
Speaker 4
We have a little bit of a different story. We live up near Boston.

00;24;27;12 - 00;24;27;25
Hal Needham
Oh, yeah.

00;24;28;17 - 00;24;43;25
Speaker 4
And we were about two weeks from coming down for the winter and then the hurricane hit. And so we decided, you know, we needed we just arrived here last night. But we. You have a different story.

00;24;44;07 - 00;24;44;28
Hal Needham
What's your story?

00;24;44;28 - 00;25;00;21
Speaker 4
We we only built last year and it was the only one lot left in this beautiful community. So we had to build with all the new standards for hurricanes. And we actually didn't get water in our house at all.

00;25;00;24 - 00;25;04;17
Hal Needham
Oh, this is interesting. So the new standards I'm imagining you build up higher, right?

00;25;04;24 - 00;25;06;00
Speaker 4
We had to build up higher.

00;25;06;09 - 00;25;08;05
Hal Needham
How much higher were you than other houses?

00;25;08;23 - 00;25;10;04
Speaker 4
I think two and a half feet.

00;25;10;10 - 00;25;11;22
Hal Needham
Okay. And that made the difference.

00;25;11;27 - 00;25;15;26
Speaker 4
Difference? The garage got flooded, but the house stayed dry.

00;25;16;04 - 00;25;19;04
Hal Needham
Do you know when those standards went in or are they fairly new?

00;25;19;04 - 00;25;25;09
Speaker 4
Well, they started after Charlie, but I think maybe since then they've even made more, you know.

00;25;25;23 - 00;25;34;24
Hal Needham
So I see people have said that the new codes like building practices, stronger rules, things like that after Charlie. But it sounds like you're saying also putting houses up higher as well.

00;25;34;27 - 00;25;36;01
Speaker 4
I had to be up high and.

00;25;36;01 - 00;25;37;02
Hal Needham
That made a difference for you.

00;25;37;03 - 00;25;55;26
Speaker 4
Made a huge difference for us. But if you want the human side of it, it's like we feel so lucky that our house made it through. But we built here because of the community and we knew it was a beautiful community. So it's very hard to see what school, what went on.

00;25;56;01 - 00;25;59;18
Hal Needham
Sure. Just walking around the streets, almost every house has severe damage.

00;25;59;18 - 00;26;04;08
Speaker 4
Yes. Yeah. But they they're all stick together and it's you know.

00;26;04;09 - 00;26;15;14
Hal Needham
What's your perspective moving forward? Do you feel differently about storms? I mean, do you feel pretty well prepared moving forward or has this storm made you really question about living here or just just your risk?

00;26;15;17 - 00;26;19;11
Speaker 4
No, no. You you know, the risk when you live in Florida.

00;26;19;25 - 00;26;23;26
Hal Needham
Sure. It is obviously, especially the deeper history of Florida, there have been a lot of strong hurricanes.

00;26;24;00 - 00;26;43;10
Speaker 4
The sadness around the destruction, around the area, like Fort Myers Beach, is just a quaint just that was just such a quaint little place. And that's a pop. You know, people have just lost everything and it's just never going to be the same.

00;26;43;10 - 00;26;58;10
Hal Needham
So, Kim, you're from Illinois. You came down to prepare a rental property. You were just supposed to be here a week and that was the week that year. And could you kind of walk us through before during and after the days before you see this storm coming? It sounds like you're reaching out to people in the community asking what to expect.

00;26;58;10 - 00;26;59;20
Hal Needham
I mean, what were you hearing from people.

00;27;00;04 - 00;27;18;13
Speaker 4
You know, where we were watching the news and watching TV and they're telling us, you know, that category kept changing. And then it seemed like they would say three and then a four, and then it was going to hit Tampa and we started preparing. And I'm like, we should probably get water, start getting things, you know, food, you know, stuff for the house.

00;27;18;23 - 00;27;32;18
Speaker 4
And we started collecting some things. And then all the people that we know that live here said, Oh, it's going to be fine, just stay. And I kept watching the news and they kept saying, you know, if you're close, you need to get out. And we're like, What should we do?

00;27;32;23 - 00;27;42;01
Hal Needham
So the long term people were saying it's not going to be a problem, but it sounds like some of your friends from outside this area and maybe news media and meteorologists were saying this could be a problem one.

