GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Storm surge from Hurricane Ian washed through the Naples, Florida, home of a woman originally from West Michigan.
Laurie Garrity was hunkered down at a neighbor’s home on Isles of Capri and saw the house she was renting surrounded by water.
“It was so windy. … I thought OK, we’re going to be OK. And then the water, it was high tide, and pretty soon it was just like a river,” Garrity recalled.
Garrity thought the brunt of the storm was going to hit farther north, closer to Tampa, but it took a quick turn toward the Isles of Capri, south of Fort Myers. By then, it was too late to evacuate.
“I could see through my kitchen window to the sliders that I had boarded up… and then I realized I was seeing the waves break in my house,” Garrity said. “Then I saw my dining room table float by, my chairs, all my stuff.”
Garrity and her husband are trying to salvage what they can.
“We don’t really have anything… We actually have a 30-foot boat in our yard. We had a utility trailer that we planned to pack,” Garrity said.
Garrity’s son Chris Contreras, formerly of Grand Rapids, lives to the north in Tampa.
“We definitely doubled all of our supplies. We were packed and ready but then we dodged a bullet,” Contreras said.
He is grateful his family is OK but devastated by the loss of his mother’s home.
“It has definitely been an emotional day for the whole family. My brother who is still in Michigan has been calling and checking on us as well, making sure everyone has got what they need and a place to stay,” Contreras said.
His condo lost power and Contreras saw the river level drop past the point of low tide.
“We started watching it go down and instead of it coming back up, it just kept going down so there was a couple boats that were left on ropes out here in front that were sitting right on ground,” he said.
Despite losing her belongings, Garrity said she is grateful her family is safe.
“I don’t know if it would have been easier to be away from here and come back to it or if watching it was worse,” Garrity said.
She and her husband say their insurance is unlikely to cover replacing anything lost from the floodwaters.