Hurricane Ian not only brought about massive devastation, it also caused stories of love and heroism.
When the storm smashed through Naples, Florida, Johnny Lauder knew that he would have to save his mother.
Despite being warned for days to evacuate, Lauder’s 84 year old mother refused to leave her home.
“Because she’s in a wheelchair, she only has one leg, sores all over, she can’t really get around too much. But she didn’t want — she refused to go to a shelter,” Lauder told Associated Press.
“She said she’d kick and scream and fight the whole way. And because of our experiences in the last hurricane, when Irma came through we got about 6 inches of water in her house and about a foot in mine. But it was nothing. So she thought it was going to be like the last time,” he said.
The Category 4 hurricane raged and her home began to be flooded. She called her son and said the water was up to her wheelchair and hitting her belly button,” Lauder explained.
Lauder is a former police officer and trained rescue diver, he trudged and swam his way through a half-mile of flood water to get to his mother’s home.
When he got there, he heard his mother’s voice first. She was screaming.
“It was a sense of terror and relief at the same time,” he explained. “The terror was that I didn’t know if something was falling on her or if she was trapped and hurt. But the relief was knowing that there’s still air in her lungs.”
A photo of Lauder’s mother portrays the moment he found her. The image shows her floating, shoulder-deep, in water in the middle of what appears to be her kitchen.
Lauder got his mother to a table above the water line and wrapped her up in sheets. They waited together for the water to subside and then made the half mile journey back to his home.
“We got her out of the house through all the wreckage, and we started pushing her in the street. You know the water for us was probably thigh, hip deep. But for her, in some areas, it was already up to her chest. She was still submerged through the whole ride. Very difficult walk.”
“My mom has changed her tone: she will be evacuating next time,” he added. “I hope people learn from others’ mistakes and not their own.”
Watch:
The first thing Johnny Lauder heard when he arrived at his 86-year-old mother's house in Naples, Florida, after Hurricane Ian was the sound of her screaming.
Karen, who has one leg and is wheelchair-bound, was stuck in chest-high floodwaters. https://t.co/8cZ6RaNnpV pic.twitter.com/BnWlEICEbc
— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 6, 2022