00;27;42;01 - 00;28;01;14
Speaker 4
Hundred percent, 100%. We decided to stay. We figure we're up high, we're in a piling house. We're going to be okay. And then it started coming. It started raining and the wind started picking up. And I'm like, maybe we should get in the car and drive further somewhere, go up in another area where maybe it's not as close to water.

00;28;01;14 - 00;28;06;24
Hal Needham
This is even as the early impacts of the storm are coming, you're starting to wonder, are we really safe questioning everything?

00;28;06;24 - 00;28;20;24
Speaker 4
And then I talked to my friends in Illinois and my sister's like, you need to get out. And I'm like, Oh, I don't know, what should we do? And, you know, one wants to stay, one wants to go, and we're like, We're going to stay. And then we have rental property. We thought maybe we should go there. And we did and we stayed at the house.

00;28;21;03 - 00;28;30;28
Speaker 4
And then once it started coming and we had a couple inches of water, I said, maybe we should go call the neighbors next door because their house is higher than ours. And that's what we ended up doing.

00;28;30;28 - 00;28;41;24
Hal Needham
So Kim, walk us through the storm hit really the worst of it was late on a Wednesday afternoon, but through the day on Wednesday, as the water is coming up, the winds are picking up just walk us through what that was like seeing those conditions.

00;28;42;10 - 00;29;03;17
Speaker 4
We ended up packing up a backpack. We went to our neighbor's next door and we we had a plan. We where they had radio we were listening to and it was saying when I was supposed to hit our area, we had we knew at this time we were going to go in the stairwell. We're looking outside, we're securing the doors, making sure you know our batteries.

00;29;03;17 - 00;29;13;05
Speaker 4
We had everything together. And then the water started coming and the winds and we went in the stairwell when we thought that I was hitting. And it kept coming and coming.

00;29;13;05 - 00;29;19;27
Hal Needham
And it was this is at the neighbor's house. So you got over to the neighbor's house. Then the water's coming up. The four of you are writing this out to get us.

00;29;19;27 - 00;29;24;28
Speaker 4
Yes, we were we prayed. We prayed. I said.

00;29;25;07 - 00;29;27;01
Hal Needham
The water kept coming closer to your living space.

00;29;27;01 - 00;29;37;20
Speaker 4
Right? Yes. It came and on the first floor it was coming up. Then we went up to the second level. The the double French doors were blowing in and we were trying to get them secure and.

00;29;38;00 - 00;29;40;03
Hal Needham
In this storm, you're trying to secure these doors, keep the water.

00;29;40;03 - 00;29;42;03
Speaker 4
Out. Yes. Yeah. So we prayed a lot.

00;29;42;11 - 00;29;49;15
Hal Needham
We came. You were talking about your perspective, looking across the canal and seeing houses that were not elevated. And what did those look like in the storm?

00;29;49;15 - 00;30;13;29
Speaker 4
I mean, the water started rising. It was half way. And then we looked out there, you couldn't see the roof. You couldn't see the top of their houses. Then as the water started to recede, the windows were popped out in, boats were going down the canal and furniture and chairs and stuff, just blowing. It was horrible. I, I know when they tell you to leave, I, they always say that give you the worst scenario.

00;30;14;27 - 00;30;16;15
Speaker 4
I will never believe it.

00;30;16;17 - 00;30;19;02
Hal Needham
So so you would you would never stay in his own like that again?

00;30;19;03 - 00;30;20;15
Speaker 4
Nope. Never. No.

00;30;20;15 - 00;30;24;29
Hal Needham
You were actually looking at houses that were completely inundated up beyond their roofline.

00;30;25;01 - 00;30;26;06
Speaker 4
Yes. Yes.

00;30;26;11 - 00;30;29;09
Hal Needham
You could not have survived that if you had lived in those houses. Nope.

00;30;29;15 - 00;30;33;04
Speaker 4
No way. It was it was terrible. I could do is pray that man.

00;30;33;05 - 00;30;44;07
Hal Needham
So came the water recedes actually quite quickly as well. And then what about that night? And then the next day, just leaving that house, walking around the neighborhood, the community. I mean, what was that? What was that like?

00;30;44;19 - 00;31;09;17
Speaker 4
You walk out and you just you can't believe it. And there's stuff everywhere and there's people's kids water buckets and kids crayons and furniture and everybody's earthly belongings. But you praise God that you're alive. You see all the sludge, you know, you got a long road ahead of you and you just everybody just comforts each other and we're alive.

