Note to readers: This is one man’s tale of surviving Hurricane Ian. Many others have had similar experiences. There have been more than 50 confirmed deaths in Lee County as of October 7. The expectation from officials is the death toll will continue to rise.
Fort Myers Beach resident Matt Oakley will never forget the conversation he had with his neighbor across the street during the afternoon of September 28.
They were frantically texting and calling each other.
NEIGHBOR: “What do we do?”
MATT: “Get up on the (kitchen) counters and stay there.”
Outside Matt could no longer see his street. He saw a river. The storm surge from Hurricane Ian, a powerful Category 4 storm, was rapidly rising.
A few minutes went by. Matt was back on his phone. His neighbor and his neighbor’s wife needed his help.
NEIGHBOR: “We can’t stay here. We gotta go.”
MATT: “Go to the attic.”
Matt kept looking outside the second-floor window of his Sterling Avenue home, a house he and his wife Trish had to rebuild after Hurricane Irma in 2017. The water kept rising.
And rising.
And rising.
A few minutes later, Matt watched his Dodge Caravan get swept away in the flood waters. It disappeared in a matter of seconds, swallowed by the surge.
Fort Myers Beach resident Matt Oakley took this photo of his Dodge Caravan right before it floated away in the storm surge created by Hurricane Ian on September 28, 2022. “No movie compares,” Oakley said. (Photo by Matt Oakley/Special to news-press.com)
Matt looked at his wife, Trish.
“This is not good,” he said.
NEIGHBOR: (now in the attic) “The water is touching our feet.”
MATT: “Use your hands, your feet, your fingernails, whatever it takes and you kick through that roof. Kick through the roof!”
The neighbor, who Matt estimated is 6 feet tall, was struggling. His head was hitting the cross beams in the attic. The water level was climbing.
MATT: “Kick through the roof!”
There was silence. Matt was looking out the window again. His eyes were fixed on his neighbor’s roof.
Waiting. Hoping. Praying.
“And then … I looked out … I saw him … there he was,” Matt said. “He broke through the roof. He kicked it out. He was waving to me.”
Maybe he didn’t realize it at the time, but Matt had just saved two people from drowning.
His neighbors’ names are Thomas and Sheri.
They are from Wisconsin. This was their first hurricane.
Matt doesn’t know their last names.
Trying to save their house…
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