Help Max & Britt recover from Hurricane Ian

In a black and yellow 27 Gallon tote, Maxwell and I towed our life down our sewage filled, flood-ridden street in North Port, Florida.

We lost EVERYTHING.

My name is Brittanie, and my husband’s name is Maxwell. I never got my chance to announce it to my family, but Maxwell and I bought our first home together at the same time we had gotten married (back in July). The house was a fixer upper; quaint, but perfect for Max and I. We used all of our savings as well as our monetary wedding gifts in order to fix up our home. We decided to do a complete remodel of the interior: kitchen, bathroom, living room, bedrooms, etc. Our families and us worked on our home for three months straight, spending long nights crafting our vision in order to make this house a home. We weren’t even fully unpacked in our home. This was a project three months in the making, and we were so proud of it… Max worked so hard…

Hurricane Ian’s impacts are absolutely devastating. Max and I hunkered down with my family in their safer Venice home, but we checked on our North Port house early Thursday morning (9/29). We waded through chest deep flood water. It was dark reddish brown— like I had stepped into the Myakka river. We waded about a mile and finally arrived at our home. When we opened our lanai/Florida room door, our belongings began to float out. Water levels in our home had reached 2-3 feet. There were bugs and worms everywhere. My heart was shattered.

One of the scariest parts was when we opened our bathroom doors. Sewage had backed up, and the water was yellow. The smell was choking.

Unfortunately, our office bookshelf collapsed. This sent many of Max’s books and childhood memory items into the water. Most of Max’s memory items were destroyed, including a large “memory chest” full of pictures, books, electronics, and items from his time in theatre.

In our bin, we salvaged important documents, memories, and items that had not been destroyed by floodwater. All that we have left now is the suitcase that we fled with and our bin of items we saved. We are grateful to have our lives. We are unable to return to our home at this time, as floodwater has not yet begun to recede.

At this time we request prayer and donations to help us rebuild our lives and replace our destroyed belongings.