00;31;09;26 - 00;31;10;08
Speaker 4
We're here.

00;31;10;13 - 00;31;23;01
Hal Needham
What would you say to people that live in hurricane zones? And they're like, I've been through hurricanes before. We've never seen catastrophic flooding like that. We what would you say to people like that that feel like they've experienced hurricanes, but their experience does not match this type of story that you're telling?

00;31;24;00 - 00;31;24;22
Speaker 4
Can I swear.

00;31;25;06 - 00;31;25;25
Hal Needham
You could say whatever.

00;31;25;25 - 00;31;49;00
Speaker 4
You're you're full of crap. You need to leave. You know, when you are in a hurricane of this magnitude, your whole thought process changed. Like all our friends said, you guys are going to be fine when they tell you on the news. I don't care if they hype it up, you better believe it. I would never stay. I would say, get out, go to higher ground, get away from water, because there is nothing that's stopping water.

00;31;49;10 - 00;32;06;13
Hal Needham
That's the thing. It's the water. You know what happens? People think of hurricanes as wind events because I think on TV we see palm trees blowing in the wind. It's hard to really get a videographer or get really video content from the worst of it from anyone that would have survived. Right. So a lot of times people aren't even thinking of hurricanes as this massive saltwater flood.

00;32;06;17 - 00;32;07;26
Hal Needham
And that's what kills most of the people.

00;32;08;10 - 00;32;09;10
Speaker 4
You are spot on.

00;32;09;17 - 00;32;21;27
Hal Needham
What did you all I mean, obviously, you're from Illinois. You were down here temporarily. So you probably have thought of hurricanes from more from a distance. Did you think of hurricanes as with, like massive saltwater flooding or were you thinking of it more as a wind event? Really?

00;32;22;19 - 00;32;33;23
Speaker 4
Kind of more of a wind event. I knew there would be some water. I knew they said about the surge, but we were just here in December when the tornado hit and that was devastating. But this is.

00;32;33;23 - 00;32;35;14
Hal Needham
Like it's a different scale, right? Yeah.

00;32;35;28 - 00;32;44;25
Speaker 4
You know, that's like an area and then it stops the water. It's coming. It's got to go somewhere. It just it's everywhere. It's devastating.

00;32;44;25 - 00;32;54;02
Hal Needham
Yeah. Kim, hope for a quick recovery for you guys. Appreciate you taking time. And I'm glad that you made it through. Okay. And you know, I know it will be a long road to recovery, but I appreciate you taking time to share your story with us.

00;32;54;02 - 00;32;57;05
Speaker 4
Thank you so much. God bless everybody that stayed here for it. Thank you.

00;32;57;05 - 00;33;21;08
Hal Needham
Thank Robert McGregor. Drive in. I own a Florida. It's a part of southern part of Fort Myers. We're about four miles by road from Fort Myers Beach. We're walking down the street, unbelievable amounts of debris in front of everyone's home. Every house flooded. You can see how watermarks actually Jeremie, you can see the high watermark there in the garage, about two feet up above ground.

00;33;21;20 - 00;33;42;29
Hal Needham
Pretty much every house took on flooding damage, but just talked to a flood victim and asked her, was it confusing for people because they got hit by a Category four hurricane 18 years ago with no flooding? Was it confusing that this Category four flooded them? It's just always interesting. People's responses often surprise me. So there's a couple of reasons why This one, there was a big flood.

00;33;43;05 - 00;34;01;23
Hal Needham
The wind field for Ian was huge. It was moving forward very slowly. And the pre landfall pressure was very deep. Pre landfall winds were a lot stronger than Hurricane Charley 18 years ago. There are a whole bunch of reasons why this produced a surge in Charley, 18 years ago. Didn't what this local woman said was, well, a storm surge is hard to predict.

00;34;01;23 - 00;34;21;29
Hal Needham
She started getting into tides. If it's coming on an incoming or outgoing tide, like this is micro tidal, the tides don't really affect that much. I heard someone saying that the type of sand on the beach in Siesta Key, it's quartz. So therefore there's a lot of legends that that storm surge and hurricanes won't hit siesta key because there's caught sand on the beach.

