Lots of people are now looking at cleanup and damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. The storm led to historic flooding throughout Central Florida. Cathie Rock lives in Volusia County, an area not spared. She shares her story with WMFE.
We should also mention that Rock works in sponsorship for WMFE.
Here's Cathie's story as told to reporter, Danielle Prieur:
"Okay, so last night or actually yesterday afternoon, I started hearing like little bubblings coming and I live on the 16th floor. So, I really didn't think about water. But I did realize, you know, I've never left for I'm sorry, I've always left for a hurricane. This is the first time that I've stayed home.
And I would come home and I'd have to throw out all my rugs, because everything was wet. And I couldn't figure out how this was happening being on the 16th floor.
Well, what I realized is there's something in the sliding glass door, I think it's called a widow sweep. And I'm not really sure of the reason for it, but it bubbles up in the water. I've just heard the water bubbling and bubbling.
So I got these things called water snakes. And I put those in all of the, you know, sliders. And then I realized that they were getting soaked, and they're supposed to take up to a gallon of water.
And then I had to use my towels and I was up till five o'clock this morning. Replacing towels.
I was in Orlando during Charley and Charley seemed to be more of a wind event.
But this one, you know, being in Volusia County, it was, it was bad.
It was scary.
I don't even know what it looks like outside because we can't even go out yet. I have no idea. I'm looking at the ocean and it's pure white. It's all foam. I have no idea if it's come up over our pool. Or if it's done any damage to the you know the structure of the building. This is a very well built building. So I don't think we're going to you know, fall, be like Surfside or anything.
But you know, there's probably going to be some assessments over this.
I've been watching the Weather Channel, of course, and the alerts keep coming across there. I keep getting alerts on my phone from the county. Just saying that, you know, there's a flood watch in effect, but nothing from my condo association.
Well, I do have to tell you, I have a wonderful neighbor. And she I guess she must have seen me on Facebook last night because I was ranting. And she has offered you know, she's lived through this so many times. And I told her how I prepared. I thought I was completely prepared.
I wasn't.
And so she's going to actually come down sometime this weekend. And she's going to show me exactly what I need to do. She's got everything sort of laid out for me, because I thought having the water snakes and the towels and everything was good enough and it just wasn't.
I just want to say that it was very nice that you know, I was frantically texting on or posting on Facebook at three o'clock in the morning. And there were people that were actually responding at that time of night and it was nice to have other people, you know, just sort of telling me everything was going to be okay.
Because it was it was quite scary. Yeah, everyone has been very kind."
That was Volusia County resident Cathie Rock. She spoke with WMFE’s Danielle Prieur. We want to hear your stories. Now that Hurricane Ian has passed, what does life look like for you. You can leave us a voicemail at 407-273-2300 ext. 101.
