This is crazy and it forever will live in our heads as a nightmare but here’s our experience with Hurricane Ian. Hi how are you, my name is Nicole & my fiancés name is Dominic. We both lived in Bonita Springs Fl, right on the canal with our two Persian senior kitties named beans and snooki☺️We just moved here 2 years ago from New Jersey. After struggles on struggles we saved enough money we moved to our happy place. But September 28th, Hurricane Ian changed our lives forever. We had no vehicle, no family down here, so we had nowhere to evacuate to. Our entire home was submerged under water within minutes. Following that, the floors & walls caved in. We lost everything we owned and almost our own lives along with our two kitties. The water rose above the canal within twenty minutes into our home and was filling up quickly. It started with the vents gurgling then small frogs & insects gushed out of the vents in the floor with brown water. Immediately we try to find beans and snooki, and find them hiding almost completely submerged under water. So quickly we put them in clear totes and decided to try to find higher grounds. Dominic is trying to open the door but the pressure was making it almost impossible. More waters rush into our home. When we finally got outside there was rapid tides about 7 feet crushing everything in sight in front of us. We decide to make a swim for it or we will drown, no other option…We cannot even touch the ground or see underneath us. The currents sucking us in and trying to push the cats in front of us, ALMOST was an impossible task. But we would NEVER leave our fur babies. By this point we were saying our goodbyes in our head. We didn’t know if we would make it but we stayed strong. Once finally finding a two story home we swim up through their backyard and notice stairs leading to a second floor lanai. We immediately run upstairs and bang on the doors for them to let us in and explain what happened. They refused to let us in so for eight hours we all sat outside during hurricane. This was a reality check about human beings for us. Cuddling in the corner to try to stay warm in soaking wet clothes and getting poured on with 160mph winds. Lips purple, no shoes we are begging for someone to save us. Dominic has severe asthma and all his medicine & nebulizer was underwater and of no use. We at least needed some shelter after being soaking wet for hours. After calling emergency services they let us know that they couldn’t even be there until the morning. The owner of the restaurant I worked at called me to let me know that he was there if I could try to get out to him, but his car would not be able to make it to me. In this situation we took our chances to get to safety. Again around 11:30 pm we took off again. Swimming in the pitch black, not knowing what’s underneath of us and getting cut up and bruised by the debris below. The amazing owner Noel of the restaurant I worked called Corner Spot Diner & Drink in Bonita springs came out in the storm at midnight to let us in. Finally, warm clothes and shelter. Even food. After 4 days no water or food my father has gotten here after driving in the extremely damaged roads to get to us. Once contacting our landlord, for our rent that we paid a week early, as well as our security deposit she had let us know that she spent it. So we had no choice but to move back home with family. Thank you in advance for anyone that helps us out and your prayers.