00;34;22;07 - 00;34;46;22
Hal Needham
People say, hey, Siesta Key, Sarasota area, it's a former ancient Indian burial ground. They won't get a hurricane hit. A lot of these things are really more like myths and not really scientifically sound. But then some of the more sound science people just don't really understand. So it's interesting just walking around, talking to people, getting their perception. Obviously, it's it's a combination between the physical science and the human science.

00;34;46;22 - 00;35;16;29
Hal Needham
And the human impact is just really important to understand how people make decisions, where they got their information from, things like that. So people are it's very somber. I'm with Jeremiah. We just spoke to a woman who just found out in the last minutes that two of our close friends passed away. So that's a sensitive thing. When you're in these disaster zones, you want to be supportive, you want to hear people's stories, but be sensitive of them, too, because they may have just lost a close friend or family member.

00;35;16;29 - 00;35;33;29
Hal Needham
So it's very somber, trying to do our best to read people. And sometimes people want to speak. They want to have a voice. Other times people would rather not. Maybe they're still processing complex emotions. I'm here in really very close to Fort Myers Beach, where over on the Fort Myers side. I'm with Marshall. Marshall, I mean, your story is amazing.

00;35;33;29 - 00;35;41;16
Hal Needham
You took every effort at dawn the day after Hurricane Ian to get into the most vulnerable areas. I mean, what in the world was that like for you getting over there?

00;35;42;27 - 00;36;03;14
Speaker 3
Well, it wasn't anticipated, that's for sure. It was very alarming at the scene. We had these even coming in. So based on what the boats on the road and seeing those large ships capsized on the land, which showed us what the wreckage is going to be up here. And it was just that soon you go over the bridge here, it's everything was gone, the buildings are gone.

00;36;03;29 - 00;36;12;00
Speaker 3
You're driving on three feet of sand over gas lines, spray and alarm whistles going off and houses, cars honking and beeping.

00;36;12;01 - 00;36;15;25
Hal Needham
This is just a complete catastrophe scene. And like you said, there's no law enforcement, right?

00;36;16;26 - 00;36;35;01
Speaker 3
Well, at that time, no. And we didn't know we wouldn't get over the bridge, you know, And so we got to a bridge like, holy crap, we're in. We are. We've made it. What's going on here? You know why there's no cops around? There's nothing. And so we drove on and further and further and, you know, and there was a lot of carnage in a lot of people's lives that were lost.

00;36;35;01 - 00;36;58;03
Speaker 3
And you could visually see at certain points throughout the the road there and houses on top of cars, people in canals, you know, things that were visible to everybody in the area now gone. You know, one of them would be in mom's, you know, biscuits and gravy is going to favorite spot wiped off the earth, you know, in some of the largest landmarks down there, completely gone.

00;36;58;03 - 00;37;06;21
Speaker 3
So I just don't understand, you know, why we were there was no emergency. But I do understand that there is a plan. An organization has to get that together. I'm assuming.

00;37;07;03 - 00;37;13;16
Hal Needham
Marshal. So you you explain there were dead bodies, but also people that maybe were severely injured, that still were alive at that time.

00;37;13;16 - 00;37;35;05
Speaker 3
Right there, a particular gentleman above the 7-Eleven and a tree hanging on to a pallet in a tree, I think, where he said his story was his wife was in the other one deceased. But anyway, the guys there, the two homeless gentleman there that was looting the place, actually got the gentleman down at the tree and called the ambulance, but the analyst never showed up.

00;37;36;29 - 00;37;42;29
Speaker 3
But there again, that's not my place to say where there is. Whose fault was what. I'm not sure. Sure on stories know.

00;37;43;07 - 00;37;53;01
Hal Needham
Yeah. And you mentioned some like women in an upstairs that we're hanging on, right? I mean, so the whole idea is that people were trying to get up to save their lives from not drowning on the day before, right?

00;37;53;01 - 00;38;06;14
Speaker 3
Yes, these are stories. So that's my team. And as we always say up here, the very first task when we left the island, that was the first thing in my mind. Let's go get something to help. The only thing I knew to help us cook. So we brought my food truck down immediately, started cooking things up. And that's great.

00;38;06;14 - 00;38;23;08
Speaker 3
These stories that were coming in was one of these of the three sisters, you know, they were just there spooning celebration down here, and they used their handkerchiefs to tie the rafters to save their lives. And they're their third sister or friend, which are what was did not have a handkerchief and got a screw in jugular and bled out and passed away.

