Hurricane Ian upended all the pieces for Cecilia Donald's household — their furnishings, their residence and their lives.
Water flooded their Fort Myers, Florida, residence Wednesday night time, main her to consider that they might not make it out alive.
"We bought on the counter at first after which I informed my husband, 'I believe we'll drown,'" she mentioned.
They have been so uncertain of their survival that, at one level, Donald and her husband thought of tying themselves collectively so nobody would wash away.
"However I could not discover a rope," she mentioned.
Donald's daughter feared for the worst. They gave one another an emotional embrace once they noticed each other for the primary time on Thursday, after Hurricane Ian handed.
"The final message I bought from her was that the water was waist excessive and she or he did not know in the event that they have been going to make it," Donald's daughter mentioned.
Residents all through Donald's neighborhood shared related tales. Fireplace and rescue groups have been going door to door conducting wellness checks as a result of folks have been trapped of their properties.
One aged couple was rescued and dropped at security.
Spencer Mumme posted a video to Fb exhibiting the water rising so excessive in his residence that the one place his household might go was into the attic. He introduced his 6-year-old daughter and 6-month-old daughter to security there.
CBS Information met the grandparents of these children on Thursday, as they desperately appeared for his or her grandchildren.
"I am unable to think about how they really feel proper now. Our little grandbaby most likely scared to demise, crying all night time," the grandmother mentioned.
CBS Information was in a position to share the excellent news with the grandparents that everybody was OK.
Now, all the group begins a journey to restoration that's more likely to last more than the storm.