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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSurviving Hurricane Ian in a Fort Myers Apartment Complex
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Charles Bethea
@charlesbethea
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Ive reported on hurricanes but this is one of the crazier survival stories Ive ever heard. From Fort Myers for @NewYorker:
newyorker.com
Surviving Hurricane Ian in a Fort Myers Apartment Complex
Facing high winds, rising waters, and careening yachts, a group of neighbors managed a harrowing rescue.
4:57 PM · Oct 2, 2022
Charles Bethea
@charlesbethea
·
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Ive reported on hurricanes but this is one of the crazier survival stories Ive ever heard. From Fort Myers for @NewYorker:
newyorker.com
Surviving Hurricane Ian in a Fort Myers Apartment Complex
Facing high winds, rising waters, and careening yachts, a group of neighbors managed a harrowing rescue.
4:57 PM · Oct 2, 2022
https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-south/surviving-hurricane-ian-in-a-fort-myers-apartment-complex
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https://archive.ph/3qRKL
Adam Rayhart is a flair bartender at a cocktail spot in downtown Fort Myers, Florida, the largest town on a seven-mile island that sits on the Gulf of Mexico. He moved there last year from Lehigh Acres, sixteen miles inland. The move was mainly to be closer to work, but having views of the water, he said, were a plus. The tattooed and bearded thirty-two-year-old has lived in Florida since he was four and has experienced a lot of hurricanes. I cant even remember most of their names, he told me. When Rayhart saw predictions that Hurricane Ian was headed for the Gulf Coast, early last week, he did what he always does in anticipation of losing power for a few days: he charged his electronics, bought a couple cases of water and nonperishable food, and stocked up on batteries for his flashlights and lanterns. I can live off Mountain Dew, he told me, noting that he hadnt even picked up the maximum number of cases of water allowed at his local grocery store. I just need the water for my dogs.
Rayhart has been living at Riverwalk, a fifty-unit apartment complex right on the Caloosahatchee River, just outside of downtown Fort Myers. He and a roommate, Eric Stebbins, Jr., who also works at the cocktail bar, share a second-story unit facing the Caloosahatchee, which is protected by a small sea wall. The steps leading up to their apartment are about fifteen feet from rivers edge. Their second-story patio overlooks the complexs pool, a few palm trees, and a gazebo where they often hung out, talking about their day or sitting in silence and enjoying the sunsets.
They werent really worried about their apartment. Storm surge had never been a serious problem in the area, as far as Rayhart knew. But he helped a downstairs neighbor named Stefanie prepare her own apartment with sandbags, and he told her that she could shelter upstairs with him and Stebbins if necessary. Stefanie took him up on the offer, and the three of them hunkered down Thursday afternoon, in Riverwalk apartment #50.
You could hear the wind out the door and through the windows, Rayhart told me, describing Ians arrival. It seemed like a typical hurricane. Waters were getting wavy and stuff, which was to be expected.On his final walk outside to relieve his dogs, he tripped and broke a toe, but that problem was soon forgotten. He noticed that the barnacles on one of the rivers piers, visible the day before, had disappeared below the waterline. I was, like, O.K., water is rising up a bit, he told me. Then it began to pour over the little wall and onto the apartments pool area.
*snip*
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Surviving Hurricane Ian in a Fort Myers Apartment Complex (Original Post)
Nevilledog
Oct 2022
OP
flamingdem
(39,319 posts)1. Amazing story
I was not that far from where this happened but stayed dry.
Just beginning to wrap my head around all the damage. We didn't have power until yesterday.
Whew!
This line:
Then another yacht appeared. Like, a million-dollar freaking-big yacht, Rayhart said. This time its coming directly for my living room. He told everyone except Stebbins and the man from downstairs to get in his bedroom, farthest away from where the yacht seemed poised to strike the building.
Lucinda
(31,170 posts)2. ❤️ ✿❧🌿❧✿ ❤️
Blues Heron
(5,939 posts)3. The largest town on a seven mile island?
I think they are referring to Fort Myers beach, this is inland on the Caloosahatchee River. Amazing story just the same.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,402 posts)4. I've never been attacked by two yachts.
Good thing for their downstairs neighbors that Rayhart and Stefanie helped.