00;38;23;23 - 00;38;26;16
Hal Needham
So the handkerchiefs there were hanging from the rafters with them.

00;38;26;17 - 00;38;29;14
Speaker 3
Yeah. That was, that was their, their tie to hold on to.

00;38;29;24 - 00;38;32;16
Hal Needham
And I know a third sister didn't have one and she passed as.

00;38;32;18 - 00;38;34;12
Speaker 3
Well due to a screw it to her neck.

00;38;35;02 - 00;38;42;07
Hal Needham
Man. It's just, it's so graphic. But you're helping us to see just the violence of the storm and how what people did, what they could do just try to survive the night. Right.

00;38;42;12 - 00;38;49;15
Speaker 3
Well, these are stories that every year they come off off the street here and they and they'll tell either one of me or Brian or Andrew or one of the three of us.

00;38;49;15 - 00;38;52;11
Hal Needham
I see they're coming to get food and they're like, you can't believe this story that's hot.

00;38;52;11 - 00;38;59;16
Speaker 3
Out in the world and you don't know what I've been through. And I said, Do you care to share? And they just cry and cry and they tell you everything. Their dogs are shaking, their cats are shaking.

00;38;59;16 - 00;39;01;24
Hal Needham
And it's so, so, so traumatic for everybody.

00;39;02;00 - 00;39;11;04
Speaker 3
Now we're at day seven. This is day seven. You're talking seven days. No power, no water, no electric. No, no, no laundry, no food.

00;39;11;04 - 00;39;13;25
Hal Needham
Are there people still over there or do you think everyone everyone left.

00;39;14;11 - 00;39;22;18
Speaker 3
There's a proximity. They said maybe 20 to 30. They keep running off into the woods. All right. The condos that they you know, they're going to try to go after it. From where?

00;39;22;18 - 00;39;27;07
Hal Needham
Hearing it. You mean like they don't want to leave and they they'll avoid contact with people, correct.

00;39;27;07 - 00;39;29;20
Speaker 3
They don't want to get their land and I don't blame them.

00;39;30;01 - 00;39;31;24
Hal Needham
I didn't want to go through land. Don't want to give.

00;39;31;24 - 00;39;32;28
Speaker 3
Up their land. Give up their land.

00;39;32;28 - 00;39;45;04
Hal Needham
Yes, I understand. I understand what you're saying. Lastly, you had mentioned about looters coming in maybe from Miami, other places and even them chasing you off. I mean, that's again, you're helping to paint the chaos of this the morning after. I mean, what what happened in that.

00;39;45;05 - 00;39;55;26
Speaker 3
That was a very the very first thing. We came over the bridge that morning. We turned out right where the town square was at. And we seen the two leaders. I mean, my buddy Brian, we jumped out and I said, Hey, that's not your shit.

00;39;56;26 - 00;40;01;12
Hal Needham
They're looting someone else's stuff. And you, you you intervened and addressed it, correct?

00;40;01;12 - 00;40;12;24
Speaker 3
That's exactly tried to do. And then the guy who was nice out and started chasing after us, so we took off our truck and went away. And as as you can see, there's one way in, one way out as a way out. They came around the door and.

00;40;13;04 - 00;40;13;24
Hal Needham
They caught up to you.

00;40;14;15 - 00;40;18;07
Speaker 3
Well, we pass them as they're getting in their car that they stole to get down here.

00;40;19;09 - 00;40;21;27
Hal Needham
And. And they threatened you right now? Pretty much, Yeah.

00;40;22;04 - 00;40;23;04
Speaker 3
They said I was a dead man.

00;40;24;02 - 00;40;34;24
Hal Needham
You appreciate not only you addressing that kind of thing. Also just coming down here with a food truck. I mean, doing everything you can to help people. I just I think that's really like inspirational for a lot of people to hear.

00;40;36;16 - 00;40;44;03
Speaker 3
I think it's the only thing we can do is to you know, I can see it. I can't go drive nails. I can't be in the heat all day due to my health, but I can go cook burgers and do it.

00;40;44;03 - 00;40;57;05
Hal Needham
And that's the thing. I mean, just to get a hot meal, you just brought five meals over a free food for us, you know, I mean, just you're giving to the community. And that's the kind of thing in disasters we hear about the best and the worst. And, you know, you're doing the best here and just appreciate a lot, man.

