Florida families with Wisconsin ties feeling the effects of Hurricane Ian

 

WISCONSIN (CBS 58) -- Hurricane Ian hit the Florida coast today as a category four, packing winds up to 150 miles an hour. The concern is now for a storm surge that could flood the area with a wall of water up to 16 feet high. Our Wisconsin connections are riding it out in their Florida homes.

Days of prep went into this, boarding up homes, and stocking up on food. Some describe what they're going through as terrifying, taking them back to the days of Hurricane Katrina.

Wednesday evening, the storm's center was located just north of Punta Gorda where Angela Hemstreet lives right on the gulf.

"I'm holed up in like an interior wall bathroom during the first round," said Angela Hemstreet of Punta Gorda.

The Hemstreets walked us outside for a brief moment.

"About an hour ago it took down half the trees on this property. I think it's coming back to finish it off," said Rick Hemstreet.

"It feels like everything got blown down one way and now the things that were still standing are getting pushed and stressed the other direction," said Angela Hemstreet.

Over a million Floridians have lost power. Sixty miles south in north Naples, Evelyn Scimone and Don Ditusa with Kenosha ties, are riding out the storm in their bathroom.

"The wind is just, it's incredible. You just see like tumbleweed blowing by the window," said Evelyn Scimone of Naples.

Scimone's praying their home's aluminum hurricane shutters keep them safe.

"They can be noisy so I'm glad we don't have the whole house with the shutters because it's kind of a claustrophobic feeling because it's so dark," said Scimone.

Airport operations are shut down at least through Thursday in Tampa, Sarasota, Fort Myers and Orlando. Passengers on Southwest Airlines with a trip scheduled between now and Oct. 2 for one of these spots have 14 days to rebook it at no charge.

"When we do go home, when we do get back, do we go right to Florida? What's gonna be left if we do?" said Patti Cahill of Cape Coral.

Patti and Tom Cahill are snowbirds with a home in Cape Coral.

"We have a number of friends that stayed in Cape Coral and didn't evacuate and we have family in Florida," said Cahill.

They're concerned what they'll find when they finally return home, but more than that, they're worried about their friends.

"Nobody's communicated with us in the last like hour and a half. They've all lost power and I suspect that cell phone coverage is a little sketchy as well," said Patti Cahill.

"And all that water's coming up and hitting Fort Myers and we're on the opposite side of the river from Fort Myers. So we're getting it as well. We don't know how high the level's gonna get," said Tom Cahill.

The first couple in our story lives right on the water, but they're staying at a home on higher ground. They expect when they're finally able to drive home, the road may be blocked with down trees, but they're prepared with a chain saw, and the will to get there.