KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A couple from Lee's Summit is eager to safely return home after living through the power and destruction of Hurricane Ian during a visit to their condo on Estero Island in Fort Myers Beach, Florida.
“At one point, I was really scared. If this window goes, we're going,” Cheryl Berberich said.
Berberich and her partner Brad Vancera did not expect to find themselves stuck in the path.
“We had come a week and a half ago, almost 2 weeks now, to check on the place and to enjoy the sun at the end of the summer,” Berberich said. “We were scheduled to fly out of Fort Myers on Tuesday, and our flight was supposed to leave at 5:10 p.m. We were notified shortly before that that all flights after 5 p.m. had been canceled.”
With no way home, the couple hunkered down, hoping for the best.
“The eye of the hurricane went right over the top of us,” Vancura said. “The reason we know that is because sunlight showed right through during the middle of the storm.”
Berberich said the couple could feel the wind vibrating the building. And as they watched the water rise with the crashing waves, there was a point they were unsure they would make it out alive.
“We were like, 'We may not make it after this,'" Berberich said. "So while we still had service, we texted our kids, 'We love you.'"
The couple says they are thankful to have survived. Still, they felt crushed as they assessed the damage outside their condo.
“It washed all of the cars away on the entire island," Vancura said. "There were literally hundreds, if not thousands, of cars just floating around, banging into each other."
The two did not suffer as much damage as some of their neighbors, so they made sure to help others evacuate and look for lost items.
“All 40 units were completely washed out on the ground level. You could see through the entire building there were no walls left, and it came up about halfway up the second floor,” Vancura said.
Vancura and Berberich recalled having "no contact with the outside world" as there was no cell service or energy available as they awaited assistance from the Coast Guard.
“By Thursday, and actually late Wednesday night, fire and rescue came through with flashlights and asked if we needed help," Berberich said. "We told them we had two people who needed to be evacuated.”
Luckily, the two were then picked up by a friend who lives in Cape Coral, Florida.
But as they leave Sunday to finally come home, the devastation of the destruction is sinking in as they know the area may never be the same again.
“Every minute we feel like we are blessed because we know that so many other people were less fortunate, and we just feel lucky to be alive," Berberich said.
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