Filipina survives hurricane ‘Ian’

Grace Oredina-Gamboa considers herself lucky to survive the fury of hurricane "Ian" that slammed into Florida on Wednesday as a powerful Category 4 storm.

Gamboa and her American husband drove out of Fort Myers on Tuesday evening, several hours before the hurricane touched down.

"I was praying hard on the car. The winds were fierce. We had to slow down on the highway. I saw a lot of cars leaving for safer grounds," said Gamboa, a 54-year-old Filipina originally from Imus, Cavite.

The couple rushed to Miami, about two and a half hours from where they live.

"It so happens that my husband had a scheduled conference there. At least, we had free accommodation," she said.

Gamboa said her husband wanted to fly out of Fort Myers but she insisted on bringing their car.

"I didn't want to leave our car at home," she recalled.

While in Miami, Gamboa monitored the news and received videos of the destruction from some of her neighbors who elected to stay in their homes.

She posted the videos online, hoping to get the attention of many of what's happening in their neighborhood.

"I was asking for prayers," she said.

Fort Myers was the epicenter of destruction. Gamboa's house was unscathed save for the lanai where a tree toppled over.

Most of the things in their garage were destroyed by the flood — a bed, sofa, dining table, television set, cabinets and drawers.

"We just moved in last July. We haven't finished transferring them inside the house," Gamboa said.

Many of her neighbors were not as lucky.

"Those who opted to stay saw their cars covered by flood. Some had three cars, others four," she said.

Many of her neighbors owned boats that ended up elsewhere.

The couple returned to their house on Saturday and started cleaning up.

Most of the houses there are elevated for obvious reasons.

"Because the insurance costs more if the house is not above the ground," Gamboa said.

Since power remained out, the couple had to leave again for Palm Beach where they will stay for a few days with relatives. They left just before the 6 p.m. curfew.

Others were not as lucky.

Pete Belinda and his wife slowly walked down a road outside Fort Myers Beach on the southwestern coast of Florida, each dragging a large suitcase behind them.

"This is all we have left," Belinda said, shaken and visibly tired.

The town, a quiet place on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, became the epicenter of destruction as hurricane "Ian" slammed into Florida on Wednesday as a powerful Category 4 storm.

The couple lived on the lower floor of their daughter's house, where they moved six months ago, but the storm has left them without a home.

"It's just flipped upside down, soaking wet, full of mud," Belinda said.

"We don't really know what we will do now. We're reaching out to some friends and family for somewhere to live for a while because we don't have anywhere to go."

Fort Myers Beach is practically deserted now, traversed solely by emergency services vehicles and the handful of people who returned to their homes take stock of what they lost.

The part of town hit hardest by Ian, the area closest to the sea on Estero Island, was reduced to a field of ruins.

Police have restricted access for those who do not live in the neighborhood, but photos taken from a helicopter flight showed the magnitude of the damage.

Strong winds razed the wooden houses in the area — in some spots there wasn't even rubble, just empty plots where homes once stood.

Rich Gibboni is one of those who lost his home.

"The second floor caved in from the wind, and the first floor was flooded all the way up to the second floor," he said, sounding resigned.

The 50-year-old had come to another neighborhood in Fort Myers Beach to look for provisions before heading back to Estero Island, where he was taking shelter in a hotel with about 20 other people.

The force of the hurricane had left dozens of boats grounded in the streets — some still moored to pieces of a pier — and dragged cars out into a nearby bay where they remained floating.

But Gibboni said he hadn't given up hope after the destruction wrought by Ian.

"We got to survive. This is the only way to do it," he said.

"We have got to restart. It's gonna take a long time, so we just got to get back on our feet."

With AFP report