NORTH PORT, Fla. — David Jones is a native of Lackawanna County living in Florida. He survived Hurricane Ian and shared his storm with Newswatch 16's Andy Palumbo.
The eye of Hurricane Ian came ashore just 30 miles away from Jones' Florida home in North Port. He shared photos of the damage with us.
He said, "Just a lot of wind and a lot of rain, and then parts of the house started falling off, nothing major. We lost shingles. We lost part of our lanai cage, we lost some screens, lot of trees down."
David is a native of Throop in Lackawanna County, Mid Valley High School Class of 1979. By the way, so was Andy Palumbo. David shared a photo of Andy from their old high school.
David stayed put during Ian, not leaving his home. He says the house survived other hurricanes when it was owned by other people.
Now, this retired software engineer is dealing with life after Ian.
"The problem here is a constant hunt for drinking water and gasoline, and both are in short supply, and when you get to them, you have to wait two hours to get them."
In spite of having to get by on swimming pool water that he boils before using, jones is a Floridian.
Andy asked David, "Are you going to stay, or are you going to come back north where we only have blizzards?"
He replied, "You know, everybody up north, our friends are saying now you are going to leave. Absolutely not. We're not leaving. You never want to say you're never going to see anything this big, but we think that is probably the case."
But life immediately after Ian isn't easy.
"No electricity. We're starting our sixth day with no electricity. I'm sitting in our r-v now, which has some battery and a solar panel. That's where I'm charging our iPhone now."
But, there will be changes. Jones will put hurricane shutters on his house. He's been getting power from a neighbor's generator. Jones will eventually get one of his own.
David and his wife still have family and friends back in Lackawanna County.