00;40;57;10 - 00;41;02;08
Speaker 3
I think between you, Yeah, to me, my team and as we do over a little 1000 meals a day man.

00;41;02;08 - 00;41;13;24
Hal Needham
So you're you're distributing a thousand meals a day for you and to give and we'll give context of this. We're coming off the bridge just right from Fort Myers Beach, one of the worst hit areas. And you're right here then providing services and food.

00;41;14;00 - 00;41;15;00
Speaker 3
They said this base.

00;41;15;05 - 00;41;32;12
Hal Needham
Dude just that's a lesson for our listeners to and how to stage you know like sometimes you can't be a ground zero but you can stage right outside of ground zero. That's really what you've done here. You stage as close as you can right off the bridge and you're providing food and services and encouragement to people. Brian Just share about that a little bit.

00;41;32;12 - 00;41;39;10
Hal Needham
I'm with Brian here. We're it's called Dudleys, right? So, I mean, you lost a lot in this, but you're out here serving other people. Just talk a little bit about that.

00;41;39;10 - 00;41;52;11
Speaker 5
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's no reason not to give back to the community. This is our community. And we really, really, really want to give back. So and that's the most important thing. So materialistic things that I've lost. And, you know, from now on, I'm just always going to get back.

00;41;52;16 - 00;42;05;03
Hal Needham
I'm sorry. Like you and Marshall set this up. You set up a food truck. Really? Right at the base of the bridge to Fort Myers Beach. People are coming off with these crazy survival stories, and you're here providing food and they're telling you their stories, right?

00;42;05;05 - 00;42;16;12
Speaker 5
Yeah, absolutely. It's, you know, it's it's devastating. It really is devastating. But, you know, like I said, it's you know, we talked about it's it's that first meal coming off. It's that's the best meal. It's the best meal you're ever going to have.

00;42;16;12 - 00;42;26;04
Hal Needham
Best meal you're ever going to have. You just face life or death. You survive. You don't have anything left, but you have nothing. And then you come in. Here's Dudley's Beach side barbecue with hot food, right?

00;42;26;04 - 00;42;27;14
Speaker 5
Right. Absolutely. Yeah.

00;42;27;14 - 00;42;31;28
Hal Needham
What are some of these stories you heard from people? I mean, you had to hear chaotic stories in the last week.

00;42;32;07 - 00;42;53;26
Speaker 5
The one that sticks out to me is Marshall and I came came down here probably about 645, 7:00 in the morning. And we we picked up a gentleman and he was a homeless gentleman. We drove him to try to get where he had to get. And we met some younger guys and he lost his dog and he jumped from one platform to another to save his own life and lost his dog.

00;42;53;26 - 00;42;56;22
Speaker 5
So, you know, we we took the platform.

00;42;56;22 - 00;42;58;08
Hal Needham
You mean he's on water or what? I don't.

00;42;58;08 - 00;42;58;25
Speaker 3
Understand what.

00;42;58;26 - 00;43;04;02
Speaker 5
It was. It was his balcony. So he jumped from balcony and a balcony and held on. Why the waves are coming through.

00;43;04;19 - 00;43;09;05
Hal Needham
During the storm. He jumped from one balcony to another and his dog did not make it correct?

00;43;09;05 - 00;43;09;15
Speaker 5
Yeah.

00;43;09;22 - 00;43;18;15
Hal Needham
So he went through this loss of his dog and almost a loss of his life. And was probably hanging on for dear life through the storm and then a few days later comes out and interacts with you guys.

00;43;18;15 - 00;43;30;10
Speaker 5
Yeah. And it was you know, it was very inspirational because during that sequence he he finally got to see a couple of his buddies that he thought he maybe lost or whatever. But, you know, the hugs, the hugs that we saw were were emotional was great.

00;43;30;10 - 00;43;42;08
Hal Needham
Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's it's life or death stuff. And you guys are here serving. I mean, what so you've been here obviously for a while now, serving food, giving out to people. I've seen people with smiles. People are like, wow, finally, that feeling of hope, right?

00;43;42;10 - 00;43;50;18
Speaker 5
Yes, absolutely. Yeah. And that's what it's all about. You know, it's it's emotional. It's I you know, I there's no words to explain it.

