My name is Catherine, and before Hurricane Ian, my family lived right on the Estero River in Lee County, Florida. Hurricane Ian devastated my family. Our home took on a frightening amount of water, destroying everything we had. We were unable to evacuate in time and feared drowning inside our house without knowing how the storm would progress. After a terrifying swim for our lives during the storm, we lost our home, our belongings, and our cars. It was surreal watching our cars take on water, turn on by themselves, rev up and swallow water, and die within minutes of each other before being fully submerged.

Right now, we are safe and together. We're staying with a family friend who has agreed to house us temporarily till we can get on our feet again. We will be unable to return to the house we were renting and it will be a long road to recover from this disaster.

We are overcome with gratitude by the outpouring of love and generosity we have experienced in the days immediately following the hurricane.This fundraiser would aid us in finding more stability in the short-term, giving our children a stable living situation where they can feel like they are home again. It will also help us more easily access the therapies needed for our disabled child.

About our family:

My husband Preston and I have two children, Leinani (4) and Anuhea (3). Anuhea is profoundly disabled with a rare chromosomal disorder, Potocki-Lupski Syndrome. Our good-natured, creative, curious girls are understandably traumatized by our experience. (Pictured are our two dogs, floating on a crib mattress, and our daughters floating on a couch. Note how far the water is from the ceiling)

Our hurricane story:

Since we were unable to evacuate in time, we waited with fear and anticipation of what was coming. When it became apparent that it was no longer safe to remain in our home, we decided to escape through Anuhea's bedroom–the girls and I with life jackets and my husband without. We had planned to swim to our neighbor across the street, but their home was mostly underwater as well.

With seemingly nowhere to go, we floated the girls on a tire and pinned them in the corner by our front door, the wind to our backs.The girls began turning blue from the cold water and wind chill. We saw the water had stopped rising, so we tried to take our chances inside. When our front door wouldn’t open, Preston had to swim around the house to get back inside to open the door for us; in the process he got his leg pinned between our propane tank and shed and almost drowned.

Once inside, we realized our 25 gallons of generator fuel reserves had flooded and spilled in the garage and house. The fumes were unbearable, and we placed the girls on a couch to get them out of the water and into something warmer.

We heard of an impending second surge through spotty cell service, so we made the difficult decision to swim across our flooded neighborhood and river to a neighbor with a two-story house. Swimming across the flooded-out area and river was dangerous and nothing short of terrifying. There were high winds, debris flying everywhere, and we were covered in frogs and lizards trying to survive. Preston–with no life jacket and an injured leg–made the swim across with us, holding onto a waterproof crate containing diapers and water.

Our neighbor watched in horror as we swam across. He told us that watching us swim across was terrifying, and he never wanted to see anything like that again in his life. The attached video was filmed inside our home after we went back inside before weswam across the river. It shows the conditions we swam through.

Thankfully and luckily, we survived. We made it out with the most important thing: our lives. Thank you for reading our story and for any support you are willing to give. If you are unable to give financially, please consider sharing our story with friends and family with a desire to provide direct support to victims of Hurricane Ian.