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INDIANAPOLIS — Fort Myers and other places along the southwest Florida coast were battered by Hurricane Ian Wednesday.
The hurricane made landfall on Cayo Costa early Wednesday afternoon, Hoosiers we talked to in nearby Fort Myers said the conditions worsened quickly.
We spoke with Jim Atterholt and Christine Ressino Tuesday, two Hoosiers now living in Fort Myers, both said it got really bad but they’re hanging in there.
Meanwhile, those farther inland prepared for the storm themselves.
The path of hurricane Ian shows it’ll cut inland between Tampa and Orlando. Those two are only about a 90 minute drive from each other.
It’s the area where Fishers resident Bernardo Tord’s daughters live.
”Definitely helpless, definitely makes me feel helpless,” Tord said.
We talked to one of Tord’s daughters, Ciara, who just began seeing the impacts of the storm on Tuesday.
Ciara walked us around outside of where she lives to show the earliest impacts of the storm, pointing out a tree that had already fallen in high winds and one she worried would fall.
”The tree behind, actually that big oak tree right there, is completely dead so that is what we’re worried about,” Ciara said.
She’s expecting serious storms throughout Wednesday night into Thursday morning with winds at more than 75 miles per hour, heavy rain and even the possibility of tornadoes. She said the worry will keep her up.
”They say it’s going to be, maybe, a late night storm and that just causes a lot of issues in the dark,” Ciara said. “In the light you can see out the windows, see what’s going on. In the dark you just don’t know what’s going on.”
Ciara said she and her boyfriend have prepared as much as they can. It’s their first time riding out a storm of this caliber.
”Definitely had to go get the bottled water, we did sandbags in front of our sliding glass door in case of flooding,” she said.
When they went to go shopping, Ciara said it took three stores to find the supplies they need and three gas stations to find one still with gas. As of Wednesday afternoon, the power had already gone off and come back on a few times.
”Trying to get everything cold as fast as it can, so it can stay cold,” Ciara said. “Get food where it needs to be just in case we go into the night with no power.”
Ciara’s sister lives 30 minutes away, she will likely see similar issues. They’ll be keeping in touch throughout the night.
”We’re just trying to stick in communication, check in with each other for as long as we can,” Ciara said.
All while their dad is worried sick back here in Indiana.
”I can afford to take care of them, I just can’t afford to lose them,” Tord said.
Tord said he’s also thinking about the people who can’t afford to move out of the path of the storm. Tord was a single father living paycheck to paycheck and doesn’t know what he would have done in this situation.
”I can’t imagine being a single dad with a hurricane bearing down on me,” he said.
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