00;43;50;18 - 00;43;57;27
Hal Needham
And I mean, Brian, I mean, you didn't quite face like losing your life, but you lost your vehicle and you you went through a lot of devastation and loss as well, right?

00;43;57;27 - 00;44;13;07
Speaker 5
Yeah, I'm quite honest, I, I thought I was going to have to cut a hole in my lanai and jump out on a raft. I went down stairs. I had knee deep water in my garage. I lost all my belongings in there and I jumped out. I was I thought I was going to have to jump out with this pool raft that I was going to have.

00;44;13;07 - 00;44;13;17
Speaker 5
And I.

00;44;13;24 - 00;44;15;13
Hal Needham
You were looking for an escape route, basically.

00;44;15;13 - 00;44;19;22
Speaker 5
Yeah. Yeah, it was looking out. I we didn't know how high the water is going to go. I went, it went high.

00;44;20;05 - 00;44;32;07
Hal Needham
And I mean, it surprised lot of people. It's. So how do you get from that though, losing your belongings to like you're here working in a food truck, serving people Like how what's the timeline there and what was the thought process or.

00;44;32;18 - 00;44;45;05
Speaker 5
Yeah, I mean, just, you know, Mart Marshall's one of my best friends in the world and, you know, just help trying to help out others. You know, it's it's not about me at this point. It's about all of us coming together as a as a community and and helping each other out.

00;44;46;15 - 00;44;57;09
Hal Needham
I'm here at Dudley's beachside barbecue off the causeway from Fort Myers Beach. We're with Brant. Brant, you're out here with cold water and ice. I mean, what's going on? Where in the world do you get ice in a catastrophe?

00;44;57;15 - 00;45;18;26
Speaker 3
Yeah. So we have we've had a good team outside of just me coming out here. I have to give them credit. But we were actually sending guys to Miami to come back with not only ICE, they were coming back with toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, children's clothes, diapers, formula. I've been in contact with Hertz Arena multiple times. So they're we're bringing truckloads of all this stuff.

00;45;18;26 - 00;45;37;26
Speaker 3
They need a Hertz arena. We're loading it up on these busses and kind of forcing these bus drivers to take the stuff to Hertz Arena, which they've been open with doing. But we've had in the last four days, probably 15 truckloads of stuff that we've either been passing out to people here or loading up on these Leitrim busses since Saturday.

00;45;37;27 - 00;45;46;15
Hal Needham
And just to give context, you can drive for a long way and not even see a stoplight that's working in Miami is really far from here. That's not right down the street.

00;45;46;19 - 00;45;55;15
Speaker 3
Yeah, it's about three hour drive from here, which is insane though, because my house on a typical day is 35 minutes to get here. It took me over 2 hours today.

00;45;55;27 - 00;46;00;04
Hal Needham
With with the stop lights out and the traffic and the gridlock and the emergency workers.

00;46;00;04 - 00;46;19;21
Speaker 3
That's exactly right. Yep. So the four way stop on every single intersection. It's just it's a big effort to get all the way out here with all the goods. But we need it. And it doesn't matter if there's just two people that come over the bridge today. At least they have cold water, some toiletries for when they go to the shelter and in a hot meal.

00;46;19;21 - 00;46;30;17
Hal Needham
Brant, I saw people here eating meals, eating food. Some people are saying this is the best meal they ever had. They were facing life or death a few days ago and here they are getting a free meal. I mean, what are some of the stories you've heard from people?

00;46;31;00 - 00;46;50;21
Speaker 3
Yeah, so I've spoken to multiple ones that were stuck over there. I spoke to one gentleman who was the manager of Best Western. He was on the third story. He said that when the wave started coming in, it dislodged the huge coolers that they have. The coolers were moving out and then moving in and destroying the bottom level of that.

00;46;51;05 - 00;47;05;19
Speaker 3
It was knocking down the concrete pylons, he said. These coolers, his wife, it took him 3 hours to go a mile and a half down the beach. The day after the storm to get to their house. She was okay. They came out here. We lived on them. We prayed with them, we hugged them. We gave them a free meal.

00;47;05;19 - 00;47;27;24
Speaker 3
They were extremely happy about that. And that's been a recurring story. People coming over with four and five animals, with them refusing to leave their animals, which I understand out on the beach and just, you know, like I said, we're just here to love on people, pray with people, do whatever they need, no matter their politics, religion, None of that stuff matters in this small section.

