Help us recover from Hurricane Ian

Hi everyone, my name is Ashley, and my husband is Anthony. if you haven’t already seen news about Fort Myers Beach Florida, our entire island was under 10-12 feet of water. We moved to Fort Myers Beach in 2019, I moved from indiana, my husband moved from Orlando. We got married shortly after moving here, and fell in love with the island. It’s been an incredible 3 years. For this entire year I’ve fed 5 stray cats on the island every single night, sometimes in the mornings as well. The island as we knew it is gone. All money raised will go towards food, housing, gas, clothing, pet supplies, medication, and rebuilding our lives. The picture you see is of my driveway, and my husbands grandmas car sent by a neighbor who stayed. 

We evacuated on September 27th. At 9 am on September 28th I received a message from a neighbor, his upstairs neighbor didn’t evacuate, and he sent a picture of our driveway. My husbands grandmas car had water almost covering the hood. The entire bottom floor of our houses was completely under water up to the ceiling. High tide came in around 3 pm, and it only got worse. Last word we got was that the water was up to the second floors doors and windows had blown out at his house. After that I have no idea.

If you don’t want to read the entire post, basically we just lost everything and need help re building our lives as we are essentially homeless. 

 Hurricane Ian just decimated our whole island, houses and businesses are entirely gone. Cars are floating off into the gulf. We have lost everything. We evacuated to the east coast with our pets, so we are safe. Our pets are all safe. But with a pigeon, a crested gecko, and 3 snakes we had very little room in my car. We won’t be able to go to see the house (if it’s even there) until Saturday at the earliest. Everything in our garage is gone, including my husbands Lotus Elise parts (the car is in a parking garage south of us hopefully safe) all our furniture is gone and whatever is downstairs. Upstairs is probably a total loss as well. For reasons outside of our control we have zero insurance. We have no home left to go back to. Our island will never be the same. At this point, even $1 helps. We literally had to go buy clothing today because that was the last thing on our minds when packing the car. 

Almost everyone we know lives many many many hours away. My family is 17 hours from us in indiana. Along with all of my friends. His family is in Iowa, Georgia, and his dad is where we evacuated to. We have essentially nothing right now. I will post updates as soon as I either get news from someone, or we are allowed back onto the island. Until then, we will be safe where we are. Uncomfortable, sad, devastated, but safe. And alive. Which is what truly matters. If you read all of this and can donate even $1 or share this, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. My husband, myself, and our pets appreciate it.