00;47;27;24 - 00;47;34;01
Speaker 3
And that's what the most beautiful part of this area is. We're all people. We all love southwest Florida, and we all want to help as much as we can.

00;47;34;14 - 00;47;50;12
Hal Needham
It's so inspirational, especially when you hear these horrific stories. People went through incredible trauma and, you know, don't even know where they're going to get their next meal. They've, in some cases lost almost all their possessions, almost lost their lives. And here you are able to give them a cold bottle of water and a warm meal.

00;47;50;20 - 00;47;51;11
Speaker 5
Absolutely.

00;47;51;11 - 00;48;13;27
Speaker 3
Yeah. I mean, I've broken down a couple of times hugging on people because they're crying and they just don't know where to turn from here. We've seen reunions from people driving from Ohio all the way down here to get their mom and dad. Amazing, beautiful hugs and kisses and. At this point, human lives are far more important than than a few beach chairs and houses out on that island.

00;48;13;27 - 00;48;16;26
Speaker 3
We can rebuild.

00;48;16;26 - 00;48;46;23
Hal Needham
Wow. So much to unpack in these storm survival stories. A few insights come to mind. Number one, I hope you can pick up this sense that we were recording in an active disaster zone. The time scale of this disaster is hard to communicate. Much of the recording that you heard took place six or seven days after Ian's landfall, and we could still see or hear the sounds of sirens of emergency vehicles whizzing by and the fly by of Chinook helicopters still looking for bodies, although the fatality count has now exceeded 100 people.

00;48;47;00 - 00;49;10;24
Hal Needham
Locals on the ground have told us that the missing list may be much, much longer. And unfortunately, many people may have been washed out to sea or washed in the mangroves and not found yet. Really, the scale of this is hard to comprehend and it's very somber and very, very hard to take in. Number two, James Grime shared about his concern with the National Hurricane Center, his cone of uncertainty on their hurricane forecast maps.

00;49;11;05 - 00;49;39;06
Hal Needham
Particularly, he was concerned about the center line option where you can really it looks like it's pinpointing where the hurricane's going to hit the cone. Maps have come under increased scrutiny after Hurricane Ian, especially because many people may think that a hurricane is more like a point on a map instead of a huge area of impacts. Also, a lot of people just assume that the closer you get to the hurricane eye is where you're going to get the worst impacts when in fact the eye position, in a sense, approximates the western boundary of the greatest impacts.

00;49;39;13 - 00;50;05;22
Hal Needham
A lot of the very catastrophic storm impacts spread far to the right of the eye position where it makes landfall on the coast. You can discuss more about this topic with James and his colleagues like Caspar and Kylie, who run the Tropical Weather Threat Society website. They're very engaged and very active, especially when a storm is out there in the Gulf or approaching the southeastern U.S. Again, they're the Tropical Weather Threat Society website and they love to engage and discuss these types of topics.

00;50;06;11 - 00;50;26;16
Hal Needham
I thought it was insightful that Kim shared that friends and family out of state correctly warned about the catastrophic nature of Hurricane Ian, as did many weather and science professionals. Locals on the ground, from her perspective, really misguided themselves and others. We often think that locals know best in this case, it seems like the opposite was often true.

00;50;26;29 - 00;51;03;19
Hal Needham
Decades of hurricane strikes without storm surges in places like Fort Myers and Cape Coral led to complacency that Ian would be like all the other storms that they easily survived. We consistently heard reports that people not only stayed, they were throwing hurricane parties until Ian's fury became deadly. These are somber interviews and spending time in a disaster zone is always very heavy, yet seeing people come together and serve others, seeing the response of disaster recovery teams coming to the region and hearing stories of survival and resilience gave us hope that Southwest Florida will come back from this hopefully stronger and better prepared for future storms.

00;51;03;19 - 00;51;23;29
Hal Needham
Thanks for tuning in to the podcast, everyone. Our production and marketing team is Kenneth Baker, Ashley Anderson, Christopher Cook, Amy Wilkins, and of course Jeremiah Long, who came out with me into the field for a few days. His arrival really lifted my spirits during a long week of hurricane and fieldwork. I was thankful to see him and he's always a joy to work with out there in zones.

00;51;24;08 - 00;51;31;18
Hal Needham
Thanks for listening to the podcast. Everyone will catch you on the next episode of the Geo Trek podcast.

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